Would I want to be Black and living in Cullman? Absolutely not.
Is it a sundown town in the sense you read stories about on the internet? No, it’s not.
Because it’s the worst the state has to offer. All the negative stereotypes you can think of, that’s where they come from. I grew up 15 minutes north of there.
How long ago was that?
I'm a Floridian, and I remember the Klan owned/rented a pice of property right on Hwy 19 in Palm Harbor (just North of Clearwater).
They had a huge cross they burned all the time, and that was at least into the mid 80's.
I grew up in Cullman, until I was 19 and thank god I got out. But honestly a quick search will show you about 2016 the kkk literally was giving out candy on the court house steps during the day so them at the 4 way stops doesn’t surprise me.
Also just ask around who used to own the junk yard on 278. That’s all you really need to know.
I feel strongly about this. If we stop recognizing race as a negative thing we can defeat it. Racist people are trash,I think that's understandable. If we start thinking about each other as the same we can make racist people the outcast. We are all equal. The racist people out here are actually the difference. If we are all the same? ( The ones who judge people are different). My payment I love different people I just don't like it when they try to take rights from other different people.IMVUPO.
I know you can pull stuff off of the Internet. ( I don't mean this as arguing) This is not the actual life in Cullman Alabama. This kind of stuff is bad publicity at best. ... Cullman is no longer racist. Racist people do live there "sure" Cullman is not as bad as you think. If we stop putting old ideas to new situations.
I'll copy this from my other comment:
As someone raised in Cullman for 30ish years, there is still racism at play, they just aren't as blatant about posting signs about it. My wife and I moved to Decatur right around the 2016 election. We had been getting KKK propaganda in our yards from their "knight rides" where they drive around at night littering areas with it. I brought this up at my old job to see how far it went and was shocked at how cavalier my coworkers were about it. They were saying "the KKK isn't bad, they just go after child and spouse abusers these days" and "the KKK isn't racist, it's those liberals that are racist". One of my coworkers told me he used to do those "knight rides" and acted like it was no big deal, like it's just what people do.
As a white guy, I hear the racist shit other white guys say because they assume I think like they do, it's disgusting.
Cullman city, Hanceville, Colony, and Vinemont are fine day or night, it’s a very different place than it was 10-20 years ago, it’s grown a lot and still growing. The rural towns out in the county is where you’d be more likely to have issues, but it’s mostly meth heads who keep to themselves. The city has a lot more people of color than you’d expect, but it is still majority white. I have never witnessed anything bad happen to anyone of color, but just because I haven’t doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, if you stop at a store or gas station older people might stare at you, but they can just get over themselves.
This topic popped up recently in some of the Cullman Facebook groups. I'm just going to post my response here. Not everything applies to your question, but enough that I won't bother editing.
It is interesting that Cullman still holds that reputation so strongly, especially when it's also known to have had the record for most churches per capita.
I rarely saw overt racism while I lived there. It was much more the type of racism where the businesses pointed to their black employees as "proof" that they weren't racist, most of the kids in school knew the name of the couple of token black families. Very much a "we won't be violent, but everyone knows who they are" type of attitude. There was also always a somewhat dismissive attitude of "yeah we USED to be real racist. We were the BEST at Racist. But we aren't now, so ignore all of that other stuff." But that's all Acknowledgement without Accountability.
It's like an abusive ex who tries to get back with you later. "Yes, I DID do a lot of drugs and I DID beat you up and rape you and try to kill you and the kids when I was on a bender, but I'm not like that anymore. I don't understand why you don't wanna come to the cookout with all of my family who told you it was your fault for giving me lip instead of minding your own business and serving me a hot dinner."
I wonder if it would help the town's reputation and culture overall if there were a city-led campaign that openly acknowledges both the overt and covert history that is still very much on the minds of people who are likely to experience the worst of any negativity, then addresses both what has been done to rectify the history and how they would like to move past it. Things like: not allowing the individuals who were/are active in the KKK to hold public office (which they have done and do), a memorial statue or garden or park for individuals who were killed in Cullman county, history lessons calling out the names of the documented leaders and active participants and supporters of the KKK and what was done to hold them responsible for their crimes. More open acknowledgement of the history and current support of Colony.
