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?
- Possible
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Probably Not, Although Still Very Few Black People
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
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| 1960 | ||||||||
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| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | ||||||||
| 2000 | 17599 | 15246 | 82 | 1626 | 26 | 560 | 112 | |
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Unknown
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
- Jewish
Comments
“A colleague told me that the town of Orinda, CA would probably fall under the category of a sundown town. He says that Jews and other people of color weren’t allowed to buy property there until the late 1980’s.”
August 2007
One reader reported: I worked in Orinda from January 1996 to June 1997. I was living in Berkeley but at one point considered moving to Orinda to save on commuting.
I looked at a room in a physically very beautiful house and seemed to be getting along well with the owner. Then, in the course of telling me about the living situation, he said, “And it’s a very safe town. Very safe. If a black person drives into town, the police are on their tail within two minutes, and they stay there until he drives out again.” (Yes, of course I told him I wasn’t interested in renting.)
The four ethnic-minority students at the school where I was working (I think they were all Latino, but am not sure of my memory at this point) confirmed that they were regularly followed by police cars when walking from the BART or bus to school, and when they went home.