List of expulsions of African Americans

African Americans have been violently expelled from at least 50 towns, cities and counties in the United States. The majority of these expulsions occurred in the 60 years following the Civil War but continued to occur until 1954. The reasons for the expulsions were various and often involved a crime allegedly committed by an African American or a labor-related issue or just being black.[1][2]

Timeline

19th century

Date	Location	Notes
1870s - 1940s	Wyandotte, Michigan	African Americans were expelled from Wyandotte on multiple occasions.[3]
April 13, 1873	Pollock, Louisiana	The small black population of Pollock left the town after the massacre of more than 100 blacks in nearby Colfax.
November 1, 1878	Celina, Tennessee	Celina's black population left on November 1, 1878 after being subject to a series of violent actions over the course of several months.[4]
1886	Comanche County, Texas	White residents expelled blacks from Comanche County because of alleged crimes committed by black men.[5]
1888–1908	Paragould, Arkansas	A number of race riots occurred in Paragould between 1888 and 1908, resulting in most of the town's 150 black residents leaving.[6]
1892	Lexington, Oklahoma	[7]
1893	Blackwell, Oklahoma	[7]
June 20, 1894	Monett, Missouri	Monett's black population was expelled after the lynching of a black man who killed a white man during a fight. The Monett expulsion was the first of number of violent expulsions in Southwestern Missouri between 1894 and 1906.[8]
1896	Linton, Indiana	300 black strikebreakers were expelled from the coal mining town of Linton after one of the strikebreakers shot a white boy. Eventually blacks were banned from living in all of Greene County.[9]
August 27, 1897	Elwood, Indiana	[10]
April 10, 1899	Pana, Illinois	Gun battle between striking white miners and strikebreaker black miners results in the deaths of five blacks and two whites as well as the expulsion of Pana's black population.
September 17, 1899	Carterville, Illinois	A violent shootout occurred between striking white miners and non-union black miners who were brought into Carterville as strikebreakers. Five black miners are killed. All the surviving black miners left Carterville shortly after the riot.[11]

20th century

Date	Location	Notes
February 20, 1901	Mena, Arkansas	Most of Mena's black population left the town after a black man named Peter Berryman was lynched for allegedly assaulting a white girl.[12]
August 18, 1901	Pierce City, Missouri	300 black residents were expelled after white residents lynched three black men for allegedly killing a white woman.
June 1902	Decatur, Indiana	A mob of 50 men forced black residents out of Decatur.[13]
April 16, 1903	Joplin, Missouri	White residents drove out Joplin's black residents following the lynching of a black transient for the murder of a white policeman.[14]
July 9, 1903	Sour Lake, Texas	A mob of 500 white men opened fire on blacks and chased them out of Sour Lake after a brakeman was shot dead by a black man.[15]
October 1905 and January 1909	Harrison, Arkansas	Race riots in 1905 and 1909 resulted in the expulsion of Harrison's black residents.[16]
August 24, 1906	Cotter, Arkansas	[17]
1908	Marshall County, Kentucky	Whites led by a local doctor drove out blacks from the now extinct city of Birmingham and most of the rest of Marshall County.[2]
November 1909	Anna and Jonesboro, Illinois	Whites expelled Anna and Jonesboro's 40 black families after the lynching of William "Froggie" James in nearby Cairo.[3]
September 1912	Forsyth County, Georgia	98% of Forsyth County's 1,000 black residents were expelled after two attacks on white women allegedly committed by black men.
July 1917	East St. Louis, Illinois	The East St. Louis riots or East St. Louis massacres, of late May and July 1–3, 1917, were an outbreak of labor- and race-related violence by whites that caused the death of 40–250 black people and about $400,000 (over $8 million, in 2017 US dollars) in property damage. An estimated 6,000 black people were left homeless.
Fall 1919	Corbin, Kentucky	200 black workers were forced to leave Corbin during a labor dispute.[18]
November 2–3, 1920	Ocoee, Florida	Ocoee's black community was burned to the ground and nearly all of its 500 residents killed or expelled by whites after black men killed two whites in self defense. At least 56 blacks were killed during the massacre.
May 31, 1921	Tulsa, Oklahoma	As many 300 black people were killed and 10,000 left homeless after whites attacked and destroyed the Greenwood district of Tulsa, known as "Black Wall Street".
January 1923	Rosewood, Florida	Whites attacked and completely burned down the black Levy County town of Rosewood after a black man allegedly raped a white woman. At least 8 people and perhaps as many as 150 people were killed.
1923	Blanford, Indiana	Ku Klux Klan-led expulsion.[2]
1954	Vienna, Illinois	White residents burned down all the black homes of Vienna and nearby areas outside city limits. The expulsion was sparked by the murder of an elderly white woman and the attempted rape of her teenage granddaughter by two black men.[1]

See also

• Sundown town, a town that excludes African Americans from living in it. Many towns went sundown after expelling black populations though most sundown towns did not have significant black populations to begin with. A partial listing is available at Category:Sundown towns in the United States.

References

1. Loewen, James (2005). Sundown Towns (PDF). New York: New Press. ISBN 156584887X.
2. Jaspin, Elliot. "Leave or die: America's hidden history of racial expulsions". statesman.com. Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
3. Wexler, Laura. "Darkness on the Edge of Town". washingtonpost.com. Washington Post. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
4. "TENNESSEE NEGROES DRIVEN FROM THEIR HOMES". chroniclingamerica.loc.gov. The Evening Star. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
5. "Clipping from Belmont Chronicle". Belmont Chronicle. St. Clairsville, Ohio. August 5, 1886. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
6. "Paragould Race Riots". encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
7. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture Archived 2011-08-05 at the Wayback Machine
8. Rucker, Walter; Upton, James Nathaniel, eds. (2007). "Southwest Missouri Riots (1894–1906)". Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. 2. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 603–607. ISBN 978-0-313-33302-6 – via Google Books.
9. "One Place on Earth too Hot for a Negro". The Richmond Climax. Richmond, Kentucky. August 5, 1903. p. 2 – via Chronicling America.
10. "Race Troubles in Indiana". The Evening Times. Washington, D.C. August 27, 1897. p. 5 – via Chronicling America.
11. "Bloodshed at Carterville". Carbondale Free Press. September 23, 1899. Retrieved April 6, 2019.
12. "Peter Berryman (Lynching of)". encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
13. "NEGROES DRIVEN AWAY.; The Last One Leaves Decatur, Ind., Owing to Threats Made". nytimes.com. New York Times. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
14. "LYNCHING OF A COLORED MAN IN JOPLIN, MISSOURI". coloradohistoricnewspapers.org. Las Animas Leader. April 16, 1903. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
15. "Race War in Texas: Negroes Are Being Driven From Sour Lake". The Times-Democrat. New Orleans, Louisiana. July 10, 1903. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
16. "Harrison Race Riots of 1905 and 1909". encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
17. "Cotter Expulsion of 1906". encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
18. "Kentucky Town Re-Examines Its Racial History". npr.org. NPR. Retrieved March 29, 2019.