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.