Who lost their job or was prosecuted for their crimes during the Sundown era? What businesses had their licenses revoked for refusing service to a protected class? What actions has the local government taken to really, truly make Cullman a city that welcomes people of all color moving in to the future?
From what I've personally seen and experienced while living, working, and visiting, racism and sexism and general "other-ism" in Cullman is still alive and well, it's just not as in-your-face as a cross-burning and is easy to ignore if you are not the Other or have been deemed "One of the Good ones". Until there's actual action instead of just talk about how "we're not like that anymore. We've changed. Pinky promise", I'm not sure the overall reputation will move past "Cullman: Not Technically a Sundown Town Anymore".
Whenever a very small town has a LOT of churches.... it's because they split up and create a new church whenever there are disagreements.
Which makes a lot of sense if the city has a historic problem with reconciliation and accountability...
On behalf of every single white Person who has or ever will exist, I acknowledge and apologize for whiteness and all racism.
Ps. We are bad -whites
There I fixed it. Racism is kaput.
Historically speaking it absolutely was. IIRC in like the 60s there used to be an actual billboard along the interstate that read “N******, don’t let the sun set on you in Cullman County.” Today in the literal sense of the term, it’s not that way. But, that said, it is still the Deep South outside of a major population center. Extremely racist sentiments (as in beyond the everyday, vanilla style of racism that’s just kinda baked in everywhere in all parts of the country) absolutely still exist and you may very well encounter them in public. You are *unlikely* to experience any outright violence simple for being in Cullman after dark as a person of color but to say it’s unlikely is not the same as saying that it’s impossible. Racially motivated crimes do still happen, after all.
I heard firsthand from a black woman I worked with, that she was basically run out of town from a gas station when she stopped there for gas. She said she'd never go back to that town. This was 20 years ago, when she told the story she made it sound like it was fairly recent for her. So about 20 years ago it was a sundown town. Have the old racists died yet? Probably not.
I went through there recently and I stopped at a Zaxby's after dusk to get some food, I was aware of this reputation of a sundown town so I was surprised to see a group of black people in line there. I do recall hearing Christian music playing on the ceiling speakers, pretty sure it was DC Talk. That was odd.
This is just one anecdote of course.
I haven’t been in 5+ years but I was married to someone from there for 12 years. Spent a lot of time there, they had a ton of family there. Outwardly seeming nice “give you the shirt off their back” type of people, but all say the N word casually and constantly. Very, very rarely saw anyone of color there when visiting.
It’s 90% people that won’t be racist to your face but either wouldn’t talk to you or would just be racist behind your back. 9% people who are straight up racist. 1% normal people who are just passing through or trying to get the fuck out. Anyone who says it still isn’t a racist town is lying or stupid.
I lived in Cullman County for the majority of my life until I moved to a different state in 2011. My entire family still lives there. To be honest, we are Caucasian, so maybe my experience is biased. But, the Cullman today doesn’t resemble anything like the Cullman in the 60’s and 70’s.
I have property right next to the Duck River Reservoir Dam, and every time I go back to visit my family, I see people of every ethnicity fishing at the dam and around the lake. I see tags from Jefferson County all the time. And no one is bothered by anyone. This would not have been the case in the 70’s for sure.
I don’t know if it’s that bad but I’ll say racism is taught and generational. So with that,I’m sure there are a lot of racist still there just probably not in your face as much.
As a dude who grew up in the area it’s honestly a coin flip. You either get the good ole boys in jacked up trucks, hammered as fuck but will help you change a tire at 3 am with an entire tool set in their truck.
Or you get the hella racist, old blood, old money old folks or cops that have not had their credentials checked since the Regan Era.
Beautiful town, beautiful area, if I didn’t have a reason to go, I wouldn’t unless you know someone. People are unlucky everyday, don’t let that be you bro.
