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Huntington page
History[edit | edit source]
[edit](Add following paragraph to Huntington, Indiana History section)
Race Relations
The race relations in Huntington between white and Black people have been fraught. Huntington is one of many towns in Indiana that has developed a national reputation as a sundown town.[1] Sundown town policies persisted in Huntington from the late 1800s well into the 1900s. They often used methods like threatening to be violent, zoning, and other exclusionary tactics to keep Black people out of their town (https://justice.tougaloo.edu/sundowntown/huntington-in/).
As a result of sundown town policies, in the 1920s and 1930s, only two Black people lived in Huntington and that was only because they were servants. Since they lived and worked for the William Schacht household, the Black couple were allowed to stay, but under strict conditions. They were unable to go downtown and most other places were restricted to them.[1]
In another instance in the early 1900s, an elderly Black man was allowed to live in Huntington because he worked for and lived above a business in a rundown area of downtown. He was known as “Rags,” and he was heavily surveilled by his white peers.[1]
By the 1960s, Huntington College allowed some Black people to live on their campus since white residents knew they were temporary. Huntington College was connected to the United Brethren Church in Christ denomination, who often recruited students from Sierra Leone as part of their missionary trips. The town, although not accepting of the Black students, often allowed them to live on campus.[1]
Crawford County page
History[edit | edit source]
[edit](Add following paragraph to race relation section in Crawford County History)
Crawford County had difficult race relations and it was a well-known sundown town during the late 1800s that persisted throughout the 1900s. One incident occurred in 1881 when a contractor hired Black men to work on the railroad, but was told that they would not be able to work. The authorities did not offer him protection when he went to the county officials.[2] So well-known was Leavenworth’s , a major town in the county, reputation for being anti-Black that captains who traveled along the Ohio River threatened Black crew members to drop them off there if they misbehaved.[2][1]
Crawford County was also one of many that used intimidation tactics to scare Black residents from the area. Crawford County was formed on January 5, 1818, from land in the Harrison, Orange and Perry counties, prompted by petition of what would become Crawford County's population. Some say it was named for William H. Crawford, who was U.S. Treasury Secretary in 1818. Others say it was named for Col. William Crawford, who fought in the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War, and who was burned and scalped by Indians in 1782 in what is now Wyandot County, Ohio. The county seat was in Leavenworth for several decades but eventually moved to English.
Bands of "White Caps" terrorized the county in the late 1880s, according to a report by Attorney General Louis T. Michener. Blacks and others they disliked were forced out; victims both male and female were severely whipped. Their zero tolerance for Black people to stay in the area, even temporarily, was evident in the sharp decrease of Black residents in the county. For example, between 1890 and 1900, the number of Black residents in Crawford County decreased from 14 to 2.[2]