Today’s Topic: Segregation & Sundown Towns
Alexander Clark
Option #1: Desegregation of Iowa Schools: Alexander G Clark businessman and activist who served as Ambassador to Liberia in 1890-1891. In 1867 he sued to gain admission for his daughter to attend a local public school in Muscatine, Iowa. The court ruled that requiring black students to attend a separate school violated the Iowa’s constitution which "expressly gives the same rights to all the youths”. Due to Clark's action, Iowa was among the first states to integrate its schools, 86 years before the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). (See the linked video below for further information on Alexander Clark)
Would you describe your local school/school district as diverse? Why/why not?
Do you think having diversity in schools & other places is valuable? Why/why not?
Option #2: Read & reflect: Sundown The rules of a sundown town (aka grey town, sunset town) were simple: Black people (and/or other minorities) were allowed to pass through during the day or go in to shop or work, but they had to be gone by nightfall. Anyone breaking the rules could risk arrest, or violence.
Although it is difficult to make an accurate count, historians estimate there were up to 10,000 sundown towns in the United States between 1890 and 1960, mostly in the Mid-West and West, including Iowa. They began to proliferate during the Great Migration, starting in about 1910, when large numbers of Blacks left the South to escape racism and poverty. As Blacks began to migrate to other regions of the country, many predominantly white communities actively discouraged them from settling there.
Do you think the practice of sundown towns, while illegal, is still noticeable in one form or another in towns, cities, or neighborhoods? Why or why not?
Are other groups beyond Blacks excluded? How?
Families: Listen to the read-aloud of the book ‘Hidden Figures’ which tells the true story of 4 black women who worked for NASA as human computers and helped put the first men on the moon. Get the link on the daily blog:
-For older kids, consider watching the movie Hidden Figures (rated PG & available on Disney+, borrow from library, or rented online)
Additional Resources:
Clark 150, A Continuing Legacy by Drake University. A documentary from Drake University about the Clark Decision which desegregated Iowa schools in 1868.
Segregation Still Evident in Iowa 150 after State Supreme Court Ruling by Iowa Public Radio News
The Roots of Route 66 by The Atlantic Magazine America’s favorite highway usually evokes kitschy nostalgia. But for black Americans, the Mother Road’s lonely expanses were rife with danger.
Tale of Two Billboards: An Ozark Town’s Struggle to Unseat Hate by NPR