Talk:Anna, Illinois

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I'm curious about how this city was named. I recently heard it was an acronym for "Aint No N****** Allowed". If true shouldn't this be mentioned somehow. I did find some reference to this on the web but not much (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/schedule/2005/11/30/day/).

Anna was the name of the daughter of the founder of that town. It was tagged with the (ain't no niggers allowed) after the 1909 lynching of a black man in Cairo IL. 98 years later the town is mostly white, but as far as i can tell that has nothing to do with blacks not being allowed in town. It seems that the issue was only brought up so James Loewen would sell his book at the expense of the good people of Southern Illinois. If a Town were to exclude a race today the federal government would step in.

On 3/26/2008, someone reverted this addition that I had made to the Anna entry: Most of the African Americans in Anna are residents of the Illinois State Mental Hospital. In 1909, white residents of Anna drove out its black population. For most of the twentieth century, Anna was a sundown town; at times it posted signs to that effect at its city limits. Although named for the wife of the founder in 1854, many residents and residents of nearby towns believe "Anna" stands for the acronym "Ain't No Niggers Allowed." They provided no reason for striking the paragraph. The paragraph is historically accurate and footnoted. Please do not strike it again. Thank you. Jloewen (talk) 13:05, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * There are several issues here. First of all, such a paragraph doesn't belong in the middle of the "demographics" section.  If it belongs anywhere, it would be in a "history" section; that the town was a "sundown town" may well deserve mention in such a section.  Secondly, the statement "Most of the African Americans in Anna are residents of the Illinois State Mental Hospital" is not historical as stated, in the present tense.  Thirdly, "many residents and residents of nearby towns believe..." seems to be an opinion and is also stated in the present tense.  Perhaps a re-working of the paragraph into a history section would be a good solution.  Apparently it was a sundown town, and apparently it was named for the founder's wife; but are the issues of what the residents believe and of the mental hospital relevant or useful?  Omnedon (talk) 00:50, 28 March 2008 (UTC)


 * The footnote you mention is to your own book. Has this been peer-reviewed in any way?   I think there should be multiple independent references cited for the 'sundown town' blurb to remain. --71.107.95.228 (talk) 17:26, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Sign
Why are there no pictures of the sign? I find it hard to believe that some one would not have taken a picture of a sign that said ‘N-words, don’t let the sun go down on you here”.

Sundown towns were a reality. And I have seen pix of real ‘whites only after dark’ signs. I simply wonder if this particular sign actually existed. There were decades to take pictures of it, after all. 67.164.28.137 (talk) 04:22, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

Red dot missing
The infobox shows a map of Illinois with the caption "Location of Anna in Illinois". However, there is nothing in the map to indicate the location. Compare this to similar articles such as Jonesboro, Illinois, where there is a red dot to indicate the location. 67.160.69.105 (talk) 17:01, 10 August 2013 (UTC)
 * by Omnedon Art LaPella (talk) 15:54, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 07:54, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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Sundown town
An IP and a named editor have attempted 5 times to remove the sourced content about this being a former sundown town. It seems to me to be well sourced. What's the problem? Edit summaries such as "We are focused on today and the future and believe in keeping the focus positive, instead of pointing attention towards the past and towards a darker time in history", and "We would like to shift this negative light and focus on what our town is truly about and what the community is like today and has been for decades. We would like to remove this section because it only high lights negative rumors," are not good reasons to erase history.. Meters (talk) 20:23, 21 November 2019 (UTC)
 * And now the new account user:Historical-Preservation-Society has tried to remove the claim without even adding an edit summary. Meters (talk) 22:45, 30 January 2020 (UTC)
 * , I've reverted their edits and directed them to the talk page. Hopefully they will comment, although I definitely agree that they are censoring material, and we should leave it in the article. Lcodyh803 (talk) 22:50, 30 January 2020 (UTC)
 * ,, We apologize for the confusion created by our recent source edit. The recent additions were added to reflect the occupational history of farming and recent trend of wineries in our town. Additionally, we disagree that there is a mention of a rumored acronym for the naming of our town. This page already states the factual history that the town was named after the wife of Winstead Davie. There should not be conflicting information on a credible page especially one that has no source. Historical-Preservation-Society (talk) 23:05, 30 January 2020 (UTC)
 * , I have no problem with your sourced additions, but your removal of content (and honestly also your name) makes me believe you have some conflict of interest on this topic. I believe that content should stay in, no matter how unsavory it may seem, as it is well sourced. As for the name, it says rumored. Lcodyh803 (talk) 23:17, 30 January 2020 (UTC)


