Plattsmouth

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?

Surely

Was there an ordinance?

Don't Know

Sign?

Don’t Know

Year of Greatest Interest

Still Sundown?

Probably Not, Although Still Very Few Black People

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present

	Total	White	Black	Asian	Native	Hispanic	Other	BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890	8303		88
1900	4964	4951	13
1910
1920	4190		0
1930	3793		0
1940
1950
1960	6244		1
1970
1980
1990	6412		24
2000
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

• Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

• Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

• Black

Comments

“I remember being shocked to learn soon after
moving there [Plattsmouth] that blacks were not
allowed to even work in that town after 5 or 6 pm. I
had never heard of such a thing at that time… Not
only did I never see a black student at Plattsmouth
High, only once do I recall ever seeing a black person
in the town of Plattsmouth. He was working on a
construction crew shortly after I moved there [1961],
and that’s when I was told (I can’t recall by whom) that
he would have to be out of Plattsmouth by 5 p.m
because of a town ordinance that did not allow blacks
to remain beyond that hour… I would not describe the
kids that I knew as more racist than many of the
average white kids that I knew in Florida or California.
But they imbibed a form of racism based on not
having much if any normal contact with blacks in their
daily lives. Increasing their fear and hatred of blacks
were the stories of sex and mayhem, such as the
above, that they heard in regard to blacks in Omaha.
During the daily course of events, however, the
Plattsmouth people that I knew rarely talked about
race at all, reflective of the absence of blacks in their
daily lives. But when they did, they were likely to
express fear and loathing, and to use the ‘N’ word
freely.”