Sunshine and Exclusion: The Legacy of Sundown Towns in a Tourist Paradise Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

Since the early nineteenth century, Florida has developed an identity in popular imagery as a tourist paradise. Through a vibrant tourist industry, the “Sunshine State” has been able to cement itself as a luxurious haven. This study explores how tourism has served as a form of place making that historically reinforced the existence of sundown towns. Place making here serves as a framework to examine the relationship between tourism and sundown towns in the Florida tourist cities Miami Beach and Palm Beach, primarily around the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Through place making, white boosters shaped the popular image of these Florida tourist cities by glamorizing the tourism industry and concealing broader awareness of sundown towns. Florida’s image as a tourist destination has contributed to claims that the state does not share the same history of racial violence as other states in the Deep South. Therefore, this study aims to understand processes of historical erasure and refute ideas of Florida’s “exceptionalism.” By analyzing an array of archival material and primary source data, this research illuminates the ways in which shaping Florida as an early tourist destination was based on ideas of whiteness and exclusion. The examination of these themes takes place at three levels, by investigating the legal construction, maintenance, and marketing of sundown towns. This study foregrounds the contradictions and deceptions of Florida’s early tourist industry, namely the state’s practice of creating an image of white tourism and leisure while simultaneously obscuring realities of labor exploitation and exclusion for Black communities.

Table of Contents

Introduction.....................................................................................................1

Explanation of Sites.........................................................................................5

Methodology..................................................................................................11

Positionality and Personal Interest..................................................................14

Note on Terminology......................................................................................16

Chapter 1.........................................................................................................18

Meaning of Space, Place, and Place Making........................................................18

Tourism as Place Making..................................................................................19

Connections Between Race and Place..................................................................22

Early Tourism in Florida...................................................................................23

Debunking Florida’s Exceptionalism..................................................................31

Defining a Sundown Town................................................................................33

Chapter 2.........................................................................................................39

Colored Town and the Styx: Establishing Zoning Ordinances..............................40

Creating “Mutual Segregation” Agreements......................................................46

Vice Districts and Implementing Methods of Criminalization.............................51

Chapter 3........................................................................................................54

Exploitation of Labor......................................................................................55

Agriculture and Transportation Laborers...........................................................55

Service Workers..............................................................................................58

Entertainers...................................................................................................61

Methods of Exclusion......................................................................................66

Methods of Racial Terror.................................................................................70

Chapter 4........................................................................................................78

Making A “Year-Round” Paradise: Targeted Language Related to Leisure............79

The “Tourist in Search of Sunshine”: Centering Positive Qualities......................86

“Restricted Clientele Only”: Business Policy Reinforcing Exclusion....................94

Conclusion....................................................................................................105

Summary: A Look at the Past.........................................................................105

Limitations and Further Research: A Look Towards the Future.........................106

Closing Remarks: A Look Into the Present Moment.........................................107

Bibliography.................................................................................................110

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Anthropology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	African American Studies Anthropology, Cultural
Mot-clé	Florida Place Making Tourism
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Dr. Bayo Holsey, Emory University
Committee Members	Dr. Linette Park, Emory University Dr. Michelle Gordon, Emory University

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