Home » Florida » Winterhaven

James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began.

Winterhaven

Florida

Basic Information

Type of Place
Independent City or Town
Metro Area
Politics c. 1860?
Don’t Know
Unions, Organized Labor?
Don’t Know

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?
Possible
Was there an ordinance?
Don't Know
Sign?
Don’t Know
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?
Surely Not

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present
Total White Black Asian Native Hispanic Other BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010 33874 9377 3309
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

“I was speaking to my uncle (age 81) last week and
he told me that as a boy living in Winterhaven [circa
1935] he recalled a black man hanging from the light
pole on the main street in Winterhaven… He said that
Blacks could not live in Winterhaven proper but lived
in a type of suburb named Florencevilla and another
named Phewsville. My uncle used to catch Opossum
then go where the blacks were at church on Sunday
and sell the Opossum when Church let out. He said a
Black guy worked for his uncle in the Orange groves
and when sundown began he would tell his uncle, ‘got
to get back home now’. He had to be in Florencevilla
or Phewsville by sundown.”
-posted to the web, 2006

Winterhaven is definitely not a sundown town TODAY with a total population of 33,874 and a black population of 9,377.