Thousands of 'Sundown Towns' Expel Black Residents and Post Exclusion Signs

Historian James Loewen documented over 10,000 'sundown towns' in the United States, municipalities that expelled their Black residents through violence or ordinance and maintained all-white status, often posting signs reading 'N***** Don't Let the Sun Set on You Here.' Mass expulsions of Black communities occurred in Forsyth County, Georgia (1912), many Illinois towns (1902-1910), and throughout the Midwest and West. These were not Southern phenomena, they occurred in every region of the country and reshaped American residential geography.