For 70+ years segregation in our cities was sought and designed. How are we working to undo that design?

[blockquote type=”center”]”During the Depression the federal government…set up at least seven towns…that explicitly kept out African Americans. At the same time, and for three more decades, the Federal Housing Administration – a government agency – required restrictive covenants before insuring housing loans.” (103)[/blockquote]

[content_band padding_top=”20px” padding_bottom=”20px” border=”none” bg_color=”#8c8c8c”]It was legal for the federal government to refuse land ownership and the generational wealth that comes with it, to black Americans.[/content_band]

How would your life be different if your parents and grandparents didn’t own houses? Or, how would your life be different if they had owned a home?

How would your life have been different if they had not been allowed to live in the towns or suburbs in which they did, in which you did?

[blockquote type=”center”]”Attempts to enforce illegal sundown ordinances in the streets were still being made in the 1990s…Even an unconstitutional ordinance connotes to the residents of the sundown town that the black would-be newcomer is not supposed to be here – especially if those residents don’t know that the law is illegal. Whether legal or not, and even whether actually passed or not, belief in the ordinance puts it in force.” (103)[/blockquote]

[blockquote type=”center”]”I have confirmed 184 towns in 32 states that displayed sundown signs…Towns that sounded whistles or sirens to warn blacks to get out of town at 6pm also implied they were sundown by official action.” (104)[/blockquote]

If you look on Loewen’s website, each state has several cities listed where people have written in with information, essentially crowd-sourcing their racial histories. Look up your area. See if anything is there. Maybe you’ll have the same realization I did, that I lived in a nearly all white town that blew a 6pm siren and I never understood why. And even though it’s not listed on his website, I have my strong suspicions.

What ordinances are on the books – or believed to be on the books in your town? Are there any rumors about your town? What are some beliefs you hold about the area you live in? What are assumptions about it that other people hold?

[container]

This series is available in a handy 40 page pdf that includes journaling space for the personal questions.

Buy now

[/container]
[container]

An Integrated Life

a series studying the book Sundown Towns by James Loewen

[/container]

[container]
Part 1 – A Series
Part 2 – Our Racist Foundations
Part 3 – What Are We Taught Is Normal?
Part 4 – All Whites Are Responsible
Part 5 – What Are You Known For Supporting
Part 6 – What Makes You Stay Silent?
Part 7 – Gravitating Towards the Comfortable
Part 8 – Social Exclusion
Part 9 – Restrictive Covenants and Governments
Part 10 – Do You Live in a Sundown Town? Before You Say No…
Part 11 – Still Forming Sundown Towns Today
Part 12 – Sundown Suburbs = NIMBY

[/container]