Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension Of American Racism by Loewen James W

Author:Loewen, James W. [Loewen, James W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781595586742
Publisher: Perseus Books Group
Published: 2005-09-29T04:00:00+00:00

Indeed, they didn’t; Frank knew with which side of the color line he had to identify if he was to remain in Austin.23

Often the one African American in town becomes a celebrity, in a perverse sort of way. Everyone “knows” that person, including their harmless eccentricities. Piety is good, as is always having cookies ready for neighboring children or going by a nickname—but not voting, wanting to work at jobs where whites also work, or attending civic meetings. African Americans who played this part well became genuinely liked by whites. Kathleen Blee, author of Women of the Klan, collected a good example from an Indiana woman in the 1980s: “We didn’t hate the niggers. We had the Wills family that lived right here in [this] township. And they were like pet coons to us. I went to school with them.” Often they got known by nicknames, such as “Snowball” for the only African American in West Bend, Wisconsin, or “Nigger Slim” for the father of the only black family in Salem, Illinois.24

Sometimes whites make a big deal out of the only African American in town. After the person’s death, everyone turns out for the funeral. Decades after death, such a person may get warm retrospective articles in the local newspaper. “If there is any one character that everyone hears about sooner or later in connection with West Bend it is ‘Snowball,’ ”wrote Dorothy Williams in a 1980 town history. “Snowball,” or Elmer Lynden, was “a young Negro [sic] about 25 years old” who was killed by two police officers, allegedly while resisting arrest, in 1924. In 1936 the Chesterton Tribune in Chesterton, Indiana, ran a story, “Only Colored Couple,” about the death of Ambrose Roan 24 years earlier:The story goes that when Ambrose Roan found his eternity the present Congregational church choir showed its respect and love for their “Uncle Tom” by singing a number of his beloved hymns. Mrs. Roan was so much moved by this act of courtesy that she invited the entire group of singers for a good Negro cooked chicken dinner.25

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