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?
- Yes, Strong Oral Tradition
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Probably
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | 21 | |||||||
| 1900 | 5580 | 5519 | 11 | |||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | 6122 | 3 | ||||||
| 1930 | 5835 | 2 | ||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | 6178 | 4 | ||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 5796 | |||||||
| 2000 | 5614 | 5563 | 4 | |||||
| 2010 | 5847 | 5754 | 5 | |||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Violent ExpulsionReputation
Main Ethnic Group(s)
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
Sept. 28, 1898, “Striking union coal miners and imported Negroes engaged in a pitched battle on the main street. 100 shots were exchanged.” Five blacks wounded; no one wounded in the union ranks. One bystander wounded. 30 more shots at Third and Locust. “State and county warrants were issued the next morning for all blacks who were in the riot. Sheriff asks for militia. (Millie Meyerholtz, When Hatred and Fear Ruled … Pana Illinois: The 1898-99 Mine War (Pana, IL: Pana News, 2001)
“Fighting and shooting, from Sept. 1, 1898, had become common in the streets of Pana.” Elmer Pope “saw blacks being chased down alleys and through yards and being struck with rocks by whites. Some whites also carried sticks or makeshift clubs.” Various groups of blacks went back south on trains. “‘The strikers were hostile and antagonistic to those who [blacks] decided to remain; the blacks retaliated in kind. There was a daily passage of insults, slights, and shoves which led to street brawls and secret means of revenge. Each side antagonized the other…” Republicans sided with the mine owners, Democrats with the miners. (Millie Meyerholtz, When Hatred and Fear Ruled … Pana Illinois: The 1898-99 Mine War (Pana, IL: Pana News, 2001)
One resident has heard multiple times that the town’s name stands for “people against niggers association”. -email, February 2012