In 1922, at least 175 African-American residents of Jay left in a mass exodus after a fight between a black and a white farmer, leaving a legacy of Jay being known as a sundown town.[5][9][10] In a 1974 Tampa Bay Times article, the then-mayor of Jay, J.D. Bray said: "The sun doesn't set on a colored man in Jay, ... Come 4 o'clock, they're gone. They were run out of here back in the days of the turpentine still. And they know better than to come in here.".[5] According to the US Census in 2010 and in 2020, the town still had only four African-American residents, but that was up from just two Black citizens on the 2000 US Census.