Home » Massachusetts » Belmont

James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began.

Belmont

Massachusetts

Basic Information

Type of Place
Suburb
Metro Area
Politics c. 1860?
Unions, Organized Labor?

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?
Probable
Was there an ordinance?
Don't Know
Sign?
Don’t Know
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?
Probably Not, Although Still Very Few Black People

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present
Total White Black Asian Native Hispanic Other BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920 10,749 28
1930 21,748 16
1940 26,867 51
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990 23,165 206 819 24
2000 24,194 22,062 266 87
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

Although Belmont appears to have a black population before 1990, they are overwhelmingly female, indicating that these are live-in domestic workers. In 1920, 24 of Belmont’s 28 blacks were women; 15 of 16 in 1930, and 46 of 51 in 1940. Belmont has since broken somewhat.

In August, 2003, a white landlord in Belton agreed to pay a black woman $50,000 in damages. The landlord had refused to rent the woman a single-family home after he had found out her race. Newspaper articles about the case and settlement from around the Boston metro noted that this was probably not an isolated
incident.

Email from 9/2014:
“A lot of the Irish form south Boston moved to Belmont when they “moved up” and just like they didn’t want blacks in “Southie” they definitely didn’t want them in Belmont.”