Sundown town

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Sundown towns, also known as sunset towns, gray towns, or sundowner towns, were all-White municipalities or neighborhoods in the United States and Canada that practiced a form of racial segregation by excluding non-whites via some combination of discriminatory local laws, intimidation or violence. They were most prevalent before the 1950s. The term came into use because of signs that directed "colored people" to leave town by sundown. Sundown counties and sundown suburbs were created as well. While sundown laws became illegal following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, some commentators argue that certain 21st-century practices perpetuate a modified version of the sundown town. Some of these modern practices include racial profiling by local police and sheriff's departments, vandalism of public art, harassment by private citizens, and gentrification. Specific examples of exclusion of Native Americans, Asians, Latinos, Jews, and Catholics alongside many other communities include...

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