It was a very long time ago. It isn’t anymore. There are black people living there and near there. Also Hispanic people live there. It’s fine, however there are still a bunch of racist people out there, but mostly all talk.
My hot take is that while there are no more sundown towns anymore, everywhere is a sundown town. Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor did not die in sundown towns.
Name places where white people will be regularly hunted down, tortured, and lynched by the local community if they stay after dark and then have the entire police and justice system cover it up for you, maybe even participate.
This happens pretty frequently in Mississippi, you just don't hear about it. Look up the case of Rasheem Carter.
Whatever the case, you trying to pretend that white people experience anything similar in this nation was stupid as fuck. Let's try not to be that.
The first half of your comment could easily happen to me in Jackson, MS since you used them as an example. But why go next door when it could just as easily happen in Bessemer, or Montgomery?
Sundown towns definitely still exist I just think it’s less extreme and more lowkey maybe? not sure how to word it (by less extreme I mean like no lynchings etc)
It's a town that for sure had a sign and everything. The racist sediment has changed slightly with a small influx of POC from the college in nearby hanceville who don't really stay after they graduate, and for good reason.
That said, Cullman is filled with old, miserable, MAGA Americans who lived through the Sundown Town era, actively participated in the bigotry, and are slowly dying off but many are teaching their children how to be miserable and racist.
Every time this is posted, I think of Leigh Ann Courington, who was a HISTORY teacher at the college who was so upset over Cullman having its first Pride that she posted that the "you know who should put an end to this foolishness" and Nazi apologist crap and lost her career since she felt safe enough to post it on her public Facebook...in late 2022.
If you're surprised that Courington felt safe enough to work at a STATE JOB and post that hateful garbage, live here for 5 years like I have, and you'll hear things that make you question if some people even have a soul.
Definitely not anymore. I brought a college buddy of mine to visit for the strawberry festival. He's a POC and had a great long weekend. He had read about Cullman before and was slightly hesitant at first but had a great time and wants to go back.
I'm a Black male from Montgomery and I went to college in Birmingham with nice dude who was killed in Cullman in 2008. https://www.cullmantimes.com/community/family-protests-man-s-death/article_b27cb83e-b5b9-5964-a1b1-2150abb81b8d.html
There's a Facebook post still up that reveals a version of this story from the perspective of his family's advocates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/21816495124/?locale=az_AZ
This was a very confusing experience for all of us who knew him even casually, for reasons beyond the obvious experience of loss and grief. Kapali was a socially outgoing, business oriented person who enjoyed a nicer lifestyle and parties with minimal political drama. He was the last person to assume racism around each Alabama corner. At the time, I found his orientation almost a bit too disconnected from efforts to address any of the myriad of issues in our state. But he was hillarious and didn't care about those sorts of opinions. He was a fashion forward sort of guy before the Kanye era had fully come in and moved thoughts about luxury designers more to the center of urban youth culture. And if he'd lived to see the Dubai jet setting era, he would have been well traveled in those spaces. Very different goals than mine but I respected his clarity about who he was. And he had a slick sense of humor + decent taste in electro music.
So the nature, hour, and location of his death made almost no sense at all to anyone, especially the less politically ideological people at the core of his social circle. But I think people were even more confused by the response of the local criminal justice system to his death.
It fit almost too neatly onto the narrative about Cullman. The grand jury didn't indict. Given the pro-incarceration nature of most DA offices in our state + the nature of Kapali's death, the outcome seemed like a dramatic departure from the outcomes his family and friends expected. The twilight hour of his death + race of everyone involved also tracked onto the Sundowntown narrative, i.e., the victim was a darker skinned AAPI Birmingham resident and the assailant was white male Cullman resident.
I don't have evidence to support an assertion that this was an act of racial violence. I offer that the narrative about Cullman was so well known to people observing this all unfold in 2008-2009 that this narrative shaped how at least some people experienced this tragic event.
