I’m visiting part of the Acela corridor this Thanksgiving week, seeing relatives between the nation’s capital and the Big Apple. During one visit, a discussion on Sundown Towns was an eye opener.

What’s a Sundown Town? The History and Social Justice website says:

A sundown town is not just a place where something racist happened. It is an entire community (or even county) that for decades was “all white” on purpose. “All white” is in quotes because some towns allowed one black family to remain when they drove out the rest. Also, institutionalized persons (in prisons, hospitals, colleges, etc.), live-in servants (in white households), and black or interracial children (in white households) do not violate the taboo.

Since we had the discussion in New Jersey, we found a list of Sundown Towns in the state and counted 33.

But since I currently live in Kentucky, we wanted to see how the numbers matched up in the Bluegrass. Looks like there are 61 towns we aren’t welcome in.

So, are we being fair, counting one state against another?

Kentucky has a population of 4.59 million. New Jersey has a population of 9.5 million. So, the Bluegrass State, with about half the population, has almost twice the number of Sundown Towns as the Garden State.

Kentucky is a ruby red state, where 64 percent of the voting population fell for the con of the Orange Menace. New Jersey went blue with 52 percent not falling for the con.

There’s no way of getting around it. Racism drove a lot of votes, and even when people say they’re not racist, there actions belie their words.

Here’s the Sundown Town database for the entire nation.

The History and Social Justice site says:

Telling the truth about the past helps cause justice in the present. Achieving justice in the present helps us tell the truth about the past.