Was Washington a Sundown Town?

In the 1820s, around the time Washington was first being settled, it was an Illinois law that any White who came upon a Black was required to stop them and ask to see their “freedom papers” to verify that they were not an escaped slave.  If they were found to be a slave, the White was to make, in essence, a citizen’s arrest, and the Black would have been taken to the justice of the peace and put on trial.  The White would then receive a reward.  For some Whites around the state, this was how they made their living at that time.  So from the time of Washington’s inception, the Black/White relationship in Illinois centered on profiling and suspicion based on the laws of the time.

During this time frame, Illinois was a free state that did not allow slavery but allowed indentured servitude.  The only real difference between the two was that slavery was a lifetime of service. At the same time, indentured servants had a contract that would eventually expire, and the servant would go free.  Those lines were often blurred.

Washington was first settled in 1825 by William Holland, who worked for the government as a blacksmith for the Native Americans.

In the 1840s, the Underground Railroad for escaped slaves ran through Washington, and the Jacob W. Kern property was used as a depot between Morton and Woodford County.  His property was north of town near the county line.

In 1848 Illinois revised its Constitution and abolished the allowance of indentured servants, making Illinois a free state.  Democrat lawmakers were asking for a prohibitive Black Law to be passed, but it was not officially ratified until 1853.  According to that Law prohibiting the emigration of Blacks to Illinois, if a Black was in the state for more than ten days, they were committing a crime.  Free Blacks already in the state were allowed to stay, including Washington’s first Black resident, Jack Gorin, who lived in Washington with the Gorin family from the 1840s until he died in 1869.  By all accounts, Gorin was a well-loved member of the community.

Excerpts from an 1858 speech made by Stephen Douglas in Galesburg:

You will find that his (Abraham Lincoln’s) political meetings are called by different names in different counties in the State.  Here they are called Republican meetings, but in old Tazewell, where Lincoln made a speech last Tuesday, he did not address a Republican meeting, but a grand rally of Lincoln men.  There are very few Republicans there, because Tazewell County is filled with old Virginians and Kentuckians, all of whom are Whigs or Democrats, and if Mr. Lincoln had called an Abolition or Republican meeting there, he would not get many votes……Humanity requires, and Christianity commands that you shall extend to every inferior being and every dependent being all the privileges, immunities and advantages which can be granted to them consistent with the safety of society.  If you ask me the nature and extent of the privileges, I answer that is a question which the people of each state must decide for themselves.  Illinois has decided that question for herself.  We have said that in this state the negro shall not be a slave, nor shall be a citizen.

The only non-White Washington City and Township resident in the 1850 and 1860 census was Jack Gorin.  During this pre-emancipation time, Washington fell in line with Peoria and statewide demographics as being almost exclusively White.

In 1865, the 13th Amendment freed African-American slaves, and the 1853 Black Law was abolished.  For a few years, mostly in Republican-led communities, Blacks flourished and were accepted into those areas.  Republicans, fresh off the memories of the Civil War, continued to fight for African Americans to gain their foothold. 

In the 1870 census, a Black laborer named Jacob Jones lived in Washington with the John Asa Andrews family.  Here, you can start to see the demographics of the entire state of Illinois start to change slightly with the movement of freed slaves northward, with the Black population in the State almost quadrupling from the 1860 Census, yet Central Illinois remains almost exclusively White.

There are two small news bits from the 1879 Tazewell Independent newspaper, which speak of violence towards a local Black youth.

January 30, 1879:

“Reese Artes was too drunk for utterance on Tuesday last, but managed to get hold of Johnnie Robinson, a quiet and inoffensive colored boy, whom he proceeded to beat in an unmerciful manner, cutting the little fellow’s ear most shamefully.  A warrant has been issued for his arrest and we trust he may receive the fullest penalty of the law.”

February 6, 1879:

“THE COLOR LINE—Reese Artes, the man who assaulted the colored boy, Johnnie Robinson, was fined fifteen dollars and costs.  Not being able to plank down the needful, he was kindly escorted by Constable Dick, last Monday evening, to the Hotel du Barnes, at Pekin, where he will have leisure to reflect upon his last ‘northern outrage.’”