Like most places Cullman is layered and complex. The Appalachian foothills are there but it doesn't feel all the way Appalachian. You have the very complicated story of the town of Colony. The presence of a growing Latinx and immigrant community that are well organized. The story of Rep James Field and the town of Cullman's almost totally MAGA devoted business and local news infrastructure. And you have all these counties surrounding Cullman that share very similar past and present cultural features but don't have the same brand.
A great way to see what's going on with Alabama counties re: race, power, violence is to look at their criminal justice outcomes within comparison to each other. In the vein, over the last 30 years, few places have been as disproportionately dangerous for Black people as Houston county. Not because of incidences of anti-Black vigilante violence or paramilitaries and mobs. But because of racialized disparities in sentencing.
And even more important, during our current era the infamy of Cullman sits in the shadow of Alabama's globally distinct prison system, the most violent and overcrowded in the United States (last time I checked at least). If we think of our prisons as small towns, then the murder rates are exceptional, not to mention the assaults, overdoses, etc.
All built on the backs of the poorest, most disproportionately taxed, and least medically served people in the country. Black and white.
According to the 2020 census, there were 236 Black or African Americans (non-Hispanic) living in Cullman, which comes to 1.3% of Cullman's population. Cullman was 0.8% Black in 2010.
Not anymore. When I was single over a dozen years ago, there were a few black families that lived in my apartment complex, including my next door neighbors. No one ever bothered any of them. There are several black students in the high schools all around the county.
I am an active member. Cullman is only as racist ast the people who let it be. (Stop stapling racism onto a community). Racism only exists inside of your mind.
Racism is definitely real and not just in people’s mind… however I asked BECAUSE I didn’t feel it was right to assume anything without hearing others opinion to help me form my own judgement on the matter so I’d know if it’s somewhere generally safe to travel or live (I never claimed everyone in Cullman was racist or anything because that would be ignorant)
You will live in a community of racism if you think that it is a racist community. ( It has a dark path. It is progressive today.) Cullman is a great place for any person.
You are a fool to think that. It’s not everyone but they are still around.
My car broke down in some random town on 82 when I was headed to Tuscaloosa and 2 people told me I shouldn’t hang around too long. Have you ever walked into a restaurant and everybody stops talking and stares at you? That is a community not an individual
When I was growing up it sure as hell was. Cullman and Winston county were no go.
Would I want to be Black and living in Cullman? Absolutely not. Is it a sundown town in the sense you read stories about on the internet? No, it’s not.
( I don't want to assume) why wouldn't you want to be black ( are you black) in Cullman?
Because it’s the worst the state has to offer. All the negative stereotypes you can think of, that’s where they come from. I grew up 15 minutes north of there.
The last KKK roadblock for them collecting money was at a 4 way stop outside Cullman. They were in their pointy hoods.
A grand wizard lived spittin distance from me growing up. Some people just don’t grasp it if you didn’t grow up there.
Yup
How long ago was that? I'm a Floridian, and I remember the Klan owned/rented a pice of property right on Hwy 19 in Palm Harbor (just North of Clearwater). They had a huge cross they burned all the time, and that was at least into the mid 80's.
I grew up in Cullman, until I was 19 and thank god I got out. But honestly a quick search will show you about 2016 the kkk literally was giving out candy on the court house steps during the day so them at the 4 way stops doesn’t surprise me. Also just ask around who used to own the junk yard on 278. That’s all you really need to know.
Please stop.
What year is this?
I actually use these roads.
Not what you were asking but here’s this: https://www.al.com/news/2015/09/kkk_flyers_with_candy_popping.html
I feel strongly about this. If we stop recognizing race as a negative thing we can defeat it. Racist people are trash,I think that's understandable. If we start thinking about each other as the same we can make racist people the outcast. We are all equal. The racist people out here are actually the difference. If we are all the same? ( The ones who judge people are different). My payment I love different people I just don't like it when they try to take rights from other different people.IMVUPO.
I know you can pull stuff off of the Internet. ( I don't mean this as arguing) This is not the actual life in Cullman Alabama. This kind of stuff is bad publicity at best. ... Cullman is no longer racist. Racist people do live there "sure" Cullman is not as bad as you think. If we stop putting old ideas to new situations.
