Talk:Vidor, Texas

"Large Minority Population"
I'm pulling this text out again for now since this really doesn't match up with the statistics (quote in the article). 2.67% being something other than non-White (mostly hispanic) and 0.07% being African American (if you do the math, that's 8 people) doesn't really contradict the claim of being a sundown town. Just so that we don't end up in a revert-war, if you disagree please follow up here. Scott.wheeler 20:49, 21 April 2006 (UTC)

I have a little better perspective to offer. Having lived in Vidor most my life and living many years in the Houston area as well, I can say that there is actually far less racism in Vidor than anywhere else I've been. It's as though the Vidorians have been out to disprove racism exist in their town. I watched a group of black men recently standing in a major intersection collecting funds for their Beaumont based church. These men were very successful. People went out of their way to show these folks that we are a non-racial community. Come to www.vidortalk.com and read and talk to these Vidorians. —Preceding unsigned comment added by LandryGetty (talk • contribs) 17:02, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Maybe this was unclear but I was refering to the larger Beaumont=Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area not just the one town.

This page makes Vidor look very Rough and characterizes the city as a poor uneducated town. I would like to see somethings added and kept that gives the town some justice.

Personal Research
Removed minor additions involving personal research, unsourced claims. Deatonjr 12:44, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Bill Simpson
I removed the bit on Bill Simpson and did some copy editing on the controversy section, which was reverted by Mrtrey99. I'm reverting his revert pending discussion here. Aside from the copy-editing, the Bill Simpson section which was removed was:
 * Bill Simpson, the last of the three black residents to leave, was murdered in Beaumont the day after he left. His killing sparked much controversy coming only hours after he fled Vidor. It no longer remains a mystery as he was killed by Michael Wayne Zeno, a member of the Hoover Crips, in the course of a robbery..

Aside from being poorly writen, I removed it because as stated, if not a product of racial violence in Vidor, it is of less relevance to an article on Vidor. Scott.wheeler 11:09, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Oppenheim's 'no blacks after dark' piece
This article about Vidor has occasionally mentioned a piece by Keith Oppenheim titled "Texas city haunted by 'no blacks after dark' past" as a reference for claims that Vidor was a sundown town and haven for the Ku Klux Klan. The problem that I have with this is that I do not consider Oppenheim's piece to be a reliable source for a few reasons. First, the second paragraph is entirely Weltschmerz opinion that is baseless and inconsequential: it's no surprise to me that we are, in many places, still separated, despite a desire for better relations. African-Americans often live in one neighborhood, whites in another. This sets up the article for extreme bias on Oppenheim's part, so I entirely consider this piece to be an op ed and not factual journalism. Second, most of the "evidence" comes from statements by a single person who was recounting two events that, unfortunately, were not specific to any part of the U.S. during segregation. Third, there is evidence that Oppenheim has taken words out of context, when, for example, he quotes Walter Diggles: They think that's a racist town... They think when you go through Vidor, you better be very careful, and most blacks still refuse to stop. Oppenheim does not mention who Diggles meant by "they", which is incredibly important for the reader to accurately determine whether Diggles is backing up Oppenheim's claims or trying to dispel them. Finally, Oppenheim is never specific about events that purportedly validate what he is writing, such as when he discusses an "instance of ... 1993, when the federal government tried to change years of racial separation, and brought a handful of black families into Vidor's public housing".

Until reliable sources about KKK presence in Vidor and sundown town status are added, I think that these claims should be removed. « D. Trebbien ( talk ) 18:55, 3 April 2010 (UTC)


 * That section was recently made worse (a continual problem, though a recent request for semi-protection was denied), previously it also cited a New York Times article about the desegregation efforts which noted similar problems. It seems another reference to the Dallas News has just been added. I'm not willing to call Oppenheim's piece not a reliable source (just going on usual WP par for the course), but more references certainly aren't a bad thing.  Scott.wheeler (talk) 15:16, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Recent piece
I never heard of Vidor before ten minutes ago, so I have no idea if this piece has any legitimacy, but it is about the town: https://humanparts.medium.com/i-grew-up-in-the-most-hateful-town-in-america-a4e91e6b3bc. 37.99.32.239 (talk) 02:35, 19 February 2020 (UTC)

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Read this section of the above named article in order to learn what connects the movie to this place. Hodsha (talk) 21:54, 21 July 2022 (UTC)