Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Suburb
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Unions, Organized Labor?
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Surely
- Was there an ordinance?
- Sign?
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Surely Not
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | 2681 | 1 | ||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | ||||||||
| 1960 | 8543 | 1 | ||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | ||||||||
| 2000 | ||||||||
| 2010 | 23,132 | 740 | ||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Threat of Violence
- Realtors
- Other
Main Ethnic Group(s)
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
Henry Aaron, Milwaukee Braves outfielder, “broke the color line in Mequon.”– Barbara J. Miner, LESSONS FROM THE HEARTLAND, 14.
“The builder was worried that word might get out he sold a house to a Negro. He insisted that he be able to sell the house to a friend of Aaron’s who was a realtor, and then the real estate company could resell lit to Aaron…. When Aaron’s sister, Alfredia, was 11, Henry offered to have her come live with him. “But Alfredia was unprepared for how she was to be treated at school, where she was the only black.” Boys told her to go back to africa; “parents would pick up their kids at school so they wouldn’t walk home with Alfredia.” “The slights and insensitivities added up. As Alfredia relates in a first-person account in Aaron’s biography, one day she burst out crying at the breakfast table.” Finally Aaron and his wife took his sister to school and confronted the principal. Alfredia writes, “The principal looked Henry right in the face and said, ‘There wouldn’t be a problem if you hadn’t brought her to this school.'” “Before long Alfredia moved back to Alabama.
That said, we must note that other black sports celebrities joined Aaron in Mequon and the town is no longer sundown.