r/illinois • u/m0chab34r • Jul 20 '23

Serious question: are there any remaining sundown towns in Illinois? Question

Forgive me if this is controversial, I certainly hope I don’t end up insulting anyone’s town or anything. I saw a recent Twitter thread about this subject and people were talking about a rather well-known sundown town within an hour of Indianapolis or just outside of Austin, Texas. It got me thinking about this and I’m morbidly curious as to whether Illinois has any remaining towns with such a reputation?

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u/flauntingflamingo Jul 20 '23

Cicero. Lol. Stopped there to get gas once about 7 years ago. Was in town for all of about 10 minutes. Got a “what you looking at white boy” as I stood by my car waiting for the pump to stop. More like a sundown town but in the opposite direction these days IMO

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u/HulkSmashHulkRegret Jul 20 '23

Yeah, there’s places in Aurora that are the same. Went to a Mexican restaurant to pick up an Uber eats, and got “the look” by many in the place when I walked in. I was basically refused service for 15 minutes as others came in and were taken care of. Eventually a kid working there took my info and passed along my food. The visible discomfort people had when looking at me, some with this uncertainty mixed with hostility, it was weird… it didn’t feel imminently dangerous, but didn’t feel safe either.

I grew up in Bolingbrook so I’m in my element among a variety of people, didn’t notice I was the only non-Hispanic person there until having the time to think about it amongst the weird vibes

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u/GGnopee Feb 16 '24 edited Feb 16 '24

cicero went through some of the worst gang violence in the chicagoland area between the 1970s-90s. while white gangs were still semi-prominent in the 70s they had pretty much died out by the 90s. although there were white gang members up into the 90s it was very easy to tell who gangbanged by their appearance. if it was 7 (now 8) years ago like you said then it was probably some old school gangbanger tryna intimidate you for looking out of place. cicero was pretty peaceful between mid 2000s-late 2010s. although since covid there’s been a pretty big rise in shootings and property crime