The tranquil-sounding, two-word expression “sundown towns” cloaked a nationwide chamber of horrors for African Americans for at least the first two-thirds of the 20th century. Call it ethnic cleansing, American style.Ī Harvard-trained sociologist and former university professor, Loewen defines a sundown town as “any organized jurisdiction that for decades kept African Americans or other groups from living in it.” I would add: or even staying overnight in it. Loewen, author of the 2005 book Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, says Goshen shared this notoriety with an estimated 10,000 towns, cities, suburbs and even counties throughout the United States (especially in the Midwest) for much of the 20th century-indeed, to this day in a few cases.
The vote was a culmination of five months of intensive work by a number of us in Goshen-both publicly and behind the scenes. The Goshen council thereby may have become the first elected body of a former “sundown town” in the United States to formally admit its racist history. On March 17, the Goshen (Ind.) City Council voted 6–0 to pass “A Resolution Acknowledging the Racially Exclusionary Past of Goshen, Indiana, as a ‘Sundown Town.’ ”
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