Neither Reese Artes nor Johnnie Robinson appear in any census data or other records placing them in Washington, Illinois.  Constable Dick, however, was a documented Washington peace officer of the time.

In the 1880 census, there is a family listed as “Mulatto” living in the city.  George Williams, his wife Nancy, and children Georgeanna and Albert.  Trying to research this family further using census records proved difficult.  It is clear they lived in Knoxville, Illinois, for the 1870 census, and they were not in Washington in the 1900 census.  Also, in this census, a horse trainer named Robert Bush had 3 Black laborers (Benjamin Miller, his wife Lou, and Austin Hinton) living on his property, most likely northeast of town outside city limits but within the township.

Also, in the 1880 census, Peoria mirrors Illinois a bit in terms of racial makeup, while Tazewell County continues to be almost all White.  This Black movement to large cities wasn’t natural.  As James Loewen points out in his book “Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism,” in the late 1800s, freed slaves were migrating north, coming from various types of communities, large and small.  They had no predisposition to living in a large metropolis.  White immigrants from Europe had no problems settling into small towns in America.  There is no reason the Black migrants from the south would not have settled into the same situation, given the opportunity.  Washington, and in the larger sense, Tazewell County, was not a place “unseen” by Black migrants from the south.  Washington, in particular, with its proximity to the Illinois River and significant road and railroad systems, should have easily been a stopping point. 

As the years passed and the Civil War memories faded, Republicans became less enthusiastic regarding their support and defense of Blacks and more apathetic.  Couple that with the Democratic Party at the time being known as the “White Man Party,” Black people were becoming “men without a country,” so to speak.  Attitudes of white supremacy, or the concept of Black people being inferior to Whites, gained traction as a justification for slavery, and America became more racist.  Many cities, large and small, across the United States started enacting local laws or unwritten policies to remove and keep Blacks out of their communities.  These towns, later called “sundown towns” based on some municipalities’ laws of all Black people being required to leave by sundown, succeeded in keeping their towns essentially all White.  Blacks who were removed or not allowed in sundown towns were funneled to larger cities, forming large neighborhoods, known as “ghettos.”

In the May 26, 1887 edition of the Washington News, there is a small article regarding a large turnout for the Washington High School graduation.  The article begins:

THE COMMENCEMENT

A Class of Seven Young Ladies Graduate with Honors.

A VERY CREDITABLE SHOWING FOR THE WASHINGTON SCHOOLS

Last Friday evening Thompson’s hall was filled as it never has been before by the patrons of our public schools who came together to witness the commencement exercises of the Washington High School.  The parquet dress circle, gallery and “n****r heaven” were crowded to suffocation and standing room was hard to get even as far out as the street at the foot of the stairway.  This made the atmosphere uncomfortable especially for those in the upper gallery.

The offensive word was not edited in the article.  Thompson’s Hall was on the Square where the Jim Maloof building now sits.  “N****r heaven” was a slang term for the highest balcony of a theater at the time.  In the Thompson Hall, there was a separate entrance for this highest balcony.

In the January 17, 1895, Washington News, there is mention of a Black family living in the area:

“The family of Joseph Thompson, colored, have been sorely afflicted with sickness this winter, and are deeply in need of help.  Mrs. Thompson is just recovering from a three week’s spell of sickness, her daughter was down three weeks with a stubborn sickness, other members of the family are now down and the family is in need of help.  Mr. Thompson is getting well along in years and can’t work as he used to and there is no work even if he was ever so able to do it.  The family is worthy and our people should see that they are relieved at once.  They need food, clothing and fuel.”

No other documentation of this family has been found.

In the 1900 census, we see Washington’s first (but not last) entry into the United States Census as a 100% White community, with the minority populations in the country, state, and city of Peoria continuing to grow.

Two clips from the 1902 Washington newspaper:

Two colored tramps registered at the Hotel Jones Friday night.  Three others of the Hametic excursion party from Chicago to Peoria escaped being dumped off the train at Washington and rode on triumphantly to Peoria.

“Hotel Jones” was the jail, and “Hametic” was a slang adjective for a Black person.

A colored man and woman were in town Tuesday evening.  They claimed to be in need of money for transportation to Chicago and secured some by begging.

