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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.

Salt Lake City

Utah

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?
Always Biracial
Was there an ordinance?
Don't Know
Sign?
Don’t Know
Year of Greatest Interest
1944
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 143933 3433 6579 2442 34254
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Zoning
  • Realtors

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black
  • Asian

Comments

“Barred: Non-Whites Restricted From Urban Areas By Salt Lake Realtors,” Pittsburgh Courier, 5/20/1944″

“A circular sent Negro leaders referred to an article in the Sunday, May 7 issue of the Salt Lake Tribune, local daily, by D. Carlos Kimball, chairman of a so-called “Non-White Housing Control Committee,” which stated that “pledges to restrict non-whites from white communities have been signed by most Salt Lake real estate dealers in accordance with the National Association of Real Estate Boards’ code of ethics which forbids the sale of property to anyone who might ‘lower community standards.'”

“S.L. Realtors Restrict Housing of Nonwhites in Urban Areas,” Salt Lake Tribune, 5/7/1944:

“Pledges to restrict nonwhites from white communities have been signed by most Salt Lake real estate dealers in accordance with the National Association of Real Estate Boards’ code of ethics which forbids the sale of property to anyone who might ‘lower community standards,'” D. Carlos Kimball, chairman, nonwhite housing control committee, Salt Lake real estate board, disclosed Saturday.
“‘Nonwhites have a tendency to congregate. When a few filter into a white community, more usually follow. Then the whites leave, and the land value goes down,’ he declared….”
“He referred to the recent influx of Negroes, pointing out laconically that ‘we are not encouraging their growth.'”

Salt Lake City had a black detective on its police force in 1890 (John McCormick, The Gathering Place (Salt Lake City: Signature, 2000), 68). No blacks at all on police force in 1960s and 1970s, according to clipping in SLC Library. The police chief claimed he was trying to hire one.

From Richard Ulibarri, “Utah’s Unassimilated Minorities,” in Richard Poll, ed., Utah’s History (Provo: BYU Press, 1978):
“Concert singer Marian Anderson was allowed to stay at the Hotel Utah on the condition that she use the freight elevator.” KKK was active in Utah “and, as elsewhere, Blacks were the prime targets. In 1939 Salt Lake City commissioners received a petition bearing 1,000 signatures asking that Blacks living in the city be restricted to one residential area.” Did not get enacted. The core areas of SLC and Ogden housed “at least 80% of Utah’s total Black population,” however. (Ulibarri 634-35)