Sundown towns and Kenosha

All people should be able to travel safely.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

I recently got into a dialog with someone on here. The basic gist of it — she wanted Kyle Rittenhouse to get 10 years in jail just for being in Kenosha.

I get it, she’s angry. But, the issue is not whether or not Rittenhouse is an idiot. On that point, she and I agreed. I went further and said that his parents were idiots too, for giving a 17 year old permission to go into a potentially dangerous situation like that. But is he considered guilty just for being there? The point of a trial is to determine if someone broke the law. So I asked her — did Rittenhouse break any laws by being on a public street? Sure, he was an idiot to show up during the protest. But was his walking there illegal?

Of course, one reason I may take umbrage at the idea that people cannot walk down a city street — because where I live, in Texas, there are still sundown towns.

What is a sundown town, you may ask.

Let me tell you. You may want to be sitting down before you read further, though. Because this will make you very angry. I know the first time I heard about these places, I was spitting mad.

You see, a sundown town is a place where black folks are not allowed after dark. Back in the days of Jim Crow, there used to be…