African Americans in Omaha, Nebraska
Encyclopedia
African Americans in Omaha, Nebraska
are central to the development and growth of the 43rd largest city in the United States. The first free black settler in the city arrived in 1854, the year the city was incorporated.
In 1894 black residents of Omaha organized the first fair in the United States for African-American exhibitors and attendees. The 2000 US Census recorded 51,910 African Americans as living in Omaha (over 13% of the city's population). In the 19th century, the growing city of Omaha attracted ambitious people making new lives, such as Dr. Matthew Ricketts
was the first African American to graduate from a Nebraska college or university, and Silas Robbins
was the first African American to be admitted to the bar in Nebraska. In 1892 Dr. Ricketts was also the first African American to be elected to the Nebraska State Legislature. Ernie Chambers
, an African American barber from North Omaha's 11th District, became the longest serving state senator in Nebraska history in 2005 after serving in the unicameral for more than 35 years.
Because of its industrial jobs with the railroads and meatpacking industries, Omaha was the city on the Plains that attracted the most African-American migrants from the South
in the Great Migration
of the early 20th century. By 1910 it had the third largest black population among western cities after Los Angeles and Denver. From 1910 to 1920, the African-American population in Omaha doubled to more than 10,000, as new migrants were attracted by jobs in the expanding meatpacking industry. More than 70 percent were from the South. Of western cities, in 1920 only Los Angeles had a greater population of blacks than Omaha, with nearly 16,000. Reflecting the concentration of people and vital community, in 1915 the Lincoln Motion Picture Company
was founded in Omaha. It was the first film company owned by African Americans. Like several other major industrial cities during the "Red Summer of 1919
", Omaha suffered a race riot. It was marked by the lynching of Will Brown
, a black worker, and deaths of two white men. The violence erupted out of job competition and postwar social tensions among working class groups, aggravated by sensational journalism in the city. In the aftermath of the riot, the city's residential patterns became more segregated. By the 1920s, a vibrant African-American musical and entertainment culture had developed in the city.
While African Americans were already concentrated in North Omaha, in the 1930s redlining
and race restrictive covenants
reinforced their staying there without options for years to move to newer housing. In the 1930s and 1940s African Americans were part of successful interracial organizing teams in the meatpacking industry. They succeeded in creating the integrated United Meatpacking Workers of America union and gained an end to segregated jobs in the industry. The union helped support integration of public facilities in the 1950s and the civil rights movement
in the 1960s. During this period, activists worked both for local and national changes; they contributed to improving conditions for African Americans in Omaha. Mid-century massive restructuring in railroads and the meatpacking industry cost the city more than 10,000 jobs. African Americans were particularly affected by the loss of industrial jobs. Those who could migrated for work in other areas and problems increased among the remaining population in North Omaha.
Omaha has the fifth-highest African American poverty rate among the nation's 100 largest cities, with more than one in three black residents in Omaha living below the poverty line. The percentage of black children in Omaha who live in poverty rank ranks number one in the United States, with nearly six of 10 black kids living below the poverty line. Only one other metropolitan area in the U.S., Minneapolis, has a wider economic disparity between blacks and whites.
in the Omaha area occurred in 1804. "York
" was a slave belonging to William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition
. The presence of several black people
, probably slaves, was recorded in the area comprising North Omaha today when Major Stephen H. Long's expedition arrived at Fort Lisa in September 1819. They reportedly lived at the post and in neighboring farmsteads.
, the first free black person to live in Omaha was Sally Bayne, who moved to Omaha in 1854. A clause in the original proposed Nebraska State Constitution from 1854 limited voting rights in the state to "free white males", which kept Nebraska from entering the Union for almost a year. In the 1860s, the U.S. Census showed 81 "Negroes" in Nebraska, ten of whom were accounted for as slaves. At that time, the majority of the population lived in Omaha and Nebraska City.
Some of the earliest African-American residents of the city may have arrived by the Underground Railroad
via a small log cabin outside of Nebraska City
built by Allen Mayhew in 1855. It is honored today as the Mayhew Cabin
Museum. One report says, "Henry Daniel Smith, born in Maryland in 1835, still living in Omaha in 1913 and working at his trade of broom-maker, was one escaped slave who entered Nebraska via the Underground Railroad."
By 1867 enough blacks gathered in community to found St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church
in the Near North Side
neighborhood. It was the first church for African Americans in Nebraska. The first recorded birth of an African American in Omaha occurred in 1872, when William Leper was born.
Before Omaha's African-American residents gathered in North Omaha, they lived dispersed throughout the city. By 1880 there were nearly 800 black residents, many recruited by Union Pacific Railroad as strikebreakers. By 1884 there three black churches had been founded. By 1900 there were 3,443 black residents, in a total city population of 102,555.
Black men and women quickly formed social and community organizations, such as the Women's Club in 1895, devoted to education, respectability and reform. In addition, the community began to create its own newspapers, such as the Progress, the Afro-American Sentinel and The Enterprise in the 1880s and 1890s.
Blacks also quickly distinguished themselves in public life: in 1892 Dr. Matthew Ricketts
was the first black person elected to serve in the Nebraska Legislature
and in 1895 Silas Robbins
was the first black lawyer admitted to the Nebraska State Bar Association
.
was the first black architect to design a home in Nebraska as a student of the noted Thomas Rogers Kimball
. He also designed churches in Omaha. Wigington gained a national reputation after moving to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1914, where he soon became the senior architectural designer for the city. His legacy includes 60 surviving buildings, among which four are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
In 1912 the Omaha chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
was founded, the first NAACP chapter west of the Mississippi. George Wells Parker
, a founder of the Afrocentric Hamitic League of the World
, was instrumental in recruiting African Americans from the Deep South
to Omaha during the 1910s.
Railroads and the meatpacking industry recruited African American workers from the South. From 1910 to 1920, the African-American population of Omaha doubled from 4,426 to 10,315, making up five percent of Omaha's population. Of the western cities which were new destinations for blacks of the Great Migration, in 1920 Omaha had the second largest black population, after Los Angeles. The rapid pace of growth alarmed some people in the city, which was also absorbing thousands of new eastern and southern European immigrants. People were concerned about social problems: labor unrest following strikes in 1917, and the return of veterans looking for work after World War I.
During the first week of August 1919, the Omaha Bee newspaper reported that as many as 500 "Negro" workers, mostly from Chicago and East St. Louis, arrived in Omaha to seek employment in the packinghouses. The Bee
tended to sensational journalism, adding to tensions in the city as it highlighted alleged crimes committed by blacks. The migration of African Americans to Omaha and the hiring of black workers created a source of friction in the local labor market. Blacks had been hired as strikebreakers in 1917, and there was a major strike among white workers in 1919. The immigrant workers in the meatpacking industry resented the strikebreakers. Economic pressure exacerbated hostilities.
