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?
- Surely
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Yes, Strong Oral Tradition
- Year of Greatest Interest
- 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 | ||||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 6114 | |||||||
| 2000 | 6975 | 5829 | 1047 | |||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Police or Other Official Action
- Reputation
Main Ethnic Group(s)
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
Vandalia’s population numbers are skewed because of the town’s correctional facility.
“We call our town the land of Lincoln, but the hotels won’t rent a room to a Negro, and no Negro can buy property or rent a home in Vandalia. There is an old saying that people in Vandalia are glad to help a Negro as long as he keeps on going right out of town.”-(Joseph Lyford, The Talk in Vandalia (A Report to the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, established by the Fund for the Republic, 1962), 12.)
“Vandalia was the site of a big KKK rally also sometime in the mid%u201190s (I forget the year). I thought the KKK was something my parents’ generation had experienced; I didn’t realize it was still alive and kicking, especially in my own town.” (E-mail from 2002)
“When I was in high school in the late ’90s, a (white) friend from my high school and I were back seat passengers in a car driven by a friend from a neighboring town, who was black…Sure enough, an officer pulled us over and forcefully asked for all of our licenses. He claimed that the driver had taken too long to turn on his headlights, which I didn’t think was the case. As soon as the officer saw our licenses, he got a very embarrassed look on his face, said he was sorry to bother us, and left.” (E-mail from 2002)