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?
- Perhaps, Some Oral Evidence
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- 1952
- 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 | ||||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | ||||||||
| 1960 | 4278 | 26 | ||||||
| 1970 | 5400 | 25 | ||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 10728 | 84 | ||||||
| 2000 | ||||||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Unknown
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
A soldier stationed nearby from 1993-1997 reported “being told by the base housing office that because I was black, I should not look for a home in Poquoson (a few miles away) because they actively tried to keep the town “lily-white”. They didn’t even want Blacks driving through to look at homes in the town. A few Blacks moved in and were regularly harrassed..”
Testimony of a former resident: “My high-school diploma was from a town that didn’t even exist until 1954 [sic], when the desegregation ruling was put out, and so the white section of York County, Virginia separated into a small town called Poquoson. Apparently, until 1975 the town limits had signs saying ‘Nigger, don’t let the sun set on your black ass here.'”
“The southern portion of the Poquoson District in York County was incorporated in 1952 to retain control over its schools. The city form of government was adopted in 1975.” (from the City of Poquoson home page, http://www.ci.poquoson.va.us/history.htm)
* The statistics for 1990 show that the black percentage is much less than that of other subdivisions of York County.
More research needed.