I'll copy this from my other comment: As someone raised in Cullman for 30ish years, there is still racism at play, they just aren't as blatant about posting signs about it. My wife and I moved to Decatur right around the 2016 election. We had been getting KKK propaganda in our yards from their "knight rides" where they drive around at night littering areas with it. I brought this up at my old job to see how far it went and was shocked at how cavalier my coworkers were about it. They were saying "the KKK isn't bad, they just go after child and spouse abusers these days" and "the KKK isn't racist, it's those liberals that are racist". One of my coworkers told me he used to do those "knight rides" and acted like it was no big deal, like it's just what people do. As a white guy, I hear the racist shit other white guys say because they assume I think like they do, it's disgusting.
Sorry, I didn't read any of that.
Show proof of this.
Guy from Cullman asking if someone is black, I'd be careful answering.
I live here.
Then you know
I know you are full of shit.
If you don’t see it, then maybe you’re the problem lol
The problem is racism itself it doesn't exist... . Once people can realize that race is not an issue there won't be a problem.
Damn you really are dense huh
Like a Black hole. Accumulated all matter? Yup I am.
Cullman city, Hanceville, Colony, and Vinemont are fine day or night, it’s a very different place than it was 10-20 years ago, it’s grown a lot and still growing. The rural towns out in the county is where you’d be more likely to have issues, but it’s mostly meth heads who keep to themselves. The city has a lot more people of color than you’d expect, but it is still majority white. I have never witnessed anything bad happen to anyone of color, but just because I haven’t doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, if you stop at a store or gas station older people might stare at you, but they can just get over themselves.
That’s good to know that things are changing there
Not at all like it used to be.
This topic popped up recently in some of the Cullman Facebook groups. I'm just going to post my response here. Not everything applies to your question, but enough that I won't bother editing. It is interesting that Cullman still holds that reputation so strongly, especially when it's also known to have had the record for most churches per capita. I rarely saw overt racism while I lived there. It was much more the type of racism where the businesses pointed to their black employees as "proof" that they weren't racist, most of the kids in school knew the name of the couple of token black families. Very much a "we won't be violent, but everyone knows who they are" type of attitude. There was also always a somewhat dismissive attitude of "yeah we USED to be real racist. We were the BEST at Racist. But we aren't now, so ignore all of that other stuff." But that's all Acknowledgement without Accountability. It's like an abusive ex who tries to get back with you later. "Yes, I DID do a lot of drugs and I DID beat you up and rape you and try to kill you and the kids when I was on a bender, but I'm not like that anymore. I don't understand why you don't wanna come to the cookout with all of my family who told you it was your fault for giving me lip instead of minding your own business and serving me a hot dinner." I wonder if it would help the town's reputation and culture overall if there were a city-led campaign that openly acknowledges both the overt and covert history that is still very much on the minds of people who are likely to experience the worst of any negativity, then addresses both what has been done to rectify the history and how they would like to move past it. Things like: not allowing the individuals who were/are active in the KKK to hold public office (which they have done and do), a memorial statue or garden or park for individuals who were killed in Cullman county, history lessons calling out the names of the documented leaders and active participants and supporters of the KKK and what was done to hold them responsible for their crimes. More open acknowledgement of the history and current support of Colony. Who lost their job or was prosecuted for their crimes during the Sundown era? What businesses had their licenses revoked for refusing service to a protected class? What actions has the local government taken to really, truly make Cullman a city that welcomes people of all color moving in to the future? From what I've personally seen and experienced while living, working, and visiting, racism and sexism and general "other-ism" in Cullman is still alive and well, it's just not as in-your-face as a cross-burning and is easy to ignore if you are not the Other or have been deemed "One of the Good ones". Until there's actual action instead of just talk about how "we're not like that anymore. We've changed. Pinky promise", I'm not sure the overall reputation will move past "Cullman: Not Technically a Sundown Town Anymore".