From 1910 to the 1950s, Omaha was a destination for African Americans during the Great Migration from the American South. An African-American cultural expansion flourished beginning in the 1920s, part of a larger boom time in the Prohibition era. A late 20th c. documentary reported about the 1940s, "On the surface the black community appeared quite stable. Its center was a several-block district north of the downtown. There were over a hundred black-owned businesses, and there were a number of black physicians, dentists, and attorneys. Over twenty fraternal organizations and clubs flourished. Church life was diverse. Of more than forty denominations, Methodists and Baptists predominated."
, located immediately north of Downtown Omaha
, is where the majority of African Americans have lived in Omaha for almost 100 years. Originally the community had mostly European immigrants: Germans, Italians and Jews and gradually drew more African Americans. In pre-1900 Omaha, the city's cemetery was always integrated
.
The community became more racially segregated soon after the Omaha Race Riot of 1919
. During that event an African-American worker named Will Brown
was lynched by a white mob outside the Douglas County Courthouse
. After the mob finished with Brown, they turned against the entire population of African Americans in the Near North Side; however, their efforts were thwarted by soldiers from Fort Omaha
. In the following years the city began enforcing race-restrictive covenants. Properties for rent and sale were restricted on the basis of race, with the primary intent of keeping the Near North Side "black" and the rest of the city "white". These agreements were held in place with redlining
, a system of segregated insuring and lending reinforced by the federal government. These restrictions were ruled illegal in 1940.
During the 1930s, the Federal government built housing projects for working families: the Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects in North Omaha and a similar project in South Omaha. Both were intended to improve housing for the large working-class community, whose majority then were immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe and their descendants. With job losses and demographic changes accelerating in the late 1950s and 1960s, the project residents in North Omaha became nearly all poor and low-income
African Americans. By the early first decade of the 21st century, each of these facilities was torn down and replaced with public housing schemes featuring mixed-income and supporting uses.
African-American neighborhoods in Omaha have been studied extensively; the most notable reports include Lois Mark Stalvey
's Three to Get Ready: The Education of a White Family in Inner City Schools, and the 1966 documentary film A Time for Burning
. This movie featured the opinions of the young Ernie Chambers
. A barber, Chambers went on to law school and has been repeatedly elected to represent North Omaha in the Nebraska State Legislature for more than 35 years.
The Union Pacific Railroad
first introduced large numbers of African American strikebreaker
s to Omaha during a strike in 1877. Black barbers organized the first labor union in Omaha, and went on strike in Omaha in 1887 after they deemed it "unprofessional to work beside white competitors." Arriving in 1890, Dr. Stephenson was the first African-American physician in Omaha and the start of a substantial professional class. Matthew Ricketts
was the first African-American medical student to graduate from the University of Nebraska Medical College and settled in North Omaha to set up his practice. In 1892, Dr. Ricketts was the first African-American elected to a seat in the Nebraska State Legislature. According to the Works Progress Administration
, the first African-American fair held in the United States took place in Omaha, July 3–4, 1894. Their study reports: "Only Negro-owned horses were entered in the races, and all exhibits were restricted to articles made or owned by Negroes."
African Americans also built a "Colored Old Folks Home" in North Omaha in the 1910s and sustained it for a long period of time. Clarence W. Wigington
was a renowned African-American architect from Omaha. He designed St. John's A.M.E. and the Broomfield Rowhouse
, among many others in the city, but built most of his career after 1914 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Miss Lucy Gambol, later known as Mrs. John Albert Williams, was the first African-American teacher in the Omaha Public Schools
, teaching there for six years from 1899 through 1905. The first film company controlled by Black filmmakers was founded in Omaha in the summer of 1915. George and Noble Johnson founded the Lincoln Motion Picture Company
to produce films for African-American audiences. Noble was a small-time actor; George worked for the post office. Noble Johnson was president of the company; Clarence A. Brooks, secretary; Dr. James T. Smith, treasurer; and Dudley A. Brooks was assistant secretary. Lincoln Films quickly built a reputation for making films that showcased African-American talent in the full sphere of cinema. In less than a year the company relocated to Los Angeles, where the major film industry was located.
Today African Americans own fifty percent of all minority-owned businesses in Omaha.
In 1892, Dr. Matthew Ricketts
became the first African American elected to the Nebraska State Legislature, and was the acknowledged leader of the African-American community in Omaha. After he left Omaha in 1903, Jack Broomfield
, proprietor of a notorious bar in downtown Omaha
, became the leader of the community. He is criticized for having allowed the community to fall apart under the influence of Tom Dennison
.
No African Americans served on the Omaha City Council
or Douglas County Board of Commissioners until district elections became law. In 1893 Edwin R. Overall, a mail carrier, ran as a Populist
for the City Council. He finished 18th in a field of 23 candidates running at-large for nine of 18 council seats. In 1973 and 1977, Fred Conley ran for the Omaha City Council in the at-large format and each time finished 18th – just as Overall did some 70 years earlier. At-large elections were won by candidates who represented the majority population of the city, which was white.
In 1981, after City Council elections were changed to be based on district representation, Conley became the first African American elected. He served until 1989. In 1992, Carol Woods Harris became the first African American elected to the Douglas County Board and served until 2004.
African Americans have been represented on the Omaha School Board since 1950 when attorney Elizabeth Davis Pittman was elected. De-facto school segregation, however, persisted in Omaha long after that date with school boundaries tailored to match residential areas, which had de facto segregation.
Brenda Warren Council, a former member of the Omaha School Board and the City Council, narrowly lost the 1997 mayoral election, losing by 700 votes to Mayor Hal Daub
. In 2003 Thomas Warren, Brenda Council's brother, was appointed by Mayor Mike Fahey as the city’s first African-American Chief of Police for the Omaha Police Department.
In 2005, Marlon Polk was appointed by Governor Dave Heineman
to serve as a District Court
Judge, the first African American to do so in Nebraska. He was assigned to serve in Douglas County
. In 1970 Ernie Chambers
became the city's second African American elected to the state legislature. Chambers has won every election since then, and in 2007 became the longest-serving Nebraska Senator in history. In 2005 the Nebraska State Legislature approved a term limit
law limiting legislators to two terms, forcing Chambers from office in 2008.
, organized in 1867; St. Phillip the Deacon Episcopal Church, organized in 1878, and; Zion Baptist Church, organized in 1884. The second St. John's building and Zion's current building were notable for being designed by future master architect Clarence Wigington. St. John's current building is lauded for being a notable example of the Prairie School
architectural style.
In 1921, the Omaha and Council Bluffs Colored Ministerial Alliance demanded that Tom Dennison
's cabarets in the Sporting District "wherein there is unwarranted mingling of the races" be closed indefinitely. It is unknown what their objectives were.
