Sundown Towns

Black Americans used the Green Book in the mid-1900s to find safe places to travel. Now an organization in the Mountain West is highlighting many of these locations.

Today, things have gotten better in many ways, three generations of the Adame and Crespin family told KUNC. In many other ways, they added, the racism has remained or gotten worse.

Several moments during the last two years have reflected race-based problems in Loveland — at city council, school and library board meetings, during protests and in Facebook groups. Often, a key point of contention for some residents is whether racism even exists in the city, or ever did.

Prior to World War I, Nevada’s Douglas County adopted an ordinance that prohibited Native Americans from being in the towns of Minden or Gardnerville after sunset — at the risk of jail time or worse.

Today, Moscow’s brief history as a probable sundown town seems a continent away. The northern Idaho town of 25,000 saw multiple racial justice protests last year. Black Lives Matter signs line the windows of Moscow’s downtown restaurants and cafes. But some people of color still feel uneasy here.

Sundown towns once drove out people of color or prohibited them from living within city limits. This practice started in the late 19th century, but the impact continues today. In Colorado, Chinese immigrants flocked to the state to find gold. They were tolerated in some mining camps and run out of others.

Many communities across the Mountain West were once known as “sundown towns.” Those are places that once had policies to force people of color to leave town by nightfall. If they didn’t, they could be arrested or worse. One town in Nevada is grappling with its racist legacy.