Study finds racial bias remains higher in counties with a history of sundown towns
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Researchers say the findings show how discriminatory institutions can leave lasting effects long after exclusionary policies disappear.
More than a century after the abolition of slavery, the legacy of communities that once excluded Black Americans remains associated with racial prejudice in parts of the United States, according to new research examining historical segregation and present-day attitudes.
The study, led by University of California, Riverside psychology professor Jimmy Calanchini and researcher Maximilian Primbs, analysed responses from more than 1.3 million white participants who took part in Project Implicit research between 2002 and 2024. The findings linked counties with a history of “sundown towns” to higher levels of both implicit and explicit racial bias.
UC Riverside News, in a report by John Warren published October 13, explained that sundown towns were communities that used laws, threats, intimidation or violence to prevent Black people from living in or remaining within their boundaries after dark. Some also restricted Black residents’ ability to buy property.
Although often associated with the American South, these communities existed throughout the country and were particularly prevalent in the Midwest. Some California communities also enforced exclusionary policies, while developments such as Levittown, Pennsylvania, restricted access to homeownership for non-white people.
Researchers compared racial attitudes in counties with at least one identified sundown town against those without one. Counties classified as sundown counties also showed higher levels of bias. However, having additional sundown towns within a county did not predict further increases in either implicit or explicit racial bias.
The team also accounted for historical factors, including the proportion of enslaved people in each county in 1860 and Black population patterns during the Great Migration, when millions of Black Americans moved from the South to other parts of the country between 1910 and 1970. Those factors did not explain the association reported in the study.
The researchers nevertheless cautioned against interpreting the findings as proof that historic exclusion directly causes modern prejudice. They suggested that discriminatory institutions, limited interracial contact and past violence may have helped create local environments in which biased attitudes persist.
The study also found associations between sundown town history and implicit bias related to skin tone, age and disability, indicating that the relationship may extend beyond attitudes toward Black Americans. Those findings varied by the type of bias measured.
Calanchini said the research illustrates how historical institutions can leave a lasting imprint on communities. As he explained in the university’s report, “Those structural forces persist long after the people who built them are gone.”
The paper, titled “On Historical Sundown Towns and Racial Bias,” examines how patterns of exclusion may remain reflected in present-day attitudes, even after the original policies have disappeared.
The authors’ findings point to a continuing relationship between place, historical discrimination and contemporary prejudice, while leaving the precise causes open to further investigation.