Home » Michigan » Fenton

James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

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

Fenton

Michigan

Basic Information

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

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
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990 8,444 8,290 35 9
2000 10,582 10,185 63 24
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

email 3/2008, according to a long-term, nearby resident.

My next door neighbor who was about 11, I was 10. Her grandmother owned a “cottage” on Fenton Lake. I remember in the 1950’s being told that Fenton Michigan, a small town on Lake Fenton, in between Ann Arbor and Flint, where many fairly wealthy people had lake homes, was a sundown town.

Feb/2015 email from a longtime resident: “from my experience going to school in Fenton, and given that even at late as 2000, it wasn’t hugely uncommon to see rebel flags in the backs of trucks in Fenton, that I know quite a few racist people from the area, the limited number of black families in the schools system, and the rumors of a (past-ish) strong KKK presence in Cohactah, I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to find actual evidence of Fenton and many of the surrounding towns and cities having been Sundown Towns.”