Other influential churches included Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church
, which opened in 1954 as an integrated congregation. Omaha had several interesting examples of integration in its churches, including those featured the documentary film A Time for Burning
and Pearl Memorial United Methodist Church
, which began integration efforts in the 1970s. Sacred Heart Catholic Church
has operated since the late 19th century and has evolved numerous times as different ethnic groups succeeded each other in the neighborhood. North Omaha's Lizzie Robinson
founded the first Church of God in Christ
congregation in Nebraska in the 1920s. Salem Baptist Church
has been particularly important in the city's African-American community, hosting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a major speaking event in Omaha in 1957.
The Royal Circle was a premier African-American social organization. The Royal Circle held annual cotillion
s for young African-American women through the early 1960s, at which they were "introduced" to adult society. Formed in 1918, the War Camp Community Service became the local American Legion
the following year. The Centralized Commonwealth Civic Club, formed in 1937, promoted community business. Two local Boy Scout
troops (Troop 23, Troop 79) were founded for African-American youth.
The community also boasted halls for the Odd Fellows
, the Masons
, (which had about 550 members in North Omaha in 1936), and the Elks
, (with about 250 members in the community in 1936). Perhaps the most elusive organization in North Omaha was the Knights and Daughters of Tabor, also known as the "Knights of Liberty". This was a secret African-American organization whose goal was "nothing less than the destruction of slavery."
at 24th and Grant Streets. Dreamland hosted some of the greatest jazz, blues, and swing performers, including Duke Ellington
, Count Basie
, Louis Armstrong
, Lionel Hampton
, and the original Nat King Cole Trio. Whitney Young
spoke there as well. Other venues included Jim Bell's Harlem, opened in 1935 on Lake Street, west of 24th; McGill's Blue Room, located at 24th and Lake, and; Allen's Showcase Lounge, which was located at 24th and Lake.
The Ritz Theater was opened in the mid-1930s at 2041 North 24th Street, near Patrick Avenue. It was specifically designated an "African-American theater" with seating for 548 people. It was closed in the 1950s and has since been demolished.
During this period, North Omaha and its main artery of North 24th Street
were the heart of the city's African-American cultural and business community, with a thriving jazz and rhythm & blues scene that attracted top-flight swing, blues
and jazz
bands from across the country. Due to racial segregation
, musicians such as Cab Calloway
stayed at Myrtle Washington's at 22nd and Willis, while others stayed at Charlie Trimble's at 22nd and Seward. Early North Omaha bands included Dan Desdunes Band, Simon Harrold's Melody Boys, the Sam Turner
Orchestra, the Ted Adams Orchestra, the Omaha Night Owls, Red Perkins
and his Original Dixie Ramblers, and the Lloyd Hunter
Band who, in 1931, became the first Omaha band to record. A Lloyd Hunter concert poster can be seen on display at the Community Center in nearby Mineola, Iowa
.
The intersection of 24th and Lake was the setting of the Big Joe Williams
song "Omaha Blues". Omaha-born Wynonie Harris
, one of the founders of rock and roll
, got his start at the North Omaha clubs, and for a time lived in the now-demolished Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
. There were innumerable African American churches, social and civic clubs, formal dances for young people, and many other cultural activities.
Several accounts attribute the decline of the African-American cultural scene in North Omaha to the riots of the 1960s and 70s. Television also took away from local entertainment. Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been a resurgence in interest in this vibrant period, with cultural and historical institutions created to honor it, such as Love's Jazz & Art Center, the Dreamland Project, and the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame
. In addition, new entertainment venues such as the Slowdown
and The Waiting Room Lounge have opened.
, who left Omaha to tour nationally, said,
The history of African Americans and music in Omaha is long and varied. The black music community was first organized in the early 20th century by Josiah Waddle, one of Omaha's first barbers. After teaching himself to play a number of brass instrument
s, Waddle pulled together Omaha's first AfricanAmerican band in 1902. In 1917 he brought together the first women's band in Omaha. One of his most famous students was Lloyd Hunter
, who ran one of the most popular orchestras' in the United States Midwest. Anna Mae Winburn
was a student of Waddle's as well.
After leading the Cotton Club Boys
and several smaller outfits, Winburn led the International Sweethearts of Rhythm
to fame during World War II. The Sweethearts were the first integrated all women's band in the United States. Nat Towles
also led an important territory band
out of Omaha during the swing era
, and most of these bands were represented by the National Orchestra Service
, which was also based out of Omaha. It was a nationally regarded company which acted as agent for dozens of bands.
International Jazz legend Preston Love
was an important figure in Omaha's African-American community. After playing in Towles' and Hunter's bands, Love joined Count Basie
as a saxophonist. After traveling the world, Love came back to North Omaha and founded his own band. He also joined the staff of the Omaha Star
newspaper. Love toured the U.S. and Europe into the late 1990s and died in 2004.
North Omaha's musical culture gave rise to several influential African-American musicians. Rhythm & Blues singer Wynonie Harris
and influential drummer Buddy Miles
, who played with guitarist Jimi Hendrix
, were friends while they grew up and played together. They collaborated throughout their lives, and while they were playing with the greatest names in Rock and Roll, Jazz, R&B and Funk. Big Joe Williams
and funk band leader Lester Abrams
are also from North Omaha.
There have been numerous African-American newspapers in Omaha. The first was the Progress, established in 1889 by F.L. Barnett. Cyrus D. Bell, an ex-slave, established the Afro-American Sentinel in 1892. In 1893 G.F. Franklin started publishing the Enterprise, later published by Thomas P. Mahammitt. It was the longest lived of any of the early African-American newspapers published in Omaha. The best known and most widely read of all African-American newspapers in the city was the Omaha Monitor, established in 1915, edited and published by Reverend John Albert Williams. It stopped publishing in 1929.
George Wells Parker
, co-founder of the Hamitic League of the World
, founded the New Era in Omaha from 1920 through until 1926. The Omaha Guide was established by B.V. and C.C. Galloway in 1927. The Guide, with a circulation of over 25,000 and an advertisers' list including business firms from coast to coast, was the largest African-American newspaper west of the Missouri River
through the 1930s.
Today, African-American culture in Omaha is regarded as being anchored, in large part, by The Omaha Star, founded by the late Mildred D. Brown and her husband S.E. Gilbert in 1938. Brown is believed to be the first female, certainly the first African-American woman, to have founded a newspaper in the nation's history. She managed the paper for the rest of her life. Since 1945 the paper was the only one representing the black community in Omaha and the only black paper being printed in the state. Today the paper has a circulation of more than 30,000; distribution to the 48 continental states, and is being managed by her niece.
, or OBMHoF. Their inductees include African American contributors to rock and roll
, swing, jazz
and R&B, as well as other cultural contributions.
