Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Independent City or Town
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Unions, Organized Labor?
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Surely
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Probably
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | ||||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 454 | 453 | 1 | |||||
| 2000 | 456 | 453 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Private Bad Behavior
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
“Most people in town are familiar with the old
sundown ordinance, although a search of city
archives
can’t confirm it.
“‘My high school history teacher told me about it in
1985,’ said New Market Mayor Frank Sefrit. ‘He’d
gone
down and dug it up one day. I was embarrassed.
But
things have changed. I know my grandfather was
racist, plain as day. But I’d say in the last 50 years,
you
don’t see that kind of thing.’
…”University of Northern Iowa history professor
John
Baskerville, who is black, told Loewen he was in a
band that played in New Market.
“According to Baskerville, the local sheriff notified
City
Council members at the concert that an ordinance
prohibited a ‘colored’ person from being in town
after
dark. At the time, the council members agreed to
suspend the law ‘for the night.’
…”Eva Fine, a member of the City Council at the
time,
said the ordinance was like many still on the books
in
small towns. People ignored it.
“‘We didn’t think anything of it,’ she said.
“Both she and Earl Lewis, also on the council in the
mid 1980s, say they remember no move to overturn
the ordinance. ‘It didn’t happen,’ Lewis said.
“The current Taylor County sheriff, Lonnie Weed,
said
law enforcement officials would technically have to
enforce a city ordinance. ‘But something like that,
no
way I would enforce it.'”
…”Ask old timers playing cards at the community
center in New Market, and there are knowing nods.
“‘One night, one slept in the old chicken brooding
house over there,’ said Floyd Jobe, 80, pointing his
hand of cards to the west. ‘They ran him out of
town.
Last I saw him, he was heading north. I talked to
the
guys that did it. It was about 40 or 50 years ago.'”
…”Eric Knoth, owner of Dedicated Business
Solutions
in New Market, said he knew about the ordinance
and
has seen how small towns nurture their prejudices
subtly.
“‘I had one black employee. When he walked in,
there
were some wide eyes around here,’ he said.”
-“Racism Lurking at Sundown”, Des Moines
Register,
27 February 2006
John Baskerville, quoted in the newspaper article
above, also related the following story: “my
roomate’s brother Chris was in the senior play, so
we went to a performance. It was some play about a
murder trial and Chris was serving as the judge.
Anyhow, one of the characters was the black maid
of the murder victim who found the body, so she
had to testify. When the young girl acting as the
black maid appeared on stage, we were all
shocked… The young white girl appeared in
BLACKFACE! She had very black make up with white
lips and bugged out eyes and dressed like Hattie
McDaniels in Gone With the Wind, head scarf and
all.”