 * I'm certainly willing to discuss any real issues with the material, but so far it just seems to be a case of "it looks bad and we just want to forget it ever happened." An IP from the town, a named account of a self-admitted town employee, and now a named account from the historical society, all with the common goal of removing the claim about the sundown town... is the new user the same person who previously tried to remove this as user:162.218.150.2  and multiple times as user:Doriirene   ? Either way the new account name is a violation of the user name rules. Meters (talk) 23:22, 30 January 2020 (UTC)
 * And it's also a shared account. Meters (talk) 23:33, 30 January 2020 (UTC)


 * , Please take a moment to read the cited text "America After Dark", there is no confirmation of either accounts of Anna being a sundown town or of the accronym. The section citing Anna, IL which is the fourth paragraph of the article reads as follows: Sundown towns aren't exactly unknown in popular culture; William Burroughs, Maya Angelou, and Tennessee Williams all mention them. But Loewen's book is the first systematic exploration of the phenomenon, and while the existence of such towns isn't a shock, virtually everything else he's found out might be. Sundown towns, he discovered, were located mostly in the west and midwest, not the south. They came into being relatively recently, mostly between 1890 and 1930, but some as late as the 1950s--and Loewen was able to confirm the existence of towns that threatened African-Americans after dark as recently as 2002. Anna, Illinois, population 5,136, is likely still a sundown town, says Loewen. It reported just 89 African-Americans in the 2000 census, most of them probably residents of the state mental hospital. Elwood, Indiana, which has zero African-American residents, an annual Klan parade, and a vicious reputation, almost surely is.
 * Additionally, the citing credited to Loewen does not share it's own resources of how information was retrieved and states an alleged incident (only by Loewen himself) in 1909 by declaring "Anna, IL followed suit in 1909" and does not state a specific incident or report. The acronym that was referenced appears in second paragraph of the same article but only states he "...learned of the acronym residents applied to their town." but does not state where, by who, or how this was "learned". If we are accepting this type of rumor into the wikipedia archives then I would simply say no subject or topic's integrity is safe. Racism has been a huge problem in America throughout its history, we know it exists. But we believe the cited text that you are currently unwilling to omit is not credible even by the sources that are cited. John Doe can write an article and publish it about how the tides aren't actually controlled by the gravitational pull of the moon, but rather by the jetstream winds due to "research" he has conducted and conversations he has had in various scientific communities, but yet this does not make it fact or science, or in our specific case, concrete history. We do appreciate your assistance in talking this through and want to continue the conversation with you to ensure ONLY credibly sourced information and not mere slander and heresay is included. Historical-Preservation-Society (talk) 15:09, 31 January 2020 (UTC)


 * I have taken over the account and corrected my username after seeing your reference to it violating the user name rules. Thank you. I also look forward to your responses, from my previous addition to the talk on non-factual slander that it being cited as historical evidence that also seems heavily based on assumption and not true research using the word "probably" and stating a census report as the reason for being a sundown town. Samhpsi (talk) 16:48, 31 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Before I discuss this issue please answer these questions: Are you the same user as user:Doriirene? Is this still a shared account? Meters (talk) 23:22, 31 January 2020 (UTC)
 * The answer to both questions is no. I have acquired the account and will be using it strictly as an individual. I was unaware of the user policies until you brought them to my attention. That was my mistake. Samhpsi (talk) 16:35, 3 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Please review my entry into the history section of the page., I've gone through the history of the page itself and pulled credible and noteworthy additions that have been omitted or pulled away for what I feel were not justifiable reasons to include the Stinson Memorial Library which should be one of the main entries on this page honestly. I have also supplied more details on the incident from 1909 (after further research) and connected it to the existing Wikipedia page for William "Froggie" James to shine more light on this story. As you have expressed if it is a historical incident, then it should be noted and all truthful details should be shared. Careful consideration and research was done on "sundown towns" as well as the backcronym, however no sources that were credible other than speculation/assumptions, here-say, or slanderous content were found. I urge you to carefully consider the latest entry into the history section of this page. As always, I am more than willing to discuss this. I do however feel that if my entries are not accepted then it is you who may have conflicted interests and a bias toward misinformation and the spreading of rumors and slanderous content without credible researched sources. Thank you Samhpsi (talk) 18:02, 3 February 2020 (UTC)

Origin of name
The History section first says that "It was founded by Winstead Davie and named after Anna Davie, his wife" but then later says "Its name derives from the acronym standing for "Ain't No Niggers Allowed." Which is it? (I'm going to guess that it's the former and that the later is just a folk etymoloy, but am curious.) 2600:1702:6D0:5160:51DE:928F:78FD:AE37 (talk) 19:14, 10 December 2020 (UTC)

"Anna,IL" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Anna,IL and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 March 18 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Leschnei (talk) 12:24, 18 March 2022 (UTC)