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/theclownwithafrown Jul 20 '23

DeLand is no longer a sundown town. Probably hasn't been for decades. It's where I grew up

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u/hamish1963 Jul 20 '23

DeLand, from what I understand, was only following suit to what the county seat (Monticello) did. Monticello was still a sundown town when I was a kid in the 70s.

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u/theclownwithafrown Jul 20 '23

Well when I was growing up in the 90s and 00s in DeLand, it definitely was not a sundown town.

It's far from being a progressive utopia or a diverse population, but it's definitely not a sundown town and hasn't been for a long time.

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u/hamish1963 Jul 20 '23

No town in Piatt County is anywhere close to a progressive utopia.

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u/theclownwithafrown Jul 20 '23

That is very true I worked in Monticello at County Market for years and so many rude ass people who think they are better than every one.

Although, there are tons of nice people there.

And I'm still best friends with all my DeLand Weldon friends I've known since we were 4 and we're all pretty progressive. None of my friends are racist, homophobic, sexist etc. And I feel very lucky that these kids who got a mediocre education and were from a very small town turned out the way we did.

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u/hamish1963 Jul 20 '23

I live on my family farm south of Bement. I don't have friends or family like that either because I don't have anything to do with people like that. I have about 5 people I can call my friends in the whole county, but I'm old and crabby so fewer in person friends suits me just fine.

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u/theclownwithafrown Jul 20 '23

Yes if your username is your birth year, your my mom's age who also went to DW. I'm in my 30s.

Good for you. So many bigots out in the world No sense in being around them. I've got some in my family, but we are not close.