For much of the 20th century, thousands of all-white American towns forbade Black people from . Some Detroit suburbs reckon with history as anti-Black 'sundown towns Chinese Miners Faced Racism, Violence As Mountain West Sundown Towns DUNCAN, Ariz. - Evacuation orders for a small eastern Arizona town have been lifted after heavy rain overflowed the Gila River, spilling water into portions of the area. 'Mass evacuation' in Arizona town after monsoonal rains cause river to Is it colder to sleep in a car or a tent? Greenlee County Sheriff's Department Office: (928) 865-4149 Emergency: 911 Hover over the pictures in the slideshow above to see the captions. The colorful historic sites of Route 66 have been mostly lost to time and neglect. As of the 2020 census its population was 53,272. Duncan receded then into a quiet farming and As a result, black soldiers made good use of the Mother Road. A white mob set the neighborhood on fire. And driving was the most popular pastime. Now, the city has an $8.2 million plan to convert the property into a condo-hotel hybrid with shops and restaurants. In fact, even before Route 66 was officially connected and enshrined, the roads that would come to form it linked one atrocity to the next. Now it is several years into a vigorous reinvention of itself as a rural destination, attracting travelers from around the world who are in search of an authentic experience of the old rural Southwest. The most accessible viewing station, at Bonita Creek, is a lovely 55-mile drive from Duncan. Black motorists of course also had to avoid sundown towns such as Edmond, Oklahoma. And after discovering the Green Book, I was never able to look at Americas favorite highway the same way againthe way those other tour guides seem to. There are 10 cities in Arizona that stand out for their crime rates, so let's take a look at them and see which cities you should avoid. Duncan, Arizona 85534, Hours: The community is home for members of both the Akimel Oodham (Pima) and the Pee-Posh (Maricopa) tribes. (Although, the motor lodge did have a brief gig as the setting for a scene in Breaking Bad.) In 2018 the estimated population was 789. Also, Pellets on Sale. I guess if you dont know whether or not you need them, youre not the target audience. Sundown Towns are all-white communities, neighborhoods, or counties that exclude Blacks and other minorities through the use of discriminatory laws, harassment, and threats or use of violence. Males had a median income of $32,232 versus $18,333 for females. James Loewen, a historian who spent years studying sundown towns, found them in the suburbs of Detroit, New York City and Chicago. Americas favorite highway usually evokes kitschy nostalgia. Duncan receded then into a quiet farming and ranching town for several decades, and its downtown slowly disintegrated. On day two, Martin Luther King led a march on Washington. Even once black travelers reached a multiracial city, such as Albuquerque, New Mexico, only 6 percent of the more than 100 motels along Albuquerques slice of Route 66 admitted them. Just one year before construction on Route 66 began, the Chicago Tribune suggested in an editorial on August 29, 1925, that black people avoid recreational sites altogether: We should be doing no service to the Negroes if we did not point out that to a very large section of the white population the presence of a Negro, however well behaved, among white bathers is an irritation. A growing community, with old generations and new ones coming together, Budgets, Annual Financial Statements and Independent Auditors Report, Residential/Business Water and Sewer Service, Irrigation, Livestock and Construction Water. His father had a good job with the railroad and owned a nice car. The names posted are the original names used when the properties were first built. Minden's "sundowner" siren under scrutiny again As I paged through all the kitschy advertising of postwar suburban white families in Airstream Trailers and chrome-finned Chevys getting their kicks at campy Americana landmarks, I wondered: Where are the black people? Was Your Town a Sundown Town? | UU World Magazine The average household size was 2.76 and the average family size was 3.33. Safford, Arizona gets 10 inches of rain, on average, per year. The per capita income for the town was $13,642. Sundown Towns -- 137 Sundown Towns Across 21 States -- Are The Litmus Test of America's Transformation https: . "A travel advisory has been issued to warn that any Black people in or traveling to San Antonio use increased caution when visiting the city due to the city's policing policies that put . The Federal Housing Association redlined neighborhoods and denied loans to black people, preventing them from accessing wealth-building opportunities freely given to white people. Sadly, today theres no physical evidence that Murrays Dude Ranch ever existed. It was promoted by word of mouth, and a national network of postal workers led by Green sought out advertisers. A chauffeurs hat. A Brief History - Town of Duncan Well, first that Flagstaff