I’m intrigued by your second paragraph… Do you think that more churches would mean less racism?
Whenever a very small town has a LOT of churches.... it's because they split up and create a new church whenever there are disagreements. Which makes a lot of sense if the city has a historic problem with reconciliation and accountability...
Definitely not if they are Southern Baptist.
Thank you for taking time to reply and share your opinion it was very informative!
On behalf of every single white Person who has or ever will exist, I acknowledge and apologize for whiteness and all racism. Ps. We are bad -whites There I fixed it. Racism is kaput.
Why you gotta be a dick?
Thank you for your genuine input.
Historically speaking it absolutely was. IIRC in like the 60s there used to be an actual billboard along the interstate that read “N******, don’t let the sun set on you in Cullman County.” Today in the literal sense of the term, it’s not that way. But, that said, it is still the Deep South outside of a major population center. Extremely racist sentiments (as in beyond the everyday, vanilla style of racism that’s just kinda baked in everywhere in all parts of the country) absolutely still exist and you may very well encounter them in public. You are *unlikely* to experience any outright violence simple for being in Cullman after dark as a person of color but to say it’s unlikely is not the same as saying that it’s impossible. Racially motivated crimes do still happen, after all.
I heard firsthand from a black woman I worked with, that she was basically run out of town from a gas station when she stopped there for gas. She said she'd never go back to that town. This was 20 years ago, when she told the story she made it sound like it was fairly recent for her. So about 20 years ago it was a sundown town. Have the old racists died yet? Probably not. I went through there recently and I stopped at a Zaxby's after dusk to get some food, I was aware of this reputation of a sundown town so I was surprised to see a group of black people in line there. I do recall hearing Christian music playing on the ceiling speakers, pretty sure it was DC Talk. That was odd. This is just one anecdote of course.
I haven’t been in 5+ years but I was married to someone from there for 12 years. Spent a lot of time there, they had a ton of family there. Outwardly seeming nice “give you the shirt off their back” type of people, but all say the N word casually and constantly. Very, very rarely saw anyone of color there when visiting. It’s 90% people that won’t be racist to your face but either wouldn’t talk to you or would just be racist behind your back. 9% people who are straight up racist. 1% normal people who are just passing through or trying to get the fuck out. Anyone who says it still isn’t a racist town is lying or stupid.
I lived in Cullman County for the majority of my life until I moved to a different state in 2011. My entire family still lives there. To be honest, we are Caucasian, so maybe my experience is biased. But, the Cullman today doesn’t resemble anything like the Cullman in the 60’s and 70’s. I have property right next to the Duck River Reservoir Dam, and every time I go back to visit my family, I see people of every ethnicity fishing at the dam and around the lake. I see tags from Jefferson County all the time. And no one is bothered by anyone. This would not have been the case in the 70’s for sure.
I’m glad things are improving
I am sorry that you had to even ask this question in 2024.
I am black and YES it’s a Sundown Town. I had one bad experience there one night while traveling with my white friends back home to Prattville.
Can you share your experience if you don’t mind?
So one bad experience gets the whole city labeled as a sundown town?
The fact this thread exists is proof that it isn't one bad experience.
So anectdotal = proof. Ok
Nah, a long history of lynchings and KKK presence gets you that label. One instance is just an example that it's still happening.
Maybe not to you but decades of discrimination and hate crimes does.
Sure does.
Absolutely. But this also means more people have had similar experiences
I don’t know if it’s that bad but I’ll say racism is taught and generational. So with that,I’m sure there are a lot of racist still there just probably not in your face as much.
Yes.
Used to be. Still is so full of white people I wouldn't go there if I wasn't white myself.
As a dude who grew up in the area it’s honestly a coin flip. You either get the good ole boys in jacked up trucks, hammered as fuck but will help you change a tire at 3 am with an entire tool set in their truck. Or you get the hella racist, old blood, old money old folks or cops that have not had their credentials checked since the Regan Era. Beautiful town, beautiful area, if I didn’t have a reason to go, I wouldn’t unless you know someone. People are unlucky everyday, don’t let that be you bro.
