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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.

Somerset

New Jersey

Basic Information

Type of Place
CDP, Unincorporated Borough, or MCD
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?
Surely Not

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
2000 23040 10124 8881 1896 59 2764
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Private Bad Behavior

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

From Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers’ Republic (NY: Knopf, 2003), 219-221):

In Somerset, in central NJ, mid-’60s, whites pressured an elderly couple to withdraw from selling their house to a young professional black couple, then pooled their money, bought the property, and put it back on the market for purchase only by whites.