Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Independent City or Town
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Unions, Organized Labor?
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Probable
- Was there an ordinance?
- Sign?
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | 20,321 | 2 | 7 | 0 | ||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | 19,790 | 3 | ||||||
| 1950 | ||||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | ||||||||
| 2000 | 5,624 | 22 | ||||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
Main Ethnic Group(s)
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
- Hispanic
Comments
In 2008, four white football players beat an illegal immigrant from Mexico, Luis Ramirez, to death when he walking town the street with his fiancé%u2019s sister, who is half-white. The crime is thought, at least by Ramirez%u2019s fiancé, to be racially motivated. They group shouted racial slurs at him. Arrests took two weeks to be made.
Brian Scully, who used racial slurs at the event, was never prosecuted. Colin J. Walsh was sentenced to four years, seven months in federal prison for violating the Fair Housing Act%u2014the charge asserts that the attack occurred %u201Cbecause of (Ramirez%u2019s) race and because he was occupying a dwelling.%u201D
%u201CIn June, an all-white Pennsylvania jury acquitted Piekarsky of third-degree murder and convicted him and Donchak of misdemeanor simple assault. The two were also found not guilty of aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and hindering apprehension.%u201D
In court, the defendants apparently said they didn%u2019t want immigrants in their town and had repeated ordered Ramirez to leave. Piekarsky, however, apparently said %u201CIt was not racial%u2026I am not a racist. I never was a racist.%u201D
%u201CIn January, a federal jury found former Shenandoah Police Chief Matthew Nestor and officers William Moyer and Jason Hayes not guilty of conspiracy to obstruct a federal investigation in Ramirez’s July 2008 death. Nestor, however, was found guilty of falsifying reports, and Moyer was convicted of lying to the FBI. Hayes, who was also accused of falsifying police reports, was acquitted of the two charges against him.%u201D
%u201CAt the time of Ramirez’s death, Hayes was dating Piekarsky’s mother and Moyer’s son was a high school freshman who played football with the youths involved in the attack, according to the indictment.%u201D David Turnley made a documentary about the Ramirez incident titled Shenandoah: http://shenandoah-film.com/