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James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

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

Killeen

Texas

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 1263 0
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990 63535 19000
2000
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

A black radio operator, stationed at Fort Hood (near
Killeen) in 1944, reported “There were about three
black civilians who worked in Killeen and they had to
be out of there before the sun went down. Who knows
what would have happened if you weren’t out of town
by sundown? Be beat up or lynched. Nobody tested
it.”

By the mid 1960s, the army had many black soldiers
and employees. The presence of the army near Killeen
helped break the town’s sundown rules, and it is now
interracial.