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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.

Vevay

Indiana

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?
Surely
Was there an ordinance?
Don't Know
Sign?
Perhaps, Some Oral Evidence
Year of Greatest Interest
1900
Still Sundown?
Probably Not, Although Still Very Few Black People

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 1463 1460
1980
1990 1393 1386 1
2000 1735 4 2 3 25 1
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Violent Expulsion
  • Threat of Violence
  • Reputation

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

On Ohio River, county seat of Switzerland County. Was Under Ground Rail Road site, now sundown. Vevay had blacks until about 1900 when a white man named Hine was murdered. In One Drop of Blood (NY: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2000), Scott L. Malcomson writes:
“Local whites believed that a black person, or ‘the blacks’ generally, was responsible. Vevay’s black population tried to flee. Some succeeded; others were hunted down and killed.” (p. 514)
Vevay had a sign: “”Nigger, Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On You In This Town,” at the town line up until the Truman administration, if not later.” (p. 516)