doesn't make any of the pre-World War II editions. Today, the town continues to thrive as an agricultural community, especially noted wine tasting rooms and award-winning vineyards. From hot springs to sand dunes to rock fields, Safford brings together many features that make Arizona famous in one place, creating the perfect family vacation destination. But, after a young black man was wrongfully accused of assaulting a white woman, an angry lynch mob broke out. Following the murder of George Floyd, the Coalition for an Anti-Racist Glendale drafted a Sundown Town Resolution that put on record the history of Glendale's formal policies and culturally enshrined practices of racism and anti-Blackness. It is 2,389 feet above sea level. Arizona is one of the top producers of citrus in the country. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Hildas Kitchen (Mexican-American grill): 105 SE Old West Highway, 928-359-1771 Three Sisters Bakery (bakery products): 113 SW Old West Highway, 928-359-2253 Humble Pie (pizza, calzones, lasagna, salad, garlic bread): 117 Main Street, 928-359-9866. With the rail, settlement of the fertile, easily irrigated valley boomed. Birders report seeing common black-hawk, canyon wren, and ladderbacked woodpecker among others. African Americans who lingered in sundown towns even during the daytime experienced harassment, threats, arrest, and beatings. Businesses with three Ks in the title, such as the Kozy Kottage Kamp or the Klean Kountry Kottages, were code for the Ku Klux Klan and served only white customers. Uncovering the distribution of 'sundown towns' - Mapbox It was one of the few U.S. highways laid out diagonally, and it cut across the country like a shortcut to freedom. The visitors center not only extends the same welcome but also offers space for local entrepreneurs. O'Connor later wrote a book titled Lazy B: Growing up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest about her childhood experiences on the ranch with her brother H. Alan Day. The spot where Michel Brown bled out in the street for four hours in Ferguson, Missouri, is just a couple of miles from the original Route 66. For black soldiers stationed at Fort Leonard Wood near Rolla, Missouri, for example, their best option for a little R&R was a full 80 miles away: Grahams Rib Station in Springfield, Missouri, an integrated local landmark that opened in 1932 and was owned by an African American couple, James and Zelma Graham. DUE TO NEW METER INSTALLS, OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, YOU MAY EXPERIENCE MINOR ISSUES WITH WATER AVAILABILITY. The vast American landscape meant long, lonely stretches of perilously empty roads, and places like Grahams and other Green Book properties were vital sources of refuge. Reply to this post. duncanaz.us, Arizona Highways' award-winning photography and travel journalism, as well as its commitment to discovering the state's treasures, has celebrated the beauty and splendor of Arizona since 1925. So when the United States promotes freedom and democracy, fights for those values abroad, and then fails to abide by them at home, the hypocrisy feels cruel. The idea behind the Mother Road was to connect urban and rural America from Chicago all the way to Los Angeles, crossing eight states and three time zones. James W. Loewen, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (New York: The New Press, 2005); Candacy Taylor, The Roots of Route 66, The Atlantic, November 3, 2016, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/the-roots-of-route-66/506255/; Sundown Towns, Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/sundown-towns-3658/. Other spots in Illinois with reputations as sundown towns or of racial . He remembers Martinsville, Indiana as an unfriendly place. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Green Book ceased publication right around the time the Civil Rights Act passed. Duncan is a small farming town 5 miles west of the New Mexico border on Hwy 70 (Old West Highway). TEMPE, AZ The city of Tempe has declared June 19 a city holiday in honor of Juneteenth . It prospered right Duncan Opera House - built in 1920 and located in 218 Hill Street. In 1978, at the age of 7, I was riding in the car with my mother in Houston, Texas, when I saw a prison chain gang; shackled men were working in a sugarcane field. 