Formed by Bertha Calloway in the 1960s, the Negro Historical Society opened the Great Plains Black Museum in North Omaha in 1974. Located at 2213 Lake Street, the museum is home to Omaha's only African American history collection. The annual Omaha Jazz and Blues Festival also promotes African American culture throughout the city.
North Omaha has a contentious history between whites and African Americans that is predicated on racism. In 1891 an African American George Smith
was lynched at the Douglas County Courthouse, accused as a suspect for allegedly attacking a young girl. While little is known about Smith, reports of the incident described a mob dragging Smith from his cell, before any court trial, and hanging him from a nearby street post.
In July 1910 racial tension flared towards the African-American community after a tremendous upset victory by African-American boxer Jack Johnson
in Reno, Nevada
. Mobs of whites roamed throughout Omaha rioting, as they did in cities across the U.S.. The mobs wounded several black men in the city, killing one.
The Red Summer of 1919
caused one Omaha newspaper to run a front page declaration that 21 Omaha women reported that they were assaulted from early June to late September 1919. In an example of yellow journalism
, twenty of the victims were white and 16 of the assailants were identified as black, while only one of the victims was black. A separate newspaper warned that vigilante committees would be formed if the "respectable colored population could not purge those from the Negro community who were assaulting white girls." During the ensuing Omaha Race Riot of 1919
in September, a white ethnic mob from South Omaha took over the Douglas County Courthouse. The white rioters lynched Willy Brown, an accused packinghouse worker. They then tried to attack blacks on the street and move against the community in North Omaha. Soldiers from Fort Omaha
put down the riot. They reestablished control and were stationed in South Omaha, to prevent any more mobs from forming, and in North Omaha at 24th and Lake streets "to prevent any further murders of black citizens. Orders were issued that any citizen with a gun faced immediate arrest. All blacks were ordered to remain indoors."
of many of Omaha's neighborhoods. Introduced in the 1930s, the practices of redlining
by banks and racially restrictive housing covenants
effectively ended for decades the ability of African Americans to buy or rent outside North Omaha. Originally built in the 1930s, Omaha housing projects were intended for occupancy without reference to race. A 1937 report from the Omaha Housing Authority
reported that residents included "both black and white occupants and there are 284 units. There is no distinct segregation of the whites from the blacks but individual buildings will be confined to either Negro or white." The Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
, built during the Depression, with an addition completed in 1941, to improve working class housing in North Omaha, was closed to African Americans through the 1950s. Even in the 1940s, housing was so overcrowded in the area that some families stayed at the projects although their income exceeded the limits, because they couldn't find housing elsewhere. With civil rights challenges, the segregation policy that kept African Americans out of public housing changed in the 1960s.
The massive loss of industrial jobs changed the nature of families and the issues in public housing. Although the Logan Fontenelle projects were first built for working families, they came to be dominated by the unemployed. Other public housing projects also reflected later de facto segregation. A concentration of problems here and in other cities led the City of Omaha, along with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to radically rethink public housing in the 1990s. The Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
was torn down in 1996. Today public housing is scattered throughout Omaha and often combined with market rate housing and community amenities.
Universal Negro Improvement Association was founded by Earl Little, a Baptist minister and the father of Malcolm X
. Malcolm X was born in Omaha
in 1925. Malcolm X's mother reported a 1924 incident where her family was warned to leave Omaha
by Ku Klux Klan
smen. She was told that her husband Earl Little, was "stirring up trouble" through his involvement with Universal Negro Improvement Association was The family moved shortly thereafter.
Another radical leader, Communist spokesman and one-time leader of American forces in the Spanish Civil War
Harry Haywood
, was born in 1898 in South Omaha as Haywood Hall to parents who were former slaves. In 1913 his father was beaten by a white gang at the South Omaha meatpacking plant where he worked, forcing the family to move from the city. The African Blood Brotherhood
, started in Omaha, contributed to radicalizing Haywood when he joined it the group in Chicago, where his family had moved in 1915.
Starting in 1920, the Colored Commercial Club organized to help blacks in Omaha secure employment and to encourage business enterprises among African Americans. The National Federation of Colored Women had five chapters in Omaha. In 1928 the first Urban League chapter in the American West was founded in city. Whitney Young
led the chapter in 1950 and tripled its membership. After a few years he left Omaha, taking over the national leadership of the Urban League by 1961.
The I.W.W. organized African-American workers in the South Omaha Stockyards in the 1920s. Along with the rest of the working class, they suffered setbacks during layoffs in the Great Depression.
In the 1930s, however, an interracial committee succeeded in organizing the United Meatpacking Workers of America
, one of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
(CIO) unions. They worked to end segregation of job positions in meatpacking in the 1940s. Community leader Rowena Moore
attacked gender restrictions and organized to expand opportunities in industry for black women. UMPWA helped African Americans extended their political power and gain an end to segregation in retail places in the 1950s. After all this progress, however, the loss of more than 10,000 jobs due to structural changes in the railroad and meatpacking industries in the 1960s sharply reduced opportunities for the working class communities.
As a major western city, Omaha was visited by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1958 and Robert Kennedy in 1968, who helped galvanize the civil rights movement
in North Omaha. Local leaders continued to struggle against racism. North Omaha was marred by race-related violence and de facto segregation throughout the 20th century. When the Black Panthers were implicated in a police killing in North Omaha in 1970, the trial highlighted political tensions. The Rice/Poindexter Case
continues to highlight Omaha's contentious legacy of racism. A majority of Omaha's African-American population still lives in North Omaha.
." The inability of government money to solve the problems of Omaha's African American community was accented by white flight. The city's schools were greatly affected by racial unrest. Consequential to the 1971 Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
ruling enforcing Desegregation busing in the United States, Omaha was reputed to have adapted well to integrated busing. However, an analysis of white flight found that public schools in Omaha had enhanced racial discrimination despite their integration attempts. Optional attendance zones, the location of new schools, and feeder patterns were found to enhance segregation
. This study found that mandatory busing was required to attain racial balance in every school. Enrollment of white students in the Omaha Public Schools
plummeted in the 1970s, while the enrollment of black students during the same period rose from 21% to 30%, primarily due to the loss of white students. In the 1990s the Omaha Housing Authority adopted a scattered site housing plan, eventually destroying several of the housing projects in the city, including the Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
.
The civil rights movement brought calls for black power
and against racism to Omaha. While youth
throughout the city were being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War
, funding for education and youth programs were being cut, and policing tactics were targeting African-American youth. This led to a series of protests and riot
s, the repercussions of which are still felt today in some communities.
On July 4, 1966, the temperature soared to 103 degrees. A crowd of African Americans gathered at the intersection of North 24th and Lake Streets in the evening. When police requested their dispersal they responded violently. After demolishing police cars, the mob roamed the North 24th Street business corridor for hours, throwing firebombs and demolishing storefronts. After three days of rioting millions of dollars of damage was reported by affected businesses.