In 1908, the Springfield Race Riot occurred. Misrepresented for decades as a Black-led revolution, the insurrection was, in fact, a White-led event.  When thousands of White people had gathered at the town gallows for the lynching of two Blacks accused of murder, the local police temporarily moved the two to McLean County for their safety.  This enraged the mob, and violence against Black people around the city ensued.  Other influential Blacks in Springfield were burned out of their homes and ordered to leave town. 

The sociological results of the riot in Springfield were that scores of Black people were removed from their jobs and then subsequently arrested for vagrancy for not having a job.  Then, if they could not pay the then exorbitant $100 fine, they were ordered to leave town within hours.  The riots made national headlines, including heavy coverage in the local Washington papers.  In fact, as a direct result of these riots, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was formed.

In 2008, the Illinois General Assembly passed HR 1477, formally acknowledging the true timeline of events of that fateful 1908 riot, saying, “...we recognize this sad chapter in history and realize that from the aftermath comes insight and education, helping us to better deal with racial issues...”

In the 1920 census, there was one minority living outside of Washington City but within the township.  A Black man listed as Adam Ostin was living with the James Bryan family as a hired man.  One number of note in the 1920 Census is the Tazewell County number of minority residents almost doubled from the 1910 census, from 34 to 62.  That trend would not last long, possibly due to a Ku Klux Klan movement in the County in the 1920s.  They had attained such a position that members of the organization bought the Pekin Daily Times in 1923, and the publication became a mouthpiece of KKK propaganda.  The Klan visited churches and schools in the area from 1923 to 1925 and had thousands of people attend their rallies in the county.  Luckily, the craze seemed to die down as quickly as it started.  Evidence was sought to see if Washington publicly distanced itself in any way from these Klan events, and none was found.

A good number of the long-time Washingtonians spoken to for this article about Washington expanded the range to say Tazewell County was a “sundown county,” that people of color were not supposed to be east of the river after sundown, that this was not strictly a Washington issue.

The Klan was not restricted to Tazewell County, as articles can readily be found showing a peak of activity during the 1920’s throughout Central Illinois.

But what about Washington?  Did they have a Klan presence?

Yes.

In late 1922, an organized Klan group was formed in Washington.  It was the third one to form in the county behind Pekin and Delavan.  Washington’s newspaper at the time, the Tazewell County Reporter, was sympathetic to the Klan.

In the Spring of 1923, thousands of Tazewell County Klan members gathered on the bluff overlooking the Illinois River across from Peoria.  During the meeting, an initiation was held in the presence of national Klan representatives from Mer Rouge, Louisiana. 

Mer Rouge had been in the national news in 1922/1923 as two White KKK opposers had been abducted and murdered.  The Klan had denied their involvement, and the incident went a long way to tarnish the image that the KKK was working so hard to convey to the public.  The KKK supported white supremacy but also was against things like bootlegging and prostitution.  It was these less controversial stances that they wanted to magnify in public.

In addition to the Mer Rouge contingent and a large initiation at this meeting on the bluff, a twenty-five-foot cross was hoisted facing Peoria and burned.  It was reported that it could be seen from the other side of the Illinois River.

In September 1923, four days of KKK meetings were held just north of the city on a farm in what is now the residential area across Main Street from Washington Middle School.  The local newspaper, again, showed support.

In July of 1924, the Lyric Theater, on the square's north side, showed the KKK propaganda film “The Traitor Within.”

In August 1924, there was a 200-car parade of KKK members into town announcing their arrival for a meeting.  They paraded through town, then back out to the west, where they met in the fields.  At about 11 pm, they all returned and held a rally at the Square on the bandstand before exiting.  This may have been a “last hurrah” of sorts, as the Washington chapter of the Ku Klux Klan is never mentioned in the Tazewell County Reporter again.

During the great depression, Black people struggled.  Their already low-paying jobs were taken from them by White people out of work, diminishing their living conditions even further.

One Washington resident spoken to for this article disputes the entire concept of Washington being a sundown town, remarking that many farmers in the 1930s hired Black workers, and those workers lived on the farms.  This may be true, although it is not reflected in official census data of the entire Township.

