‘Sundown towns’: Midwest confronts its complicated racial legacy

Articles | March 31 2017
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By Jack Shuler

March 27, 2017 Utica, Ohio—On Election Day, when Chris Cooper walked into his usual precinct to vote, a greeter asked him, “Do you live in this town?”

The question was perhaps innocent. After all, there aren’t many people around town who look like Mr. Cooper, who is African-American. According to the 2010 United States Census, 97 percent of Utica, Ohio, identifies as white.
Yet beneath the comment was an ocean of history – raw and long overlooked.

The racial journey of the South is well known, and at a time of heightened racial tensions nationwide, that past has again become present.  (Read more)