Riots erupted again on August 1, 1966 after a 19-year-old was shot by a white, off-duty policeman during a burglary. The Omaha World-Herald
and local television stations blamed African Americans for the conditions they faced in their deteriorating neighborhoods during this period. Three buildings were firebombed, and 180 riot police were required to quell the crowds.
On March 4, 1968 a crowd of high school and university students were gathered at the Omaha Civic Auditorium
to protest the presidential campaign of George Wallace
, the segregationist governor of Alabama
. After counter-protesters began acting violently toward the youth activists
, police brutality
led to the injury of dozens of protesters. An African-American youth was shot and killed by a police officer during the melee, and fleeing students caused thousands of dollars of damage to businesses and cars. The following day a local barber named Ernie Chambers
helped calm a disturbance and prevent a riot by students at Horace Mann Junior High School. Chambers was already recognized as a community leader. After finishing his law degree, Chambers was elected to the Nebraska State Legislature, and served a total of 38 years, longer than any of his predecessors.
African-American teenager Vivian Strong was shot and killed by police officers in an incident at the Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects on June 24, 1969. Young African Americans in the area rioted in response to the teenager's death, with looting along the North 24th Street business corridor. During this initial surge, eight businesses were destroyed by firebombing or looting. Rioting went on for several more days. This is the last noted riot in Omaha.
The effects of these riots is still evident in the North 24th Street
district, with high numbers of vacant lots and general economic depression still prevalent.
founded the Nebraska Negro Historical Society, and in 1974 the Society opened the Great Plains Black History Museum
. It includes material related to the history of black homesteaders on the plains, as well as the more numerous urbanites based chiefly in Omaha, the major city of the state.
In 1976 the community began Native Omaha Days
, devised as a series of activities to celebrate black history in the city. In addition to being a labor organizer in meatpacking in the 1940s, Rowena Moore
led an effort to recognize the Malcolm X House Site
in the 1970s. A monument to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was placed along North 24th Street
in the late 1990s. The Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame
was founded in 2005 to celebrate the city's musical history.
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
are central to the development and growth of the 43rd largest city in the United States. The first free black settler in the city arrived in 1854, the year the city was incorporated.
In 1894 black residents of Omaha organized the first fair in the United States for African-American exhibitors and attendees. The 2000 US Census recorded 51,910 African Americans as living in Omaha (over 13% of the city's population). In the 19th century, the growing city of Omaha attracted ambitious people making new lives, such as Dr. Matthew Ricketts
Matthew Ricketts
Matthew Oliver Ricketts was an American politician and physician. He was the first African-American state senator in the Nebraska Legislature, where he served for two terms...
was the first African American to graduate from a Nebraska college or university, and Silas Robbins
Silas Robbins
Silas Robbins was the first African American admitted to practice law in the U.S. state of Nebraska in 1889, and the first black person in Omaha, Nebraska to be admitted to the Nebraska State Bar Association.- Biography :...
was the first African American to be admitted to the bar in Nebraska. In 1892 Dr. Ricketts was also the first African American to be elected to the Nebraska State Legislature. Ernie Chambers
Ernie Chambers
Ernest W. Chambers is a former Nebraska State Senator who represented North Omaha's 11th District in the Nebraska State Legislature. He is also a civil rights activist and is considered by most citizens of Nebraska as the most prominent and outspoken African American leader in the state...
, an African American barber from North Omaha's 11th District, became the longest serving state senator in Nebraska history in 2005 after serving in the unicameral for more than 35 years.
Because of its industrial jobs with the railroads and meatpacking industries, Omaha was the city on the Plains that attracted the most African-American migrants from the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
in the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
of the early 20th century. By 1910 it had the third largest black population among western cities after Los Angeles and Denver. From 1910 to 1920, the African-American population in Omaha doubled to more than 10,000, as new migrants were attracted by jobs in the expanding meatpacking industry. More than 70 percent were from the South. Of western cities, in 1920 only Los Angeles had a greater population of blacks than Omaha, with nearly 16,000. Reflecting the concentration of people and vital community, in 1915 the Lincoln Motion Picture Company
Lincoln Motion Picture Company
The Lincoln Motion Picture Company was an American film production company founded by the Johnson brothers in 1915 in Omaha, Nebraska; it was incorporated in 1916 in Los Angeles, California. Among the first organized black filmmakers, it became the first producer of so-called "race movies"...
was founded in Omaha. It was the first film company owned by African Americans. Like several other major industrial cities during the "Red Summer of 1919
Red Summer of 1919
Red Summer describes the race riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities in the United States during the summer and early autumn of 1919. In most instances, whites attacked African Americans. In some cases groups of blacks fought back, notably in Chicago, where, along with Washington, D.C....
", Omaha suffered a race riot. It was marked by the lynching of Will Brown
Omaha Race Riot of 1919
The Omaha Race Riot occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 28–29, 1919. The race riot resulted in the brutal lynching of Will Brown, a black worker; the death of two white men; the attempted hanging of the mayor Edward Parsons Smith; and a public rampage by thousands of whites who set fire to...
, a black worker, and deaths of two white men. The violence erupted out of job competition and postwar social tensions among working class groups, aggravated by sensational journalism in the city. In the aftermath of the riot, the city's residential patterns became more segregated. By the 1920s, a vibrant African-American musical and entertainment culture had developed in the city.
While African Americans were already concentrated in North Omaha, in the 1930s redlining
Redlining
Redlining is the practice of denying, or increasing the cost of services such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarkets to residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. The term "redlining" was coined in the late 1960s by John McKnight, a...
and race restrictive covenants
Restrictive covenant
A restrictive covenant is a type of real covenant, a legal obligation imposed in a deed by the seller upon the buyer of real estate to do or not to do something. Such restrictions frequently "run with the land" and are enforceable on subsequent buyers of the property...
reinforced their staying there without options for years to move to newer housing. In the 1930s and 1940s African Americans were part of successful interracial organizing teams in the meatpacking industry. They succeeded in creating the integrated United Meatpacking Workers of America union and gained an end to segregated jobs in the industry. The union helped support integration of public facilities in the 1950s and the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
in the 1960s. During this period, activists worked both for local and national changes; they contributed to improving conditions for African Americans in Omaha. Mid-century massive restructuring in railroads and the meatpacking industry cost the city more than 10,000 jobs. African Americans were particularly affected by the loss of industrial jobs. Those who could migrated for work in other areas and problems increased among the remaining population in North Omaha.
Omaha has the fifth-highest African American poverty rate among the nation's 100 largest cities, with more than one in three black residents in Omaha living below the poverty line. The percentage of black children in Omaha who live in poverty rank ranks number one in the United States, with nearly six of 10 black kids living below the poverty line. Only one other metropolitan area in the U.S., Minneapolis, has a wider economic disparity between blacks and whites.
