Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Suburb
- Metro Area
- Cincinnati
- Politics c. 1860?
- Don’t Know
- Unions, Organized Labor?
- Don’t Know
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Probable
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Perhaps, Some Oral Evidence
- Year of Greatest Interest
- 1930s
- 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 | 3076 | |||||||
| 1910 | 3985 | |||||||
| 1920 | 4540 | 77 | ||||||
| 1930 | 5723 | 59 | ||||||
| 1940 | 6079 | 0 | ||||||
| 1950 | 7836 | 0 | 3 | |||||
| 1960 | 12831 | 1 | ||||||
| 1970 | 14303 | 60 | 30 | |||||
| 1980 | 12843 | |||||||
| 1990 | 12038 | 172 | ||||||
| 2000 | 11292 | 361 | ||||||
| 2010 | 10385 | 756 | 13 | 100 | ||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Unknown
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
According to a local college student, Reading and Lockland, suburbs NE of Cincinnati, were connected by a bridge that is marked: “1909 The first concrete rainbow arch bridge built in Ohio.” It still stands. It goes over a small stream that divides the towns.
There was a sign on a bridge that read “No Niggers After Dark.”
Testimony of a Reading resident: “There was a sign on the bridge between Reading and Lockland that told ’em they had to be out by sundown. It was gone by 1940. I was sborn in 1930. I heard about it from my Dad.” Blacks lived in Lockland and in Lincoln Heights.
One eyewitness notes, “During the course of my life, I have come to know far too many places that meet the criteria you have defined… I will name three of them for you, they are:
Reading, Ohio [blacks there by the 1970s]
Milton, West Virginia
Nappa Valley, California”
According to a former resident who lived in the town from 1936 to 1942, “I recall that it was sort of understood (although I don’t remember how we became aware of this) that blacks were not allowed in town after sundown. I don’t recall seeing more than one or two in town in the daytime during the entire time I lived there.”