thank you.

See the pictures of neighbors in the news reports.

The community has gates, but the perimeter fence is not complete. "Gated" is probably a realtor's marketing term, rather than any real security feature.

with a gate or two. I agree that it just sounds like a realtors way of marketing.

I've visited many "gated communities" and there didn't seem to be any "convenience stores" for miles around. They also had professional type security.

In the sense that you need a card or a resident's phone approval for a vehicle to get in. But pedestrians can wander in and out as they please.

It's nothing fancy. It's racially and ethnically mixed, though probably not affordable to the really poor. And there's a convenience store just up the road for those of us who don't own cars and run out of something after the buses stop running.

"Gated" does not mean "rich".

Given where he was relative to the home he was staying at, he probably entered via the north gate on Oregon Avenue and then used the sidewalk between the buildings.

those pics or possibly links to the news reports. I don't mean to be pretentious or offensive, but DU is very valuable to me precisely because it allows access to the story I wouldn't otherwise see. Thanks

Recent book explored their prevalence in Midwest, but surprisingly in model planned cities in North and NE.

is one of those towns. Removed their sign only after the civil rights bill was passed and it wasn't actually removed for a long time they just quit propping it up so it finally fell down on its own. So many times I've wished I'd collected that sign after it finally had fallen for posterity.

a kind of dog whistle racism, as in:

"What was the black kid in a hoody doing in the gated community?"

--- or ---

"Sure the kid wasn't near Zimmerman's home, but he was still inside the gated community."

was an African-American and a lifetime resident of Benton County, Arkansas. He was a highly regarded and well-respected businessman for over 50 years in the Bentonville community. His wife was a teacher and he ran a business and had many, many largely successful business ventures. The Bentonville Chamber of Commerce still gives an annual award in his name. In the 1970s, he ran for Mayor of Bentonville and damn near was elected. Had he not been a black man he would have been elected even at his advanced age. Both he and his wife are gone now, they died in the late 70's/early 80's.

Those Arkansas sundown counties are largely rugged, rural, sparsely populated counties that even today have poverty rates that rival those of the Appalachians. The entire population of some of these counties (e.g., Izard county) today is less than 20,000 people. Some of the regional commercial centers (e.g., Batesville) in these areas have populations today of less than 10,000 people. The people who lived in these sundown counties were largely poor people who were poorly educated, had little contact/travel outside their own community/culture and had minimal if any contact with black people during their entire lifetime. The areas where they lived offered few incentives to attract new residents. They mostly lived in sparsely populated areas that did not have a ready police presence - or a good source for news, information, and adult education. Some of these counties still have only one very small public library. Sometimes it is important to understand the context in which a law exists to understand how it came to be. The impact of the fear instilled by hate mongers (e.g., Jeff Davis) on simple, poor, uneducated people struggling for survival ought not be denied or ignored.

Yes, sundown laws were wrong and offensive. But (1) we would do well to undersatnd the context in which they existed and (2) contrary to the tone of the article linked, we should also recognize that there were areas in northwest Arkansas where blacks were welcome, included in the community and respected.

The basics are the ability to control your surrounding physical space and to know who and what is in it.

I'm sure that all those folks who have spent time in Iraq and Afghanistan are well versed in it.

You point out that we need to understand the uneducated, poor people struggling for survival who had little contact with black people in those particular counties.

In contrast, take Santa Clara County, aka Silicon Valley, where there was no written law only a not-so-tacit agreement among realtors and lenders through the 70s. My neighbors were not poor, had access to three universities, some of them were astronauts, ( i.e., well traveled), and this valley boomed after the war. "No selling to color west of the 101" was what new realtors were told - which was a joke because the whole place is west of the 101 freeway.

Orlando is crawling with hate groups, there's at least one documented sd town a stone's throw away from Sanford.

http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/sundowntownsshow.php?id=1143

What we will find out is that the PD uses skinheads to inform for them or something similar, watch.