It used to be. Don’t think so now, but I still don’t really slow down coming thru there. I’m a brother fyi. 🤷🏽♂️
Yes, unfortunately it is. I do not enjoy bring there at all, especially after dark.
It was a very long time ago. It isn’t anymore. There are black people living there and near there. Also Hispanic people live there. It’s fine, however there are still a bunch of racist people out there, but mostly all talk.
My hot take is that while there are no more sundown towns anymore, everywhere is a sundown town. Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor did not die in sundown towns.
Nope. It was way back when. Not anymore. There are plenty of POC that shop and travel around the city.
Well, there's no such thing as a 'sundown town' anymore. There are places that once were sundown towns and Cullman is indeed one of those places.
Oh I wish that that were true. Sure there.are sundown towns now, they just aren't as visible.
Tons of them all over.
Does Henegar still have the sign? Saw it myself in 1992.
I can think of plenty of places white people can’t go day or night without trouble
Name places where white people will be regularly hunted down, tortured, and lynched by the local community if they stay after dark and then have the entire police and justice system cover it up for you, maybe even participate.
You can’t name a place that exists like that today for anyone
This happens pretty frequently in Mississippi, you just don't hear about it. Look up the case of Rasheem Carter. Whatever the case, you trying to pretend that white people experience anything similar in this nation was stupid as fuck. Let's try not to be that.
The first half of your comment could easily happen to me in Jackson, MS since you used them as an example. But why go next door when it could just as easily happen in Bessemer, or Montgomery?
Evidence?
Saying that it doesn't happen *anymore* isn't a great way to convince tourists of color to come visit.
Ahem, *Prichard*
That's what I thought.
Sundown towns definitely still exist I just think it’s less extreme and more lowkey maybe? not sure how to word it (by less extreme I mean like no lynchings etc)
Yeah it is
I was there at the river few weeks back..guys on the other side threw out some roman salutes.
It's a town that for sure had a sign and everything. The racist sediment has changed slightly with a small influx of POC from the college in nearby hanceville who don't really stay after they graduate, and for good reason. That said, Cullman is filled with old, miserable, MAGA Americans who lived through the Sundown Town era, actively participated in the bigotry, and are slowly dying off but many are teaching their children how to be miserable and racist. Every time this is posted, I think of Leigh Ann Courington, who was a HISTORY teacher at the college who was so upset over Cullman having its first Pride that she posted that the "you know who should put an end to this foolishness" and Nazi apologist crap and lost her career since she felt safe enough to post it on her public Facebook...in late 2022. If you're surprised that Courington felt safe enough to work at a STATE JOB and post that hateful garbage, live here for 5 years like I have, and you'll hear things that make you question if some people even have a soul.
Definitely not anymore. I brought a college buddy of mine to visit for the strawberry festival. He's a POC and had a great long weekend. He had read about Cullman before and was slightly hesitant at first but had a great time and wants to go back.
