Elwood is a city in Madison and Tipton counties in the U.S. state of Indiana. The Madison County portion, which includes most of the city, is part of the Anderson, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the small portion in Tipton County is part of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 8,614 at the 2010 census. History Elwood was laid out in 1853 under the name Duck Creek. It was incorporated as a city in 1891. A post office was established under the name Duck Creek in 1855, was renamed to Elwood in 1869, and has been operating since. By the 1880s, Elwood had become a sundown town, prohibiting Black people from residing within the town. In 1897, when a number of Black families attempted to settle in the town and they were driven out. The Evening Times, in Washington D.C., reported that for more than two decades Black people had not been “permitted to remain any length of time.” This prohibition remained in place for most of the 20th century. Elwood native Wendell Willkie accepted nomination by the Republican party for the 1940 presidential election by holding a large rally of close to 150,000 in the community. Although some prominent Black reporters, such as Marse Callaway of Baltimore, were allowed to briefly stay in a hotel downtown, others were unable to stay the night due to the community’s sundown status. Other Black people were discouraged from attempting to attend the rally at all due to the sundown signs posted at the city limits. These signs and policies remained in place for decades afterwards. By the late twentieth century sundown policies were less strictly enforced, although as recently as 2002 law enforcement in nearby Marion considered Elwood to still be unwelcoming of Black people. In 2015, after Goshen, Indiana, passed a resolution acknowledging its history as a sundown town, Elwood’s own past became a topic of discussion. The mayor of Elwood stated that while he had had no knowledge of the racially exclusionary policies of Elwood’s past, he would address them if they were part of Elwood’s “lingering reputation.” Elwood was the site of a great political event on August 17, 1940. The Republican National Committee held a formal notification ceremony to recognize Elwood-born Wendell Willkie as its nominee for President of the United States to run against Franklin Roosevelt. Held at Callaway Park on the outskirts of