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James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

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

Whitefish Bay

Wisconsin

Basic Information

Type of Place
Independent City or Town
Metro Area
Politics c. 1860?
Don’t Know
Unions, Organized Labor?
Don’t Know

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?
Possible
Was there an ordinance?
Don't Know
Sign?
Don’t Know
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?
Surely Not

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
1930 5362 5
1940 9651 14
1950 14665 22
1960 18390 16
1970 17394 29
1980 14930 47
1990 14272 72
2000
2010 14110 355
2020

Method of Exclusion

  • Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

According to a librarian: Whitefish Bay was known informally as “Whiteface Bay” because of its racial composition.

“A colony of lake-shore cottages occupied by Jewish families near Milwaukee was burned in 1928 and again in 1929.”
[Carey McWilliams, A Mask for Privilege (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1999 [1948]), 125.]

According to a nearby resident: “I was a circulation manager at the Milwaukee Journal (first job out of college) and a colleague of mine worked in that area. He had issues keeping black carriers. They would tell him that the police would pull them over while delivering papers, to the point of harassment. One was asked ‘What are you doing here?’ He was in a station wagon full of Sunday newspapers and replied ‘What does it look like?’ Apparently this didn’t go over well. Another carrier was asked if he was the new paper carrier. He replied that yes, he was the new carrier. He was told ‘Then I don’t want it. Cancel my subscription.’ As an aside, I have heard it referred to as White folks bay (hadn’t heard white face bay before, but can’t say that isn’t used as well).”