Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Independent City or Town
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Unions, Organized Labor?
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Surely
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Yes, Strong Oral Tradition
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Probably Not, Although Still Very Few Black People
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | ||||||||
| 1950 | ||||||||
| 1960 | ||||||||
| 1970 | ||||||||
| 1980 | ||||||||
| 1990 | 3372 | |||||||
| 2000 | 5464 | 3893 | 1331 | 5 | ||||
| 2010 | 5648 | 1425 | 3 | |||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Violence Towards Newcomers
- Reputation
- Other
Main Ethnic Group(s)
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
Pincneyville’s population numbers are skewed because of the town’s prison.
email 11/2007:
Pinckneyville, a recent (c.2005) graduate of SIU reports that the
ed. school does not place black ed. students in P’ville HS, because bad
things have happened in the past.
“My grandparents found a black man hanging in the woods, near Woodside Ford.” (According to a local historian)
“Lynching is not becoming less frequent. The average holds nearly uniform one year after another. States that never knew the outbreak of the mob have been shocked and horrified by outbreaks of this spirit within their boundaries. The custom of appealing to that grim ‘judge’ is spreading, and thus far no means have ever been devised that will stamp it out. It lies too deeply in the emotions.” (“Why We Appeal To Judge Lynch,” Pinckneyville Advocate, 10/27/1911.
Feb. 14, 1888. Seems the black man was being held, at the county jail. The town was in an uproar, at the slow process. A group of very angry men awoke the jail warden, over powered justice, broke in and hanged the man, at a hanging tree. (Chicago Tribune)
I retain from my year in Pinckneyville was the blatant racism that I encountered there. One of the town’s beloved teachers (“Doc Thomas”) used to openly make racial slurs in the classroom. About half of the congregation at the church I attended got up and walked out when the regular minister brought in a black guest minister. The sheriff openly displayed a photograph of a black man hanging from a railroad trestle outside of town. (According to a 1966 PHS graduate)
At a 2003-2004 PHS basketball game vs. Mt. Vernon, a Mt. Vernon fan was called a “nigger lover.”