1 weather alerts 1 closings/delays Watch Now Route 66 epitomized Americanafor white people. Knowing better than to say it was his, Rons father pretended to be a chauffeur. The public schools are innovative and have won national awards. At that time, the town was located on the north bank of the Gila. In 1930, 44 out of the 89 counties that lined Route 66 were all-white communities known as sundown townsplaces that banned black people from entering city limits after dark. Route 66 started out in Illinois, a state that itself had nearly 150 sundown towns. During World War II, Route 66 played a major role in military efforts, becoming a primary route for shuttling military supplies across the country. Learn More >. Down the street is the Ranch House Restaurant I remember, although the only particleboard walls Ive ever seen have now been painted a rust color. Monday - Thursday Given this mass denial, its not surprising that Route 66 is weighted down with nostalgia, suffocating from an idealized past that never was. Duncan is named for the managing director of the Arizona Copper Company, Duncan Smith. Sundown Towns Black People Should Be Aware Of - NewsOne The original ownera white man, a Christian, and the son of missionariesClifford Clinton, had traveled with his parents to China, where he witnessed that countrys brutal and abject poverty firsthand. Duncan is in the Gila River valley, four miles (6 km) west of the Arizona-New Mexico border. Its now possibly the largest and most unusual cafeteria in the worldwith five floors of history and taxidermy and a giant fake redwood tree rising up through the center. Eventually the Apaches, who were hunters, gatherers, and raiders, would become the dominant native-American force. There were 384 housing units at an average density of 150.2/sqmi (58.0/km2). Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone. ullstein bild/Getty Images The Chicago suburb of Cicero was one of the most infamous sundown towns to ever exist in Illinois. In the 1940s, Edmond, Oklahoma promoted itself on postcards with the slogan, A Good Place to LiveNo Negroes. The town of Mena, Arkansas advertised its many charms: Cool Summers, Mild Winters, No Blizzards, No Negroes. In other cases, the policy was enforced through less formal norms and sanctions. Even Coca-Cola machines had White Customers Only printed on them. Duncan, Arizona | Arizona Highways They named their home Duncan, after Duncan Smith, the companys managing director. In 1930, 44 out of the 89 counties that lined Route 66 were all-white communities known as "sundown towns"places that banned black people from entering city limits after dark. The railroad stop in Duncan made the town a marketing center for farm produce and a shipping point for ore and cattle. Terrorism is not new, and to think so is a grievous slight to the nations native peoples, to its multitudes of immigrants, and to its legions of black Americansall of whom have long been terrorized for calling America home. EASTERN ARIZONA Interestingly, the hotel website, simpsonhotel.com also has the best information on visiting the surrounding area. Lying five miles from the New Mexico border, in the deep southeastern corner of Greenlee County, Duncan seems a world away from the wild mountains surrounding it. After leaving Chicago on Route 66, the next Green Book sites were more than 180 miles away in Springfield, Illinois. Simpson Hotel (former Hotel Hobbs) - 1914, River Front Lounge (former Bonnie Heather Bar/Pool Hall) - 1925, Old Duncan Bus Station now Hotel Duncan - 1920. The town of Duncan was actually established in 1883 with the coming of the railroad, but the early settlement here was started in the 1870s along the Gila River on an important stage & freight route. One month after flooding, town of Duncan still recovering And, although its no longer open to the public, the building still stands. This page is not available in other languages. Oklahoma theater stages play about the history of racist sundown towns It prospered right into the 1970s, when the new Interstate 10 to the south diverted commercial traffic, contributing to a rising trucking industry. "At that time, the Fire District was requested to . Surrounding smaller towns such as Franklin and York in Arizona and Virden, New Mexico, use Duncan public works and public schools. List of historic properties in Duncan, Arizona - Wikipedia The methods for enforcing such racial segregation ranged . Duncan is at the juncture of the Gila River and the Arizona-New Mexico state border. The citrus industry in Arizona even predates statehood by decades. Do you find this information helpful? The other room of Hildas kingdom is a diner. And in 2020, a group called the Defund San Antonio Police Department Coalition issued a travel warning for San Antonio, labeling the city as a sundown town. Almost every level acre is under cultivation, thickets of cottonwood trees shelter old farmhouses and ranches, and cattle and horses seem to outnumber people. The county seat is Globe. Businesses that served Black customers or hired Black employees would be boycotted by the white townspeople, ensuring that Blacks had few, if any, job opportunities in those communities. In April the average diurnal range is as high as 43.7F (24.3C) and it is only less than 36F (20C) in the often stormy months of July and August when over a third of the year's total rainfall can be expected. What makes Route 66 different is that the open-road branding associated with it celebrated a time when black Americans had to navigate racial violence and the Jim Crow policies that shut them out of businesses and recreational sites. Soon Duncan was shipping far beyond the Southwest, to markets north and east. JAVASCRIPT IS DISABLED. First, its a quaint little town worthy of a good walkabout. Sundown Towns are all-white communities, neighborhoods, or counties that exclude Blacks and other minorities through the use of discriminatory laws, harassment, and threats or use of violence. Duncan - History and Social Justice There were 294 households, out of which 42.