Sundown Towns

 Since there wasn't much information learned this past week in school, the one thing I did my own research on was Sundown Towns. A sundown town is defined as an all-white community that excludes blacks and other minorities through discriminatory laws, harassment, threats, and violence. I started wondering if sundown towns still existed or at least if there were any remnants of these towns left. And turns out, they do still exist, but not to the scale of how they were in their prime. Earlier in the 20th century, Dearborn, Michigan was actually seen as a sundown town. A lot of African Americans came to Detroit for industrial jobs, and as time went on these people would start to move to suburban areas. The white communities in these areas discouraged African Americans to move into suburban areas like Dearborn. A common saying from Dearborn was "The sun never set on a Negro in Dearborn". The people of Dearborn would constantly exclude black people and use laws and threats to make sure they never settled in Dearborn. I think that fact that there are still events like this that happen today shows how the amount of racism never really decreased. In this modern era, we seem to rely on movements and spreading awareness, which in my opinion only does so much. There are always going to be racist people in groups of racist communities. Although the term "sundown town" isn't used much nowadays, the effect of these towns still exists making some cities dangerous for African Americans after dark. This poses the question, will racism be a permanent stamp in our communities or is there a solution?