re: Overall State Rankings - LOL

Imagine being a black man today, and your father and mother tell you stories about life in some of these areas post Civil Rights Act.

You literally couldn't even stop for gas in some of these towns, in the late 80s and early 90s.

And not just Louisiana, but all over the south and midwest, and others. Perspective is important. I'm not removing blame for the AA community, as there are glaring issues that are not being addressed. But man, if I knew that my parents, grandparents and obviously earlier ancestors were put through, I'd probably have a chip on my shoulder.

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"What God made is beautiful, what man made leaves a lot to be desired"

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Except for the man made lake I visit every Summer in Arkansas, I agree

Oregon was apparently pretty well known for it's sundown laws. I found that a bit surprising.

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Oregon was apparently pretty well known for it's sundown laws. I found that a bit surprising.

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The Pacific Northwest has a pretty ugly racial history. Hard to ignore the fact that a lot of places that lack much of any racial diversity, regardless of general "political" leanings, have a whole lot of issues like this.

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Oregon was apparently pretty well known for it's sundown laws. I found that a bit surprising.

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They couldn't pump their own gas until a few months ago. That place is all kinds of messed up.
But yeah, I wouldn't have picked Oregon as a top state for those kind of towns.

Gotta read all the fine print on that website, though. They list Mound Bayou in MS. which I know was one of the first towns in the South to be incorporated by freed slaves and has remained 98% AA. I think a demographic makeup outside of the norms gets a town flagged on that site.

sad that Orange Beach (AL) made the list.

It's amazing how effective these laws are even still today. It's a huge reason why rural America is still dominated by white people.

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I can imagine how it would look with NE and N Central Arkansas taken out. Like Shangri-freaking-la.

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Hey hey and more hey- I'm a little north central but a bit west of that.

Y'all are talking these sunset towns etc- and I know we've got Harrison and wherever else that probably fits into that as well but geez I am old and my hometown (that has it's own issues, not pretending it doesn't) wasn't even like that 30 something years ago when I was growing up. Of course, it's mixed racially so maybe it had been 30 years before then but not in my world in the 80's.

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Hey hey and more hey- I'm a little north central but a bit west of that.

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Hey Piggi

We took a roady to Branson one afternoon to eat. Harrison was.....interesting.

I would wake up at 5 every morning just to watch the land wake up around there

It's been a while for me but I swear the last time I went thru there the racist sign I saw didn't even make sense. I feel like if you're going to be a racist arse, at least create a phrase that the common person can comprehend.

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Y'all are talking these sunset towns etc- and I know we've got Harrison and wherever else that probably fits into that as well but geez I am old and my hometown (that has it's own issues, not pretending it doesn't) wasn't even like that 30 something years ago when I was growing up. Of course, it's mixed racially so maybe it had been 30 years before then but not in my world in the 80's.

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in reading about Harrison, it was clearly very bad for black folks in the early 1900s. You have the infamous race riots. But there are plenty of race related stories out there up into the 80s as well.

I can only speak for myself, but racism was so normalized for such a long time that I wouldn't be shocked if you witnessed more than you are recalling.

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For fifteen years after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, motels and restaurants in some sundown towns continued to exclude African Americans. Today, public accommodations are generally open. More than half of all Arkansas sundown towns have given up their exclusionary residential policies, mostly after 1990. Of fourteen suspected sundown counties in 1960, eight showed at least three African American households in the 2000 census. Additional “white” households now include “black” children, especially interracial offspring of white mothers from the community and black partners from elsewhere. The public schools of Sheridan desegregated around 1992, when students from two small nearby biracial communities were included in the new consolidated high school. In about 1995, a black family moved into Sheridan, and before the decade ended, it was joined by three more—slow progress, but progress nevertheless.

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crazy shite, desegregated in 1992

LINK