Dickinson’s Cannery on South Wood Street in Washington was in business from 1909-1929, when it was bought out by Libby’s, which was in production until 1945.  One resident reports that Dickinson’s employed some Black laborers, and there was one occasion where they did not leave the cannery early enough and had to spend the night at work.

Multiple people questioned spoke of signs posted at the edges of Washington. Question to one resident: “Do you think Washington was a sundown town?” Answer: “Do you mean the signs that said, “All n*****s out of town by sundown?”

Calvary Mennonite Church partnered with Peoria’s Harrison Homes Mission/Joy Mennonite Church, which was all Black. Gilbert “Gib” Gross would bring carloads of kids over to Washington for Vacation Bible School every summer in the 30s and 40s and got pushback. One year, he had the kids stay overnight at his house, and that’s where he got into trouble because he was told he could not have “those Black kids” in Washington after sundown. He held his ground, though.  Multiple people submitted this story for this article.

In late 1939/early 1940, development began on the Brookhill Subdivision, anchored by the construction of Hilldale Avenue.  Houses sprung up very quickly from west to east along Hilldale during this time and, by the very early 1950s, had reached Lawndale Avenue.  When the subdivision first started, restrictions on the properties were put into place that were to be upheld until 1965.  There were twelve restrictions dealing with various conditions of residence.  The sixth restriction read: “This subdivision shall not be occupied by any person other than a member of the Caucasian race.” 

It would be naïve to believe that Brookhill was alone in its restriction in Washington.  Subsequent subdivisions in town likely had similar criteria. In 1941, Brookhill “bragged” as being the first subdivision in the town to have recorded restrictions, race being one of them.  Research on the original deed restrictions for the Devonshire and Washington Estates subdivisions found that they did NOT have any formal race-based restriction.

After the 1940’s, America’s deepest era of overt racism began to weaken.  According to James Loewen, there were many factors, the most glaring being an obvious need for the country to distance itself from the racist philosophies of Adolf Hitler.  In addition, Black neighborhoods in big cities were becoming so numerous and large that the nation saw a small influx of the election of Black Congressmen, and the 1950s saw the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Sundown towns did not die out, yet their techniques may have become subtler.

The 1950 Census reveals the beginning of a decades-long trend in the United States, Illinois as a state, and the City of Peoria, which started to harmonize their racial makeup.  In that census, it was reported that two Black females were living in Washington.

Chillicothe has several anecdotal examples of African Americans not being allowed in town after sundown, including the entire Harlem Globetrotters team, who, according to legend, performed there during the 1950s.  According to the story, they were prohibited from staying overnight in the town.

One resident said it was just common knowledge that Black people were not welcome in Washington during this time.  As a child, she saw a carload of Black people driving through town, and she remembers thinking that was such a strange sight.

Another Washington story involved a Black woman making a promotional appearance as Aunt Jemima at a Washington grocery store.  This occurred on March 30 & 31, 1958.  After her long day making silver-dollar pancakes without a break, she was escorted back to Peoria to her hotel, as she was not allowed to stay in the brand-new Crest View Hotel in town.  The next day, she was escorted back to Washington for a second day of promotions.  The person who relayed this story clearly remembers it because she was young. She remembered her normally mild-mannered father being livid after returning from the store and witnessing the day-one escort by the “town fathers."

One story from the 1960s involves Calvary Mennonite Church minister Heinz Janzen, who was a minister at the church from 1956-1963.  Janzen and his wife Dorothy took in a Black Chicago-area child in the early 1960s for the summer as part of the Mennonite “Fresh Air” program from the late 1800s to the late 1970s.  The program, where an urban child spends a “summer vacation” with a rural family, was sometimes criticized by Black leaders as racist in itself.  The Janzens took the child to the then-new and private Neptune Swim Club (later Washington Park Pool), and when the child got into the water, everyone in the pool got out.  The Janzens later got an anonymous phone call criticizing them for their actions.  Author James Loewen contributed this story, reported to him by someone who knew the Janzens.

