Darkness on the Edge of Town

A bold book argues that thousands of American towns were deliberately kept whites-only.

Reviewed by Laura Wexler
Sunday, October 23, 2005; BW03

SUNDOWN TOWNS

A Hidden Dimension of American Racism
By James W. Loewen
New Press. 562 pp. $29.95

In Oct. 2001, James W. Loewen stopped at a convenience store in the small Illinois town of Anna -- a name that, as a store clerk confirmed, stands for "Ain't No Niggers Allowed."

On Nov. 8, 1909, nearly a century before Loewen stepped into the store, a mob of angry white citizens drove out Anna's 40 or so black families following the lynching in a nearby town of a black man accused of raping a white woman. Anna became all-white literally overnight, Loewen reports, and embraced racial exclusiveness for the long haul. According to the 2000 census, just one family with a black member lives among Anna's 7,000 residents.