Suddenly stories are being written abt #SundownTowns thanks to the brilliant writing on @LovecraftHBO - Much credit to the showrunners for educating America about itself in ways our public schools don't (Like the millions who didn't known about the Tulsa riots until #WatchmenHBO
Now, what IS a "Sundown town"? It's a colloquialism for a town or part of town where black folks knew they had to leave before sundown or risk police violence or vigilante violence from whites. They're part of America's unofficial apartheid policy
The presumption was, the only black people in that part of town were there to do work for white homeowners or business people, so once the sun went down they should be on their way home and had no business in that part of town. It's a practice that continues to this day
As a kid we lived outside of St. Louis (maybe 30 minutes from Ferguson) & there was a huge influx of middle class black people moving from the city to the surrounding suburbs. Many in the local white community didn't like it. And the cops happily enforced that bigotry
I literally remember seeing a cop on local television talk about there being sundown towns in our area, after a racial incident in one of the small towns nearby. My whole family saw it.....
To paraphrase the local sheriff on T.V.
" There aren't any black people who live in this neighborhood, we know who lives here and who doesn't. So if there's a black person around here at night we're going to pull them over because we know they don't belong."
" There aren't any black people who live in this neighborhood, we know who lives here and who doesn't. So if there's a black person around here at night we're going to pull them over because we know they don't belong."
Now 'racial profiling' wasn't a word in public discourse back in the 80's and 90's but the cop was basically building a housing discrimination, racial profiling and police brutality sandwich right in front of the local reporter & nobody blinked. My family did, the reporter didn't
The point is, #sundowntowns are real, and they aren't ancient history and I experienced them as a kid. Reminding us of the big themes of @LovecraftHBO - That when you're black in America you don't have to face the supernatural to live in a state of fear reality is pretty bad too
