Paynesville

Basic Information

Type of Place

Independent City or Town

Metro Area

Politics c. 1860?

Don’t Know

Unions, Organized Labor?

Don’t Know

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?

Don’t Know

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present

	Total	White	Black	Asian	Native	Hispanic	Other	BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990	2,275	2,261	6					1
2000	2,267	2,240	1					1
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

• Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

• Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

• Black

Comments

According to a former resident of Paynesville, whose brother-in-law was a black man: “He would get pulled over for a crack in his tail-light so they could attempt to search his car. If he j-walked they would stop him. If he went into a local store they were there. What I experienced was the community looked down on my family like we had brought something viral to the town. We were called “Nigger lovers” and told that we were ruining our community by letting this trash in our home. Every time a small crime was committed the Police would knock on our door first because they knew it “had” to be my brother-in-law. When they caught the guilty person there was never an apology. My niece was treated poorly in school, kids picked on her all the time and she was never invited to parties because she was a “niggers daughter”. They would have a soda at the local drugstore and people would take theirs to go rather than sit on the stools at the counter next to them. After my niece grew up she moved back to Paynesville as a single mother. Sometime later she remarried and moved to a town 12 miles away because the attitude had not changed and her daughter was getting the same treatment. We are looking at the 3rd generation with little change in the community.”