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?
- Possible
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Don’t Know
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | ||||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | ||||||||
| 2000 | ||||||||
| 2010 | ||||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Unknown
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
“I never knew what a black person was until I left
home somewhere after my 15th birthday. But I did find
out that Blacks were not allowed in town [Reese] after
sundown and they couldn’t pass through Reese on
their way East either as that would have taken them
into the Thumb and there wern’t any blacks allowed
up in the Thumb either. My mother brought [me] to
Reese, Michigan when I was 3 years old. That would
have been in 1940. [When] I turned 21… I left Reese
permanently. I can remember that no blacks were
living there yet when I left.
“We didn’t ask many questions back then, but
someone did ask why there weren’t any Black people
living here and they were hushed up right away, so I
never asked too many questions myself. I learned that
my mother was extremely prejudiced… I was living
with her in Saginaw, MI and I was going to an all Black
School then. I brought home some school friends and
my Mother asked me not to bring the black kids home
with me. I asked her why [and] she just changed the
subject and said to me, ‘Why don’t you bring home
your White friends?'”
-former resident of Reese