How HBO’s Lovecraft Country Combines The Terror Of Sundown Towns With Monsters

Lovecraft Country is focusing on the human monstrocity of racists and the sundown towns that sheltered them in the season opener of HBO’s hit.

The sad fact is America is racist. Things like sundown towns weren’t just a myth; they were reality. We have taken huge strides from the days of slavery, segregation, and lynchings. We still have a long way to go through. The novel by Mark Ruff, developed by HBO and produced by powerhouses Jordan Peele, Misha Green, and J.J. Abrams to name just a few highlights the horror of living in a country that regularly beats, drags, shoots, and shuns entire groups of people. It’s scary because as frightening as the Eldritch creatures are(and they were last night), humans are the biggest monsters.

H. P. Lovecraft, who most credits with the horror genre itself, was a raging racist. He wasn’t a low key, casual, or inadvertent racist either. The book and series succeed in atoning a little for the beliefs of the man who gave so much to the genre. The series that is a dizzying mix of pop culture, Lovecraftian horror, and abhorrent human behavior takes place in 1950’s America. The time known as the Jim Crow era was the period 1877-1964 before laws and customs were repealed, promoting prejudice against POC. Here is everything you need to know about the real truth behind sundown towns.

The Green Book

During the Jim Crow period, POC took great care to avoid being in areas where they would be in danger. Atticus’ Uncle George puts out a fictional version of the real Green Book. Blacks used this book to navigate travel across a country where entire sections want to hurt them. The guide book was essential for travelers as Northern towns could be just as racist as Southern ones; they just were less overt about it. The real book was published between 1936 and 1967 by Victor Hugo Green, a black postman who lived in Harlem, New York. His guide book for travelers detailed businesses that would accept black guests and places to avoid, especially after the sun went down. Everything from beauty shops, hotels, restaurants, and drugstores were listed.

What Are Sundown Towns?

Sundown towns were places where it was not safe to be for a POC after sunset. Many could argue it’s not safe to be there in the sunlight, either. These towns, also called sunset towns were places that had unofficial rules forbidding POC to be after dark. Some even hung signs telling Black folks to leave before the sun set.

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They were not just Southern. They included towns all across the North, West, and Midwest. One of the scariest scenes from last night’s Lovecraft Country Episode 1 Sundown detailed an encounter between a racist cop patrolling a sundown town and Atticus and his friends. Although set in the past, current events parallel what happened to Atticus. Some places and people haven’t changed. Racism still exists, and the Klan is inexplicably thriving. In Utica, Ohio, as recent as 2015, letters were sent to the high school calling for a ban on interracial dating.

The Road of Dreams, or Route 66, as it is better known, was a particular hotbed for sundown towns. The road which spanned from Chicago to Los Angelos crossed eight states and was 2,440 miles long. In 1930, 44 of the 89 counties that lined the road were all white sundown towns. In 1906 in Springfield, Missouri, the city that would coin the phrase the “66”, a white mob dragged two Black men through town. They hung them in the town square and burned their bodies while everyone watched.

Another city along the route, Tulsa, Oklahoma was home to one of the most devastating acts of terrorism. The Greenwood District of Tulsa was a prosperous community of Black business owners. The area included doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs and was considered a Black Wall Street by Booker T. Washington. When a young Black man was falsely accused of assaulting a white woman, a crazed mob burned 35 blocks of the district. This attack killed at least 300 people and left 10,000 homeless. Route 66 is no more or less racist than any other road, but the length and desolation, particularly in the West, made Black people vulnerable to the whims of racist monsters.

Horror is a popular genre because it allows people to categorize the terror around them. Everyday horrors like prejudice and abuse seem less scary when compared to cosmic dread, at least for privileged white people. Art like Lovecraft Country and Get Out are essential because they ease well-meaning white folk who have a hard time believing people could be so terrible to each other into reality. It’s easier to accept monstrous behavior happens rather than human monsters exist. The fact is America was built on racism. It took decades to get where we are. Hopefully, it won’t take decades more to finish the work. There is still a lot to do.

Lovecraft Country is just getting started. The Elder Gods are coming or they might already have made an appearance. Whether it be racist cops or Shoggoths there are plenty of things to be afraid of. Catch up on all our Lovecraft Country coverage here.