Those who have listened to the Good Faith Weekly podcast over the last few months will recall that Missy and I decided to sell our house and downsize to a hundred-year-old home near downtown Norman, Oklahoma. It was an excellent decision until the “hundred-year” part caught up with us.
You can listen to the last few episodes of Good Faith Weekly to get caught up. But to make a long story short, our old house needed to be renovated. Because some of the renovations were extensive, we needed to be out of the house for a few months.
Our dear friends allowed us to stay at their house during this time. It was close enough to our new/old house that I rode my bicycle back and forth on the days I could work from a makeshift office. As I rode home one afternoon, I turned down a street that took my breath away when I read its name.
I stopped pedaling because I was so perplexed by what I was seeing. To be honest, I was absolutely shocked.
I stepped off my bike and rubbed my eyes. I still could not believe the street sign staring back at me. It read, “Sundown Drive.”
Sundown Drive is about three blocks long, but the name travels deep throughout history. Norman, — where I call home, have pastored for over a decade, and raised my children— was a Sundown Town from 1889 to 1967.
Sundown towns, also known as “Sunset” or “Sundowner towns,” were created by white communities after the Civil War to ensure African Americans knew they were not welcome in their cities. In some cases, actual signs were posted on the outskirts of towns warning African Americans about the consequences if they found themselves within city limits after the sun went down.
University of Oklahoma professor Michael Givel detailed the history of Norman’s racist past in an essay titled “Sundown on the Prairie: The Extralegal Campaigns and Efforts from 1889 to 1967 to Exclude African Americans from Norman, Oklahoma.”
Professor Givel wrote, “The history of African Americans who wanted to settle there (Norman) during and after the 1889 Land Run, events took a decidedly disturbing and sinister turn, as a few very brief accounts have mentioned differing time periods when Norman was a sundown town.”
The professor points to two phases of sundown laws that governed Oklahoma cities: (1) before statehood in 1907 and (2) shortly after statehood in the 1920s. Phase one of Sundown Towns consisted of vigilante violence such as lynchings and beatings. While Oklahoma and Indian Territories had local officials, most laws came from the powerful and wealthy white communities.
After the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921, the second era of the Klu Klux Klan employed residents to enforce new sundown policies in their cities. In these instances, local officials and law enforcement turned their heads, allowing racist and violent policies to be enacted.
Norman—currently one of Oklahoma’s most progressive cities—was not exempt from this racist history.
Visiting the Norman History Museum, visitors can read newspapers from 1890 to 1970 that openly used racial slurs and vocalized warnings to African Americans. Even African American airmen had to abide by the sundown laws while serving at the nearby Naval Air Station northwest of town.
When African American airmen or their families ventured into town, they were often harassed, threatened with violence, and reminded they needed to return to the base before nightfall. Sundown Drive currently sits between downtown Norman and the old Naval Air Base.
Good Faith Media tried to confirm the history behind the street, but city and local officials could not confirm the history of the street’s name. However, the street’s name and location fit the town’s history and the stories from the Naval Air Base. Remember, historians considered Norman a “Sundown” city through 1967, and the earliest houses built on Sundown Drive were constructed in the early 1960s.
It’s not a great leap of imagination to consider the street could have been “the line” marking the general location where African Americans needed to cross before nightfall. At the same time, the history behind the street’s name cannot be wholly confirmed or denied, but coupled with the city’s history, the evidence seems straightforward.
Standing there on Sundown Drive, I began to weep. I closed my eyes momentarily, thinking about all the frightened people trying to reach this point, wondering what might happen if they did not.
Would they be arrested? Would they be beaten? Would they be lynched?
The fear must have been overwhelming.
If you’ve ever wondered why Good Faith Media fiercely advocates for a Raceless Gospel, stand with me on Sundown Drive and listen for the fearful voices from history. Striving to be who God created us to be simply means rejecting the human construct of race and learning to love within the restored divine reality of equality and justice.
Therefore, it’s time to say goodnight to all Sundown Drives nationwide and replace them with new streets named “Sunrise.” A new day is dawning, one in which we embrace the idea that everyone is created equal and the dream can become a reality.
