Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Independent City or Town
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Don’t Know
- Unions, Organized Labor?
- Don’t Know
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Possible
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- 1960s
- Still Sundown?
- Surely Not
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | 6494 | 78 | ||||||
| 1940 | 7652 | 99 | ||||||
| 1950 | 9691 | 58 | ||||||
| 1960 | 10493 | 47 | ||||||
| 1970 | 10095 | 7 | 29 | |||||
| 1980 | 9372 | 10 | ||||||
| 1990 | 8957 | 8858 | 31 | 2 | 11 | |||
| 2000 | 9215 | 44 | 6 | 90 | ||||
| 2010 | 9202 | 83 | 17 | 126 | ||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Unknown
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
* The 1960 census lists 36 black females and only 11 black males, letting assume that there were few to no black household in 1960.
This observation has been supported by email testimony from a Dayton resident: “Oakwood was a very tight, “old money” town. If there was a black person living there it was a chauffeur or maid. Many “domestics” eked out a substandard wage during the day and usually was taken to the nearest north bound bus stop before dark.”
An Ohioan claims that the town allowed no Jews and no blacks.
Resident of nearby Dayton, OH: “I have read in the Dayton Daily News that Oakwood, Ohio, Dayton’s most wealthy and prestigious suburb, is (or was) a Sundown Town…I suspect that Kettering, Ohio, our next ‘best’ suburb, probably was a Sundown Town as well, since it saw its greatest growth during the 1970s due to ‘White Flight’ after Dayton’s public schools were integrated as a result of a Federal Court order.”
Another Dayton resident reports: “[D]uring the 1970’s I have always heard of stories that African American motorist risked being pulled over by the police, if they drove through Oakwood at night. Even on the main thoroughfare, Far Hill Drive, which connects Dayton with Kettering. I have heard these stories into the early 1980’s.”
Oakwood, OH is a member of the Inclusive Communities Partnership of the National League of Cities