Population history
The first recorded instance of a black personBlack people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
in the Omaha area occurred in 1804. "York
York (Lewis and Clark)
York was an African American slave best known for his participation with the Lewis and Clark Expedition. As William Clark's slave, he performed hard manual labor without pay, but participated as a full member of the expedition. Like many other expedition members, his ultimate fate is unclear...
" was a slave belonging to William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, or ″Corps of Discovery Expedition" was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by two Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, Meriwether Lewis and William...
. The presence of several black people
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
, probably slaves, was recorded in the area comprising North Omaha today when Major Stephen H. Long's expedition arrived at Fort Lisa in September 1819. They reportedly lived at the post and in neighboring farmsteads.
19th century
After a short history of slavery in NebraskaHistory of slavery in Nebraska
The history of slavery in Nebraska is generally seen as short and limited. The issue was contentious for the legislature between the creation of the Nebraska Territory in 1854 and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. However, there was apparently a particular acceptance of African...
, the first free black person to live in Omaha was Sally Bayne, who moved to Omaha in 1854. A clause in the original proposed Nebraska State Constitution from 1854 limited voting rights in the state to "free white males", which kept Nebraska from entering the Union for almost a year. In the 1860s, the U.S. Census showed 81 "Negroes" in Nebraska, ten of whom were accounted for as slaves. At that time, the majority of the population lived in Omaha and Nebraska City.
Some of the earliest African-American residents of the city may have arrived by the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
via a small log cabin outside of Nebraska City
Nebraska City, Nebraska
Nebraska City is a city in Otoe County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 7,228 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Otoe County...
built by Allen Mayhew in 1855. It is honored today as the Mayhew Cabin
Mayhew Cabin
Built in 1855, the Mayhew Cabin and Historic Village in Nebraska City, Nebraska is the only National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site in Nebraska officially recognized by the National Park Service.- History :...
Museum. One report says, "Henry Daniel Smith, born in Maryland in 1835, still living in Omaha in 1913 and working at his trade of broom-maker, was one escaped slave who entered Nebraska via the Underground Railroad."
By 1867 enough blacks gathered in community to found St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church
St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church
St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first church for African Americans in Nebraska, organized in North Omaha in 1867. It is located at 2402 North 22nd Street in the Near North Side neighborhood. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was...
in the Near North Side
Near North Side (Omaha, Nebraska)
The Near North Side of Omaha, Nebraska is the neighborhood immediately north of downtown. It forms the nucleus of the city's African-American community, and its name is often synonymous with the entire North Omaha area...
neighborhood. It was the first church for African Americans in Nebraska. The first recorded birth of an African American in Omaha occurred in 1872, when William Leper was born.
Before Omaha's African-American residents gathered in North Omaha, they lived dispersed throughout the city. By 1880 there were nearly 800 black residents, many recruited by Union Pacific Railroad as strikebreakers. By 1884 there three black churches had been founded. By 1900 there were 3,443 black residents, in a total city population of 102,555.
Black men and women quickly formed social and community organizations, such as the Women's Club in 1895, devoted to education, respectability and reform. In addition, the community began to create its own newspapers, such as the Progress, the Afro-American Sentinel and The Enterprise in the 1880s and 1890s.
Blacks also quickly distinguished themselves in public life: in 1892 Dr. Matthew Ricketts
Matthew Ricketts
Matthew Oliver Ricketts was an American politician and physician. He was the first African-American state senator in the Nebraska Legislature, where he served for two terms...
was the first black person elected to serve in the Nebraska Legislature
Nebraska Legislature
The Nebraska Legislature is the supreme legislative body of the State of Nebraska, in the Great Plains region of the United States. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in the City of Lincoln, Lancaster County....
and in 1895 Silas Robbins
Silas Robbins
Silas Robbins was the first African American admitted to practice law in the U.S. state of Nebraska in 1889, and the first black person in Omaha, Nebraska to be admitted to the Nebraska State Bar Association.- Biography :...
was the first black lawyer admitted to the Nebraska State Bar Association
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
.
20th century
At the turn of the 20th century, two African-American physicians, doctors Riddle and Madison, opened a hospital for African Americans. Citizens could not afford the facility and it failed financially. Reared in Omaha, Clarence W. WigingtonClarence W. Wigington
Clarence Wesley "Cap" Wigington was an African-American architect who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. After winning three first prizes in charcoal, pencil, and pen and ink at an art competition during the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in 1899, Wigington went on to become a renowned architect across...
was the first black architect to design a home in Nebraska as a student of the noted Thomas Rogers Kimball
Thomas Rogers Kimball
Thomas Rogers Kimball was an American architect in Omaha, Nebraska. An architect-in-chief of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898, he served as national President of the American Institute of Architects from 1918–1920 and from 1919-1932 served on the Nebraska State Capitol...
. He also designed churches in Omaha. Wigington gained a national reputation after moving to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1914, where he soon became the senior architectural designer for the city. His legacy includes 60 surviving buildings, among which four are listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
In 1912 the Omaha chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
was founded, the first NAACP chapter west of the Mississippi. George Wells Parker
George Wells Parker
George Wells Parker was an African American political activist and writer who co-founded the Hamitic League of the World....
, a founder of the Afrocentric Hamitic League of the World
Hamitic League of the World
Hamitic League of the World was an African American nationalist organization. Its declared aims were:The word Hamitic derives from Ham the son of Noah in the Old Testament. The organisation was founded in 1917 by George Wells Parker. In 1918 it published his pamphlet Children of the Sun...
, was instrumental in recruiting African Americans from the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
to Omaha during the 1910s.
Railroads and the meatpacking industry recruited African American workers from the South. From 1910 to 1920, the African-American population of Omaha doubled from 4,426 to 10,315, making up five percent of Omaha's population. Of the western cities which were new destinations for blacks of the Great Migration, in 1920 Omaha had the second largest black population, after Los Angeles. The rapid pace of growth alarmed some people in the city, which was also absorbing thousands of new eastern and southern European immigrants. People were concerned about social problems: labor unrest following strikes in 1917, and the return of veterans looking for work after World War I.
During the first week of August 1919, the Omaha Bee newspaper reported that as many as 500 "Negro" workers, mostly from Chicago and East St. Louis, arrived in Omaha to seek employment in the packinghouses. The Bee
Omaha Bee
The Omaha Bee was a pioneer newspaper in Omaha, Nebraska founded on May 8, 1871, by Edward Rosewater, a Bohemian Jewish immigrant who supported abolition and fought in the Union Army. The Bee was regarded as a Republican newspaper, and early on featured Rosewater's opinions...
tended to sensational journalism, adding to tensions in the city as it highlighted alleged crimes committed by blacks. The migration of African Americans to Omaha and the hiring of black workers created a source of friction in the local labor market. Blacks had been hired as strikebreakers in 1917, and there was a major strike among white workers in 1919. The immigrant workers in the meatpacking industry resented the strikebreakers. Economic pressure exacerbated hostilities.
