Home » Illinois » Marissa

James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

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

Marissa

Illinois

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?
Surely
Was there an ordinance?
Perhaps, Some Oral Evidence
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 2375
2000 2141 2119 6
2010 1979 25 5
2020

Method of Exclusion

Main Ethnic Group(s)

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

In Marissa, “a colored man is not allowed to take up his residence.” (N. Dwight Harris, The History of Negro Servitude in Illinois (NY: Negro Universities Press, 1969 [1904]), 242.)

One woman whose boyfriend is from Marissa said GFWC was written on the welcome sign to the town. She said it meant %u201CGod Fearing White Community%u201D. She also said that the town once had a black family, but they moved out after the town refused to remove this part of the sign. Email; March 2010