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.3% were married couples living together, 17.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.6% were non-families. PDF PRRAC Poverty & Race station on an ore haulage line that linked the railhead in Clifton with Silver City, New Mexico. Food and lodging were scattered over long distances, and there were also just fewer people living out West in general, and fewer black people in particular, which reduced the chances that black travelers could find trustworthy help in case they had car trouble or needed directions. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 696. Duncan (zip 85534)s population is 2,655 people. Courtesy Gilpin County Historical Society. Willcox is home to the Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Chiricahua Regional Museum and Research Center, and the Rex Allen Museum. The Safe Havens and No-Go Zones for 20th-Century Black American Other towns passed ordi-nances in Arizona, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Ohio, Maryland and probably many other states. This is a list, which includes a photographic gallery, of some of the remaining historic buildings, houses, and other structures in the mining town of Duncan, which is located in Greenlee County, Arizona. Victor H. Green, a black postal worker from Harlem, New York, published his guide from 1936 until 1966. Sundown Towns Are Still A Problem For Black Drivers - BuzzFeed News The first time we visited Duncan we were on a 3-day road trip that included Clifton & Morenci as well as Black Hills Back Country Byway. (Today, nothing remains of Grahams, except a tourist cabin that an area law firm uses as its storage shed.). For decades, school children in Arizona have been taught the five Cs: Copper, Cattle, Cotton, Citrus, and Climate. Green modeled his book after Jewish travel guides created for the Borsht Belt in the 1930s. Don't Know Unions, Organized Labor? In its most blatant form, signs were posted at the city limits. Soon Duncan was shipping far beyond the Southwest, to markets north and east. [2] In 2018 the estimated population was 789.[3]. The Gila River crested at a record-breaking 30.28 feet on Sunday night near Virden, New Mexico, a town just 7 miles from Duncan, Arizona. In 1881 and 1882, when the Arizona Copper Company was formed at Clifton-Morenci, an influx of Scottish capital financed the building of a narrow-gauge railway from Clifton to We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began. Historians have found that most sundown towns deliberately hid the means by which they became and remained all-white. The following historic structures are listed as contributing factors within Duncan. Looking at the products on wide shelves feels like I stepped into one of my childhood Golden Books, one where the artist didnt want to get in trouble for using real brand names. Many families live in Safford and residents tend to lean conservative. Between the 1890s and the 1940s, Sundown Towns became a popular trend in Northern states. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. DUNCAN, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - The flooding that inundated the town of Duncan was made worse by the failure of a levee that was meant to protect the town of . Out of the eight states that ran through Route 66 (Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California), six had official segregation laws as far west as Arizonaand all had unofficial rules about race. A team of mountain men and trappers that were led by James Ohio Pattie in 1824 and 1825 arrived, and they searched the San Francisco River edges for beavers in the area. To accommodate the new "Arizona and New Mexico Railroad," the people of Purdy moved their settlement to the south bank of Cheryl Resur, known as The Cookie Lady, happily sells us a toothsome assortment. Black Truck Driver Tells Horrifying Story of His Night in a 'Sundown Town' CANNOT RECOGNIZE What county is Safford AZ in? In Town Job Shift Day (M-F) Approx 7:30am - 2:30pm Job Category Education ***Base rate of pay starting at $13.85-15.00/hour and an additional lump sum payment up to $80.50 per pay period Current Opening: Duncan Head Start, 0001 McGrath Ave., Duncan, AZ 85534, 1 opening, 7 hours per day, M- F, Approximately 7:30am - 2:30pm, mid July thru mid May Tempe Arizona was one as well, but has been integrated since the 60s. sundown. AP Road Trip: Racial tensions in America's 'sundown towns' Almost every level acre is under cultivation, thickets of cottonwood trees shelter old farmhouses and ranches, and cattle and horses seem to outnumber people. Its all still true. But even though sundown towns are . In 1930, for instance, 44 of the 89 counties along the famed Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles featured no motels or