The Most Notorious Sundown Town Of Them All: Anna, Illinois 4K.

Anna, Illinois in 2020 is trying to shed the reputation that it has of being a sundown town. Should the town change it's name?

Walmart: 1:23
Jonesboro: 6:07 - 9:16
Anna: 9:16 - 22:16
Sundown Town talk: 10:34
Anna BLM Protest Talk: 13:58
Jonesboro (Again): 22:16 - End

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[ChrisHarden]

EVERYTHING THAT I USE IN THE FIELD:


WHAT I USE AT HOME:


SOCIAL MEDIA & CONTACT INFO:

DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you. As an Amazon Associate I do earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. As always, thank you for supporting my channel!

[destinyharris]

I’m literally in tears! Years ago my car caught a flat on Christmas Eve traveling to my dads funeral and a sheriff told me to get my children together and he’d have my car towed to his father who owned a tire shop but had closed early for the holiday..When we got there his elderly father greeted us as if we were his own guest rather than customers. He offered coffee, drinks & snacks for the kids while we waited. Not only did he change the tire free of charge he gave my kids a 20 dollar bill a piece for Christmas.. Here’s the creepy part, the son( Sheriff) followed us out the town and about 5 miles before he turned around! Now I understand why🤧 I kept the dads business card and mailed him an thank you card and a appreciation token because he refused to take it in person.. There’s still angels in this world and in the town of Anna.. I’m glad I ran across this post..

[samuraisaxon]

It’s amazing how society refuses to talk about America’s sun down urban cities 🤷‍♂️

[jeremyanderson]

I’m 32 a black male from Chicago. I went to college at southern Illinois university in edwardsville. A nice amount of white friends I met freshman year were from Anna and they were all great guys with a friendship that was genuine and always felt accepted amongst them all. And even though they never came off as racist to me they told me that the long time nickname for Anna was Ain’t.No.Niggas.Allowed. It was shocking when they told me and it was obvious they didn’t live life feeling that way. And always invited me to Anna and promised I would be the safest with them while there. But yea long story short after they told me that I never took a trip to Anna to visit 🤣😬. I believe they woulda made sure I was okay but I passed on it. Shout out to all my anna friends I miss those guys

[Levent_Ergun]

Saw a comment on Reddit, searched on google to see what it meant and found this video. Less than 10 minutes into it and I already appreciate the effort you put in it.

[amberedey]

If yall watched "lovecraft country" .. and was paying attention... they highlighted this.

[TypeTwoAdventures]

I’m embarrassed to admit that I grew up in Anna. Their bigotry was/is the norm, not the exception. When I went away to college, I had to unlearn that bigotry and replace that with morality. For over 40 years, I’ve only returned to that community for weddings and funerals.

[lharrill]

My father was from Illinois, my mother from Tennessee. I was born in the early 60's. I was raised to believe color doesn't matter and not to judge people by color. I raised my daughter the same way. Her bff from before we left the bigger city for a quieter life was a girl of color. They're both grown now. We're still in touch. She's part of our family, the girls were that close. It was heartwarming to watch them together. They were truly sisters. It's a shame everyone can't be like they are.

[timcahill]

They still use that acronym. Stopped in there with a black co-worker to grab a bite to eat an a older gentleman behind us in line asked him if he knew what Anna stood for then told him. We left cause we didn't need any problems cause we'll we all know small town cops!

[deidrediane]

I have family all over the state of Illinois, and I was born and raised in the deep South. I can honestly say when I visited family up north, I experienced more racism than you can ever imagine. The worse and the most frightening experience is when I visited my sister who lived right outside of Boston. I swore I would never return there ever again.
My home town was not perfect, but I never felt afraid or threatened when out and about.

[ryanwalters]

My parents moved from Cairo to Chicago as young adults. We would visit my grandmother and extended family in Cairo over the summers. As a kid I enjoyed but didn't understand why my mom would prepare a lot of food for the trip. But learned that there weren't many places for black families to safely stop for food, gas or restroom breaks with kids. This ugly sore on American will never be healed until we have an honest dialog about our history. Chris, thanks for your contributions to the dialog.

[garfield]

I moved from Carbondale to a Chicago suburb halfway through high school. One of my teachers was asking me about SIL and I mentioned Anna being a sundown town. She genuinely didn’t know what the term meant and I had to explain it to her. I was about as shocked that there were people who hadn’t ever heard of sundown towns as she was that sundown towns even existed lol

[rcharmel]

My maternal family is from Vienna (20 miles east of Anna), another sundown town. Growing up I heard so many stories about the local history. Like what the name Anna stood for, stories about lynchings and black settlements being burned to the ground... As a kid, I thought they were just made up town legends, turns out they were absolutely true.

[truthsearcher]

Yea went southern Illinois university and had to drive through Anna to get to work got pulled over everyday by the same cop to the point we actually got kinda friendly I would say but it still was profiling

[jlrice]

I am born and raised in Chicago…at 71 years old, I have never heard about this town or the acronym. I wish I hadn’t. DISGUSTING!

[dennissvitak]

I ran the Coca-Cola warehouse in St. Louis. We didn't send our black drivers to Anna. For a reason.

[Casinogirl]

This video makes me forget it's8 degrees out right now with a foot of snow on the ground and a wind chill advisory for pretty much all this week. Thank you for that.

[Coco-ziey]

Chris I really appreciate you for putting together this video. Great history. Important lessons and beautiful cinematography.

[coolhand]

I have driven/riden through this town since the 80s when I was a kid, going to Cape Girardeau to visit my Grandmother. Not too much has changed but it has certainly been a well kept town to say the least. Thank you for the videos of the Souther Illinois and Southern Missouri. As for the town changing the name, I think if you try to gloss over what use to be, or try to cover up the past with a name change you diminish the history of those that lived it, endured its struggles, and not learn from it. To teach others in the future you have to have something to show, and a path way to educate to make better.

[Aldamiras]

Back in the 1960's up until about 1970 or so, the city of Glendale CA. had signs on the freeway offramps and on major streets that read: "All Negroes and Mexicans must be outside of the city limits of Glendale by sunset. Anyone found after that will be subject to arrest". Then they gave the city ordinance number followed by the names of the mayor and chief of police. I asked my Mom about that back in '67 or thereabouts, and she explained to me what it meant. Then in about 1970 the signs came down, as they were unenforceable. Now you go to Glendale and it's a mix of all races and colors, which is as it should be. Glad to have found your channel Chris. The old racist mentalities died hard in this country.