Social Mobility in Sundown Towns: Historical Exclusions and Long-Term Impacts

Despite historical significance, minimal research has expanded upon initial findings on sundown towns, particularly as they relate to contemporary economic opportunity. While previous literature has examined economic indicators in former sundown towns within the Midwest, the level of opportunity for those born into these places has yet to be explored. In comparison to the county and locality scales used in previous analysis, emerging literature suggests that factors contributing to opportunity take place at the hyper-local level. Building upon this, this analysis explores the economic mobility of low-income children born into former sundown towns at the Census tract level, in addition to expanding the scope of analysis across the contiguous United States. Findings suggest that while former sundown towns are positively correlated with upward mobility for White and Hispanic children, they provide no unique benefits for Black children born into them. These results are in line with previous findings, furthering ideas of historic race-based processes contributing to contemporary exclusions of opportunity.