By now most people have at least been exposed to the reality of Sundown Towns. Maybe there are some folks who will still say they’ve never heard of them but out here in 2025’s info-intensive environment it’s getting harder to claim you haven’t seen something. That being said, Sundown Towns are a lot to take in.
Not so much the violence. Anyone who’s paying any attention at all sees the danger, so Sundown Towns and the Green Book shouldn’t be hard to understand. Ashley’s video helps us see the whole picture, zooming out to avoid pinning the violence on a group of angry white people and instead laying out all the structural forces supporting and perpetuating that violence. If you haven’t watched the video yet it will be time well spent.
“That wasn’t ancient history, our parents and grandparents lived that. So don’t let anyone ever tell you that segregation was a southern thing, or that it was just mean neighbors putting up signs. It was written into federal policy enforced by police. It was mapped by the government and funded by our tax dollars. And when Black families found ways to survive it they had to publish a whole book just to make it through the country safely.”
Ashley Barron, @ashleytheebarroness
Two resources if you’re interested in learning more:
- The National Park Service article about Victor Green and the Green Book.
- Driving the Green Book podcast by Macmillan.
And if you appreciate the education Ashley Barron is providing you can buy her a coffee here.
Riddle from the Middle 
yes, incredibly horrible
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That system behaved exactly as designed. Woke up this morning and realized that title could be a lead in to almost any current event conversation. Kind of depressing when I think on it.
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You’re so right, sadly
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To me what’s sad is when people say…that was just a product of the times. As if that makes easier to accept. Wrong is wrong ya know. These days wrong seems to be the new right 😑
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I’ve heard that response so often. When you say something like “so we agree, the country has always been wildly racist” they tend to sputter back around to but y’know, those were the times…like creating that system wasn’t a deliberate choice and people just fell sideways into racism.
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What bothers me even more is that I have had the convetsations with people who consider themselves liberals on the left.
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Yes. It’s been hard to accept how problematic we are.
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