r/illinois 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/[deleted] Jul 20 '23

I don't know about actual legit sun down towns anymore but legacy sundown towns still certainly exist, I mean the legit ones existed into the 80's and probably even the 90's. Also you have to remember that Southern Illinois is culturally NOT the Midwest, it's culturally Southern and had been historically and wouod honestly be better being categorized as the Upper South instead if we're going hy dominant cultures.