Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Suburb
- Metro Area
- Columbus
- 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
- 1990s
- Still Sundown?
- Surely Not
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | ||||||||
| 1960 | 7793 | 8 | ||||||
| 1970 | 13921 | 18 | ||||||
| 1980 | 19519 | 317 | 7 | |||||
| 1990 | 24174 | 1047 | ||||||
| 2000 | 32,069 | 27,261 | 3,347 | 86 | 541 | 1,241 | ||
| 2010 | 35983 | 8374 | 83 | 656 | ||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Police or Other Official Action
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
- Hispanic
Comments
“In Reynoldsburg, Ohio, … the NAACP claimed that racial hostility was so unrestrained that the police had organized a SNAT %u2014 Special Nigger Arrest Team %u2014 for the express prupose of harassing blacks.”
[Ellis Cose, The Rage of a Privileged Class (NY: HarperCollins, 1993), 184.]
Ordeal began with traffic stop:
“A target of the mostly white Reynoldsburg police department ‘Special Nigger Arrest Team,’ or SNAT, has filed a civil rights suit seeking damages for his arrest. Alexander Spater filed the suit on behalf of Gregory Murphy.”
[USA Today, July 23, 1993]
In 1988 an internal investigation revealed the existence of fraternity within the ranks of the Reynoldsburg, Ohio Police Department called ‘SNAT’ or ‘Special Nigger Arrest Team’. Congressional intent regarding § 14141’s enactment is set forth in the Committee Report that discussed the Police Accountability Act of 1991.
The Report described or referenced numerous, egregious instances of recent patterns or practices of unconstitutional police misconduct. The Report summarized the findings of the Committee’s Sub Committee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, which had held hearings on police misconduct and received evidence of systemic misconduct in law enforcement agencies, including: ….
* Evidence that a special unit in the Reynoldsburg, Ohio police department called itself the SNAT team, for “Special Nigger Arrest Team.”
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO
EASTERN DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff, v. CITY OF COLUMBUS, OHIO, et. al., Defendants.
Civil No. C2 99 1097
Judge Holschuh
Magistrate Judge King
THE UNITED STATES’ MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO THE CITY OF COLUMBUS’ MOTION TO DISMISS AND THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE’S MOTION FOR JUDGMENT ON THE PLEADINGS]
In Reynoldsburg, Ohio, an African American secured a settlement after he was arrested by a group of officers who called themselves the Special Nigger Arrest Team.
[http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/split/documents/columbbr.htm#N_1_]
According to a teacher within the Reynoldsburg City School District, “I can tell you that Reynoldsburg is without a doubt not a Sundown Town. My building alone is more than 54 % African AMerican and we have a large Hispanic, white, and Muslim populations as well.”