One resident relayed that her family had hired a Black man to work around the house in the early 1960s.  One day, he finished his work late, left after sundown, and was stopped by the police.  After he explained why he was in town, he was allowed to continue on his way out of town.  The resident reporting the story remembers it because she was home sick from school with a sore throat, and her father and the hired man talked about it in front of her the day after it happened.  She remembers it clearly and also remembers the hired man’s suggested cure for her sore throat: whiskey and honey.

In early 1963, Washington High School started its first AFS program, asking families to sponsor a guest student from another country.  An editorial in the Washington Reporter on this topic closed with this paragraph: 

And to allay all fears, the AFS Chapter here has notified National AFS that a Negroid person perhaps should not be chosen due to the ethnic makeup of this community, etc, etc.

In the mid-1960s, a Committee was formed in Tazewell County called the Tazewell County Citizens Committee on Human Relations, and it seems one of the main focuses of the committee was race relations, educating and hopefully integrating Tazewell County. Committee members made home visits with minority families in the county to listen to their concerns, and they also drafted a fair housing ordinance in 1967 that was submitted to every city in the county in the hopes that they would pass it as an invitation for minorities to start moving into their communities.  There is no evidence that the ordinance was passed anywhere, but that point would soon become moot.

In the 1967 push by the committee, Pekin attorney Robert V. Clevenger said:

As long as there are no Negroes in Tazewell County, there is a lack of evidence showing the adequate existence and appreciation here of our democratic philosophy and our religion...the development of each individual depends upon association with other ideas, with other nationalities, with other races.  To the extent that we are deprived of that association, we are mentally and culturally retarded...our children are suffering deprivations from not having Negro children in their classrooms, from not having Negro playmates.  Being raised in a white ghetto, they are being raised in an unreal and impractical world.

In the April 6, 1967 issue of the Washington Post & News newspaper, a feature story ran on the front page with the headline “Clergy Agree Integration Would Do OK in Churches,” written by Martha Morris.

The ministers interviewed for the article clarified a few things about Washington at the time.  It seemed evident that the town had moved beyond its most egregious attitudes of racism, as all interviewees were open to the concept of integration. Still, you could sense some fear and a lack of understanding in their words.

One year later, in the days following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, the ministers again implored the town to take a pro-integration stance.  On April 15, 1968, at the first city council meeting after the assassination, there were three letters from ministers of local churches asking the council to pass an open housing ordinance for Washington.  In the meantime, Congress quickly passed a federal Fair Housing Bill with little debate as the final piece of the sweeping Civil Rights legislation as a tribute to Dr. King. That bill, however, would take 1-2 years to take effect fully.  The ministers wanted action in Washington now.

At the next city council meeting, the ministers of eight churches signed a fourth letter.  The message was clear, and the council unanimously passed the open housing ordinance for Washington at that meeting.

The federal Fair Housing Act was a bill that had been strongly debated in Congress as early as 1964 but could never get enough votes to pass.  It prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, or financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, or sex.  When Congress passed it in 1968, the era of sundown towns died down in most places.  A few months after the bill’s passage, the first family of color, Glenn & Sandra Roberson with sons Lance, Eric, & Keith, moved into Washington Township.  It would still be several years before a family of color would move into the City.

In the months after the bill’s passage, the Tazewell County Citizen’s Committee continued to fight for the integration of Black residents in Tazewell County, urging all towns to go further than the resolution Washington passed, which allowed for the integration of residents with “good moral character regardless of race, color, religion, ancestry, or national origin.”  The committee felt that the resolution was flimsy and didn’t provide blanket protection against all discrimination.  They were very pleased with East Peoria and Creve Coeur, which passed strict laws going further than the National Fair Housing Act.

During the 1969-1970 school year, Washington Community High School broke new ground by accepting a Black student teacher for the first time.  Tony Cook from Eureka College student taught at WCHS during that school year, and also helped coach some teams.

With the 1970 census, you can see the nation, state, and Peoria are nearly symmetrical in their racial makeup, while the county, township, and city finally, with the Fair Housing Act, start to make slight progress with minority residents.

In July 1975, the month of Washington’s Sesquicentennial celebration, the Browns became the first documented all-Black family to move into the city limits of Washington when they moved to 701 Birkett Court.  Clarence & Terri Brown moved to Washington with their children Clarence Jr., Towanda, and Natasha.  The city of Washington got its first Black household on its 150th birthday.  Towanda Brown was the first Black Washington Community High School graduate, class of 1982.

