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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.

Coal City

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?
Probable
Was there an ordinance?
Sign?
Perhaps, Some Oral Evidence
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?
Probably

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present
Total White Black Asian Native Hispanic Other BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900 2607 0
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970 3040 0
1980
1990
2000 4797 6
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

Main Ethnic Group(s)

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

In 2001, a Univeristy of Illinois Chicago student remarked, “They’re some of the most closed-minded people I know.”

A resident of a nearby town comments that the border may have had a sign bluntly stating that blacks were not welcome.

A Coal City female student at Illinois Wesleyan would not bring her black roommate home lest her roommate be called “nigger.”