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James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began.

Rochester

New York

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?
Unlikely
Was there an ordinance?
Don't Know
Sign?
Don’t Know
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?
Surely Not

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
2000 219773 106161 84717 4943 1033 28032
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Zoning
  • Realtors

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black
  • Other

Comments

Rochester of course was never a sundown town. Some of its suburbs may have been.

See study, 1958, by sociologist David J. Pittman and grad. student William. L. Holland, Center for the Study of Intergroup Relations, U of Rochester, 3/27/1958, says between 1940-50 the black population of the county outside the city of Rochester increased by just 34 people.

Rochester Librarian:

%u201CAll white on purpose brings up the question whose purpose? The census by towns around Rochester (available in Local History division at Rundel Library) will reveal all or nearly all white; but on purpose? Laws at some point (don’t know here without checking) would prohibit discrimination, but many of us have seen deeds with exclusions to Italians or blacks in them. Realtors even in the 1980s would steer white people to certain neighborhoods because they were protected from encroachment of “unwanted elements.”

Of course, a lot of new development and new construction took place in the suburbs and that may have economically excluded blacks or Hispanics because of prejudice in the lending field.%u201D