In the following decades, there was a prolonged increase in minority residents in the county and city.

In the early 1990s, Matt Hale began his crusade to become a local leader in the White supremacy movement.  As early as 1990, at the age of 18, he was airing a weekly public access television show throughout the county spewing his racial bigotry.  A few years later, he organized demonstrations in East Peoria.  As Hale continued his crusade, he did not gain any significant following.  The masses did not take Hale seriously; his runs for city council were failures, and local churches buried him in protest of his message.  Hale was persistent, however, and continued his quest for a decade.  In 1999, one of his minions, Benjamin Smith, was convicted of killing three minorities in Chicago, including Northwestern basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong.  In 2004, Hale was convicted of conspiring to murder a federal judge who ruled against his attempts to obtain a law license.  In 2005, Hale was sentenced to a 40-year prison term.

Hale’s attempt to garner significant support in Tazewell County for a White uprising was unsuccessful by every measure.  When you compare that with the relative ease the KKK seemed to have in the 1920s, you can conclude that the county had made some progress in those 80 years.  But the fact that even one of his small following was responsible for three deaths shows the dangers of such people. 

A 2004 article from the Peoria Journal Star sums up Matt Hale:

In reality, the revelations of the prosecution's witnesses and wiretaps merely confirm Hale's basic motivation. For a white guy who insists on his racial superiority, he is unbelievably needy. For money, for fame, for attention.

After the initial outrage of a college student's passing out anti-Semitic and racist flyers on a college campus more than a decade ago, after the racist television show on a cable television public access channel, most of us got accustomed to ignoring Matt Hale and followers. Others organized the obligatory anti-racist response, and the media agonized over just how much attention to devote to Hale's antics.

But when visitors and newcomers expressed shock at the sight of a young Hale and crew holding up handmade racist picket signs along East Peoria thoroughfares, we'd dismiss him as if he were no different than the town drunk. Oh, that's just Matt Hale, we'd say.

The more we ignored him, the further he traveled in search of attention. The more people ignored him, the more outrageous he got, always carrying the same media-arousing tricks, always testing the limits of free speech and tolerance.

The following is an excerpt from an editorial from the Peoria Journal Star, February 22, 1992

It is part of the strange sociology of this area that black people won't cross the Illinois River, and certainly won't live east of it. It's the 1990s, and it's astonishing that of the 122,639 people who live in Tazewell County, only 186 are black -- less than two-tenths of one percent. The percentage is about the same in Woodford County.

It's part of the reason why the Peoria high schools have had to drive more than an hour south of here to find partners for an athletic conference, instead of playing similarly sized schools -- and in a few cases, now larger schools -- that are just 15 minutes away.

And that's why it is essential for civic and educational and religious leaders in those homogeneous communities to teach and preach tolerance, and to energetically condemn intolerance whenever and wherever it rears its abhorrent head. The United States is the most diverse, multicultural nation on this planet, and the citizens the Tri-County produces certainly will test the big world outside these boundaries. How they act out there says a lot about where they grew up.

The high school athletic conference issue has often been discussed as the merger of the urban Peoria schools into the suburban Mid-Illini Conference. It makes total sense from a geographic standpoint, but the Mid-Illini has never seriously considered the proposal.  Currently, the Peoria schools compete in the Big Twelve Conference.  A Peoria to Danville trip in the Big Twelve is 122 miles.  The furthest distance in the Mid-Illini is Canton to Metamora, 47 miles.

CONCLUSIONS

Washington clearly was not a welcome place for Black people pre-1968.  Multiple pieces of both concrete and circumstantial evidence have been shown to illustrate this.  The City is to be commended for its actions in 1968 to pass the local open housing resolution at the behest of local ministers.

Recent trends are positive for Washington, as minority resident numbers continue to increase.

There are many things communities across the country can and have done to serve as an invitation for minorities to feel welcome.  There are also things communities can and have done to make minorities continue to feel the “freeze out.”  As we move forward, the ball is in Washington’s court.