Home » Massachusetts » Ashby

James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

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

Ashby

Massachusetts

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?
Probable
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 982 982 0
1940
1950
1960 4
1970
1980 0
1990
2000 8 6
2010
2020 3193 3116 49 40 43 123 133

Method of Exclusion

  • Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

  • Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

In 2023, the annual town meeting voted to approve the following article: “We, the townspeople of Ashby state that we are not a sundown or sunset town, and we are committed to welcoming all people to town to live, play, visit, or pass through. We affirm our desire to cooperatively create a community that accepts diversity, promotes equity, and strives for inclusion.”

In 1973, the annual town meeting voted 148 to 79 against inviting minority groups into town. See https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2020/07/02/revisiting-and-reckoning-with-a-massachusetts-towns-1973-vote-against-racial-inclusion

Email: 11/2013
No, Ashby is not a sundown town.
It is, instead, a poor working class rural town. It has no supper market, or much of anything else. One has to have a car to live there. Houses can be pretty isolated.