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
- Still Sundown?
- Probably Not, Although Still Very Few Black People
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | 1474 | 1474 | 0 | |||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | ||||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||
| 1970 | 18829 | 18778 | 1 | |||||
| 1980 | 16699 | 16604 | 0 | 6 | 19 | |||
| 1990 | 14629 | 14316 | 15 | 6 | ||||
| 2000 | 14597 | 13956 | 44 | 402 | 2 | |||
| 2010 | 14756 | 13766 | 124 | 15 | ||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Violent Expulsion
- Threat of Violence
- Violence Towards Newcomers
- Police or Other Official Action
- Reputation
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
- Jewish
- Other
Comments
Former NJ resident:
When I lived in New Jersey one of my friends (of Italian descent) was from Clark, NJ and told us that blacks driving in Clark after sundown were routinely stopped by police for being “dark after dark.” Clark was residentially all white. This was in 1980.
Long-time Black resident of neighboring town of Westfield:
“There was an African-American couple in Westfield who actually helped us a lot as we were getting settled into Westfield. They used to tell stories about Clark and especially about the White Diamond. The KKK used to have meetings there. We don’t know if it was folklore or true, but nobody ever checked. We didn’t challenge it. We were told to make sure that you were not anywhere near Clark when it started getting dark. When they would have friends that were coming into Westfield, they told them to drive around. If you were coming off the parkway, you would probably get off in Cranford and then come into Westfield instead of going through Clark. If you did go to Clark, you made sure you followed every single speed limit possible. I have no idea how it started, but I know that I passed it down to my kids. It didn’t help — I want to say it was in the 1990s — when a Black family moved into Clark, and then they had a cross burned in front of their house.”
Former NJ Resident:
“Growing up near there, my parents told us to be careful when driving through Clark because the police didn’t like Jews and were known to hassle them. This was in the 1980s.”