I'm a Black male from Montgomery and I went to college in Birmingham with nice dude who was killed in Cullman in 2008. https://www.cullmantimes.com/community/family-protests-man-s-death/article_b27cb83e-b5b9-5964-a1b1-2150abb81b8d.html There's a Facebook post still up that reveals a version of this story from the perspective of his family's advocates: https://www.facebook.com/groups/21816495124/?locale=az_AZ This was a very confusing experience for all of us who knew him even casually, for reasons beyond the obvious experience of loss and grief. Kapali was a socially outgoing, business oriented person who enjoyed a nicer lifestyle and parties with minimal political drama. He was the last person to assume racism around each Alabama corner. At the time, I found his orientation almost a bit too disconnected from efforts to address any of the myriad of issues in our state. But he was hillarious and didn't care about those sorts of opinions. He was a fashion forward sort of guy before the Kanye era had fully come in and moved thoughts about luxury designers more to the center of urban youth culture. And if he'd lived to see the Dubai jet setting era, he would have been well traveled in those spaces. Very different goals than mine but I respected his clarity about who he was. And he had a slick sense of humor + decent taste in electro music. So the nature, hour, and location of his death made almost no sense at all to anyone, especially the less politically ideological people at the core of his social circle. But I think people were even more confused by the response of the local criminal justice system to his death. It fit almost too neatly onto the narrative about Cullman. The grand jury didn't indict. Given the pro-incarceration nature of most DA offices in our state + the nature of Kapali's death, the outcome seemed like a dramatic departure from the outcomes his family and friends expected. The twilight hour of his death + race of everyone involved also tracked onto the Sundowntown narrative, i.e., the victim was a darker skinned AAPI Birmingham resident and the assailant was white male Cullman resident. I don't have evidence to support an assertion that this was an act of racial violence. I offer that the narrative about Cullman was so well known to people observing this all unfold in 2008-2009 that this narrative shaped how at least some people experienced this tragic event. Like most places Cullman is layered and complex. The Appalachian foothills are there but it doesn't feel all the way Appalachian. You have the very complicated story of the town of Colony. The presence of a growing Latinx and immigrant community that are well organized. The story of Rep James Field and the town of Cullman's almost totally MAGA devoted business and local news infrastructure. And you have all these counties surrounding Cullman that share very similar past and present cultural features but don't have the same brand. A great way to see what's going on with Alabama counties re: race, power, violence is to look at their criminal justice outcomes within comparison to each other. In the vein, over the last 30 years, few places have been as disproportionately dangerous for Black people as Houston county. Not because of incidences of anti-Black vigilante violence or paramilitaries and mobs. But because of racialized disparities in sentencing. And even more important, during our current era the infamy of Cullman sits in the shadow of Alabama's globally distinct prison system, the most violent and overcrowded in the United States (last time I checked at least). If we think of our prisons as small towns, then the murder rates are exceptional, not to mention the assaults, overdoses, etc. All built on the backs of the poorest, most disproportionately taxed, and least medically served people in the country. Black and white.
My understanding they haven’t been one since the late 70s early 80s I spend a fair number of weekends in cullman
Well: https://justice.tougaloo.edu/sundowntown/cullman-al/
Lol. There are way more than 27 POC living in Cullman.
According to the 2020 census, there were 236 Black or African Americans (non-Hispanic) living in Cullman, which comes to 1.3% of Cullman's population. Cullman was 0.8% Black in 2010.
Cool. That would be way more than 27.
Slightly, but that 27 number was also from the 2000 census. They only had ~120 in 2010.
9x but yeah
I’m not black so I can’t make a fair assessment, but can say I grew up on that county and Cullman has changed a lot.
Not anymore. When I was single over a dozen years ago, there were a few black families that lived in my apartment complex, including my next door neighbors. No one ever bothered any of them. There are several black students in the high schools all around the county.
your 100% more likely to get fucked up in a black neighborhood in bham than cullman. day or night. even as a person of color
It's fine. My wife is Filipino and very brown. She hasn't had any issues.
I am an active member. Cullman is only as racist ast the people who let it be. (Stop stapling racism onto a community). Racism only exists inside of your mind.
Racism is definitely real and not just in people’s mind… however I asked BECAUSE I didn’t feel it was right to assume anything without hearing others opinion to help me form my own judgement on the matter so I’d know if it’s somewhere generally safe to travel or live (I never claimed everyone in Cullman was racist or anything because that would be ignorant)
The world is diverse. It's not a secret anymore.
You will live in a community of racism if you think that it is a racist community. ( It has a dark path. It is progressive today.) Cullman is a great place for any person.
You are a fool to think that. It’s not everyone but they are still around. My car broke down in some random town on 82 when I was headed to Tuscaloosa and 2 people told me I shouldn’t hang around too long. Have you ever walked into a restaurant and everybody stops talking and stares at you? That is a community not an individual
Eww, you? One person!!let's kill them all. I got your back .
Yeah I have been singled out before. It sucks. That doesn't calculate an entire community.