From 1910 to the 1950s, Omaha was a destination for African Americans during the Great Migration from the American South. An African-American cultural expansion flourished beginning in the 1920s, part of a larger boom time in the Prohibition era. A late 20th c. documentary reported about the 1940s, "On the surface the black community appeared quite stable. Its center was a several-block district north of the downtown. There were over a hundred black-owned businesses, and there were a number of black physicians, dentists, and attorneys. Over twenty fraternal organizations and clubs flourished. Church life was diverse. Of more than forty denominations, Methodists and Baptists predominated."
Neighborhoods
Early African American neighborhoods in Omaha included Casey's Row, a community of housing for African-American families, most of whose men worked as railroad porters at the nearby Union Pacific Railroad. The steady jobs on the railroads were considered good work, even if some men had greater ambitions. In the 1880s, Omaha's original "Negro district" was located at Twentieth and Harney Streets. The Near North SideNear North Side (Omaha, Nebraska)
The Near North Side of Omaha, Nebraska is the neighborhood immediately north of downtown. It forms the nucleus of the city's African-American community, and its name is often synonymous with the entire North Omaha area...
, located immediately north of Downtown Omaha
Downtown Omaha
Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, and is located in Omaha, Nebraska. The boundaries are 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east and the centerline of Leavenworth Street on the south to the centerline...
, is where the majority of African Americans have lived in Omaha for almost 100 years. Originally the community had mostly European immigrants: Germans, Italians and Jews and gradually drew more African Americans. In pre-1900 Omaha, the city's cemetery was always integrated
Social integration
Social integration, in sociology and other social sciences, is the movement of minority groups such as ethnic minorities, refugees and underprivileged sections of a society into the mainstream of societies...
.
The community became more racially segregated soon after the Omaha Race Riot of 1919
Omaha Race Riot of 1919
The Omaha Race Riot occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 28–29, 1919. The race riot resulted in the brutal lynching of Will Brown, a black worker; the death of two white men; the attempted hanging of the mayor Edward Parsons Smith; and a public rampage by thousands of whites who set fire to...
. During that event an African-American worker named Will Brown
Omaha Race Riot of 1919
The Omaha Race Riot occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 28–29, 1919. The race riot resulted in the brutal lynching of Will Brown, a black worker; the death of two white men; the attempted hanging of the mayor Edward Parsons Smith; and a public rampage by thousands of whites who set fire to...
was lynched by a white mob outside the Douglas County Courthouse
Douglas County Courthouse (Omaha)
The present Douglas County Courthouse is located at 1701 Farnam Street in Omaha, Nebraska. Built in 1912, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Notable events at the courthouse include two lynchings and the city's first Civil Rights Era sit-in protest...
. After the mob finished with Brown, they turned against the entire population of African Americans in the Near North Side; however, their efforts were thwarted by soldiers from Fort Omaha
Fort Omaha
Fort Omaha, originally known as Sherman Barracks and then Omaha Barracks, is an Indian War-era United States Army supply installation. Located at 5730 North 30th Street, with the entrance at North 30th and Fort Streets in modern-day North Omaha, Nebraska, the facility is primarily occupied by ...
. In the following years the city began enforcing race-restrictive covenants. Properties for rent and sale were restricted on the basis of race, with the primary intent of keeping the Near North Side "black" and the rest of the city "white". These agreements were held in place with redlining
Redlining
Redlining is the practice of denying, or increasing the cost of services such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarkets to residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. The term "redlining" was coined in the late 1960s by John McKnight, a...
, a system of segregated insuring and lending reinforced by the federal government. These restrictions were ruled illegal in 1940.
During the 1930s, the Federal government built housing projects for working families: the Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects in North Omaha and a similar project in South Omaha. Both were intended to improve housing for the large working-class community, whose majority then were immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe and their descendants. With job losses and demographic changes accelerating in the late 1950s and 1960s, the project residents in North Omaha became nearly all poor and low-income
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
African Americans. By the early first decade of the 21st century, each of these facilities was torn down and replaced with public housing schemes featuring mixed-income and supporting uses.
African-American neighborhoods in Omaha have been studied extensively; the most notable reports include Lois Mark Stalvey
Lois Mark Stalvey
Lois Mark Stalvey was an author, educator and civil rights activist. She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and died in Sedona, Arizona...
's Three to Get Ready: The Education of a White Family in Inner City Schools, and the 1966 documentary film A Time for Burning
A Time for Burning
A Time for Burning is a 1966 American documentary film which explores the attempts of the minister of Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, to persuade his all-white congregation to reach out to "negro" Lutherans in the city's north side. The film was directed by San Francisco filmmaker...
. This movie featured the opinions of the young Ernie Chambers
Ernie Chambers
Ernest W. Chambers is a former Nebraska State Senator who represented North Omaha's 11th District in the Nebraska State Legislature. He is also a civil rights activist and is considered by most citizens of Nebraska as the most prominent and outspoken African American leader in the state...
. A barber, Chambers went on to law school and has been repeatedly elected to represent North Omaha in the Nebraska State Legislature for more than 35 years.
Occupations
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
first introduced large numbers of African American strikebreaker
Strikebreaker
A strikebreaker is a person who works despite an ongoing strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who are not employed by the company prior to the trade union dispute, but rather hired prior to or during the strike to keep the organisation running...
s to Omaha during a strike in 1877. Black barbers organized the first labor union in Omaha, and went on strike in Omaha in 1887 after they deemed it "unprofessional to work beside white competitors." Arriving in 1890, Dr. Stephenson was the first African-American physician in Omaha and the start of a substantial professional class. Matthew Ricketts
Matthew Ricketts
Matthew Oliver Ricketts was an American politician and physician. He was the first African-American state senator in the Nebraska Legislature, where he served for two terms...
was the first African-American medical student to graduate from the University of Nebraska Medical College and settled in North Omaha to set up his practice. In 1892, Dr. Ricketts was the first African-American elected to a seat in the Nebraska State Legislature. According to the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
, the first African-American fair held in the United States took place in Omaha, July 3–4, 1894. Their study reports: "Only Negro-owned horses were entered in the races, and all exhibits were restricted to articles made or owned by Negroes."