restaurants and prohibited Blacks from entering after dark. Hats made from the fur of beavers were very popular in the 1800s. If you were black and didnt have this information, how would you know where to go? It was not uncommon for Black motorists passing through these communities to be followed by police or local residents to the city limits. In the Pulitzer Prizewinning The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of Americas Great Migration, the writer Isabel Wilkerson recounts Dr. Robert Fosters harrowing journey in the West, where he would fall asleep at the wheel from exhaustion simply because he had been turned away from every motel he stopped at for being black. Shes been cutting her own meat in her two-room enterprise for 14 years. But it was also the home of U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen, whose support helped ensure the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Half is a store with peachy-rose walls and wood floors full of integrity. There are primarily three reasons to visit Duncan. "Mass evacuations" were . It is located behind the town's fire department and across the street from Minden Park. Whats it like to be woken up by a bear while camping? He heard reports of the legend of the Seven Golden Cities and believed they were located north of Mexico's western coast. His Green Book featured barbershops, beauty salons, tailors, department stores, taverns, gas stations, garages, and even real-estate offices that were willing to serve black people. During a typical year 131.6 nights will fall below 32F (0C), but only 7.8 days fail to top 50F (10C), and there are only seven occurrences of nights falling to 0F (17.8C) or lower, notably on December 24, 1953, and January 11, 1962, when the record low of 2F (18.9C) was set. In Nevada, Sundown Town History Has Cultural Impacts For Washoe - KUNC History and Social Justice Website Copyright 2023, Using Lies My Teacher Told Me and Teaching What Really Happened, Resources for Teaching with Lies My Teacher Told Me, Teachers Corner: Teaching with Lies My Teacher Told Me, Contact Jim Loewen to Speak to Your Group, Causing Change With Lies My Teacher Told Me, Works Inspired or Influenced by Lies My Teacher Told Me, Useful Quotations about History and Social Justice, Native American Issues, Including the Explorers, Teaching Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, Civil Rights Movement to Modern Times: c. 1945 Now, Alphabetical Map of Sundown Towns by State, How to Research and Teach About Sundown Towns, Using Research Information to Help a Sundown Town Overcome Its Past, Loewens Work on Standardized Testing Used by Others, Embarrassing Questions about Standardized Tests. In 1999, Dr. Loewen began a public database of sundown towns identified through research by himself and other contributors, a project he continued to grow until his death in the summer of 2021. Arizona communities along the Gila grew up around stage and freight stations and military posts that began to bloom in the valley as settlers arrived and battled hostile natives. How to start ultralight backpacking frugally? Arizona north of the Gila River was taken by the United States under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of the war. In 2001, local citizens formed the Duncan Pride Society and began restoring and re-purposing some of the old buildings. 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. The public schools in Safford are above average. Arizonas location within the U.S. Gila County comprises the Payson, Arizona Micropolitan Statistical Area. Called "Purdy" in the Post Office register of 1883, it was founded by Messrs. Purdy and Bachelor as a way station on an ore haulage line that linked the railhead in Clifton with Silver City, New Mexico. The population density was 317.6 inhabitants per square mile (122.6/km2). 31.5% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Black motorists who drove nice cars were especially susceptible to regular harassment by law enforcement. Angie Crouch reports for NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Oct. 12, 2020. Sundown Towns - BlackPast.org Duncan, AZ Map & Directions - MapQuest I talk about racism and specifically about sundown towns - racism in Tempe/Scottsdale Arizona. 2020 Sundown Town Resolution. It was assumed the West was more liberated than the South, but thanks to the enormity of the American Wests expanses, it in some ways was even more dangerous. The sheriff asked, Wheres your chauffeur hat? Rons dad was ready; he had one in the car: Hanging right up in the back, Officer., Despite all the dangers, millions of black vacationers, like Rons family, did explore the countrymany relying on a unique travel guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book. The means to announce and enforce racial restrictions varied across the country. [15], An individual structure listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Benjamin F. Billingsley House listed on August 25, 1983, reference: #83002998.
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