Charlotte

Basic Information

Type of Place

Independent City or Town

Metro Area

Politics c. 1860?

Unions, Organized Labor?

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?

Probable

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
1900
1910	4886		15
1920
1930
1940	5544		6
1950	6608		8
1960	7675		7
1970	8244		4
1980	8251		20
1990
2000	8389		79		46		29
2010	9074		106		37		43
2020

Method of Exclusion

• Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

• Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

• Black

Comments

“With respect to Charlotte, MI one of the street names right by my house was Mikesell (sp?), which I was told
is the name of a grandmaster wizard or whatever they call officials in the KKK from Charlotte.
I do not know if there are actual ordinances on the books about race, but lore in the town was that the
sun had never set over a black person in Charlotte (although there was an adopted black child in town).
This was confirmed by the black community in Lansing that Charlotte was not a place to visit or to be after
dark. When Lansing basketball teams played at Charlotte high school in the mid 80s people in the stands made posters that said ‘Go home spooks’ and no one said anything. The only minorities in the
community were 3 Asian American families, two Hispanic American families and one Jewish family. At one time a Vietnamese family tried to settle in Charlotte but I think they were encouraged to leave
(they were there less than one year). I don’t know that people even were aware that the Hispanic family weren’t white they had fair skin and spoke English
fluently. I didn’t realize they were ‘different’ until I was in high school and realized they had Spanish last
names. The Asian families said they had been subject to harassment but not violence.”