African Americans also built a "Colored Old Folks Home" in North Omaha in the 1910s and sustained it for a long period of time. Clarence W. Wigington
Clarence W. Wigington
Clarence Wesley "Cap" Wigington was an African-American architect who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. After winning three first prizes in charcoal, pencil, and pen and ink at an art competition during the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in 1899, Wigington went on to become a renowned architect across...
was a renowned African-American architect from Omaha. He designed St. John's A.M.E. and the Broomfield Rowhouse
Broomfield Rowhouse
The Broomfield Rowhouse is located at 2502-2504 Lake Street in the Near North Side neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska. It was designed by African American architect Clarence W. Wigington, who was later regarded as a master in his field. His design for the house won a 1909 Good Housekeeping competition...
, among many others in the city, but built most of his career after 1914 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Miss Lucy Gambol, later known as Mrs. John Albert Williams, was the first African-American teacher in the Omaha Public Schools
Omaha Public Schools
Omaha Public Schools is the largest school district in the state of Nebraska. This public school district serves a diverse community of more than 46,000 students at over 80 elementary and secondary schools in Omaha, Nebraska...
, teaching there for six years from 1899 through 1905. The first film company controlled by Black filmmakers was founded in Omaha in the summer of 1915. George and Noble Johnson founded the Lincoln Motion Picture Company
Lincoln Motion Picture Company
The Lincoln Motion Picture Company was an American film production company founded by the Johnson brothers in 1915 in Omaha, Nebraska; it was incorporated in 1916 in Los Angeles, California. Among the first organized black filmmakers, it became the first producer of so-called "race movies"...
to produce films for African-American audiences. Noble was a small-time actor; George worked for the post office. Noble Johnson was president of the company; Clarence A. Brooks, secretary; Dr. James T. Smith, treasurer; and Dudley A. Brooks was assistant secretary. Lincoln Films quickly built a reputation for making films that showcased African-American talent in the full sphere of cinema. In less than a year the company relocated to Los Angeles, where the major film industry was located.
Today African Americans own fifty percent of all minority-owned businesses in Omaha.
Politics
From a slow start in the late 19th century, in the mid-20th century on, African Americans began to win more seats and appointments in politics, with their participation steadily growing. More people obtained higher education and entered professional middle classes.In 1892, Dr. Matthew Ricketts
Matthew Ricketts
Matthew Oliver Ricketts was an American politician and physician. He was the first African-American state senator in the Nebraska Legislature, where he served for two terms...
became the first African American elected to the Nebraska State Legislature, and was the acknowledged leader of the African-American community in Omaha. After he left Omaha in 1903, Jack Broomfield
Jack Broomfield
Jack Broomfield was a leader of the African American community in Omaha, Nebraska in the early 20th century.-About:After Dr. Matthew Ricketts left Omaha in 1903, Jack Broomfield stepped into the position of the political leader of Omaha's African American community. Broomfield was an ex-Pullman...
, proprietor of a notorious bar in downtown Omaha
Downtown Omaha
Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, and is located in Omaha, Nebraska. The boundaries are 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east and the centerline of Leavenworth Street on the south to the centerline...
, became the leader of the community. He is criticized for having allowed the community to fall apart under the influence of Tom Dennison
Tom Dennison (political boss)
Tom Dennison, aka Pickhandle, Old Grey Wolf, was the early-20th century political boss of Omaha, Nebraska. A politically savvy, culturally astute gambler, Dennison was in charge of the city's wide crime rings, including prostitution, gambling and bootlegging in the 1920s...
.
No African Americans served on the Omaha City Council
Omaha City Council
The City Council of Omaha, Nebraska is elected every four years on a nonpartisan basis. The next election will occur in 2009. Omaha has a strong mayor form of government. Members are elected by district...
or Douglas County Board of Commissioners until district elections became law. In 1893 Edwin R. Overall, a mail carrier, ran as a Populist
Populist Party (United States)
The People's Party, also known as the "Populists", was a short-lived political party in the United States established in 1891. It was most important in 1892-96, then rapidly faded away...
for the City Council. He finished 18th in a field of 23 candidates running at-large for nine of 18 council seats. In 1973 and 1977, Fred Conley ran for the Omaha City Council in the at-large format and each time finished 18th – just as Overall did some 70 years earlier. At-large elections were won by candidates who represented the majority population of the city, which was white.
In 1981, after City Council elections were changed to be based on district representation, Conley became the first African American elected. He served until 1989. In 1992, Carol Woods Harris became the first African American elected to the Douglas County Board and served until 2004.
African Americans have been represented on the Omaha School Board since 1950 when attorney Elizabeth Davis Pittman was elected. De-facto school segregation, however, persisted in Omaha long after that date with school boundaries tailored to match residential areas, which had de facto segregation.
Brenda Warren Council, a former member of the Omaha School Board and the City Council, narrowly lost the 1997 mayoral election, losing by 700 votes to Mayor Hal Daub
Hal Daub
Harold John "Hal" Daub, Jr. is a politician and lawyer affiliated with the Republican Party.-Background:...
. In 2003 Thomas Warren, Brenda Council's brother, was appointed by Mayor Mike Fahey as the city’s first African-American Chief of Police for the Omaha Police Department.
In 2005, Marlon Polk was appointed by Governor Dave Heineman
Dave Heineman
David Eugene "Dave" Heineman is the 39th and current Governor of Nebraska. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...
to serve as a District Court
Michigan Court System
The Michigan Court System consists of two courts with primary jurisdiction, one intermediate level appellate court, and a supreme court. There are several administrative courts and specialized courts....
Judge, the first African American to do so in Nebraska. He was assigned to serve in Douglas County
Douglas County, Nebraska
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 463,585 people, 182,194 households, and 115,146 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,401 people per square mile . There were 192,672 housing units at an average density of 582 per square mile...
. In 1970 Ernie Chambers
Ernie Chambers
Ernest W. Chambers is a former Nebraska State Senator who represented North Omaha's 11th District in the Nebraska State Legislature. He is also a civil rights activist and is considered by most citizens of Nebraska as the most prominent and outspoken African American leader in the state...
became the city's second African American elected to the state legislature. Chambers has won every election since then, and in 2007 became the longest-serving Nebraska Senator in history. In 2005 the Nebraska State Legislature approved a term limit
Term limit
A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method to curb the potential for monopoly, where a leader effectively becomes "president for...
law limiting legislators to two terms, forcing Chambers from office in 2008.
African-American firefighters
Hose Company #12, and later Hose Company #11, hired the first African-American firefighters in the city. One of these two stations was located at 20th and Lake Streets. The first step towards integration in Omaha's Fire Department came in 1940, when an African-American firefighter was assigned to the city's Bureau of Fire Prevention and Inspection. By the 1950s, the city had two companies of African-American firefighters. Omaha's Fire Department was integrated in 1957.Religious institutions
The earliest African-American churches in Omaha were St. John's African Methodist Episcopal ChurchSt. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church
St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first church for African Americans in Nebraska, organized in North Omaha in 1867. It is located at 2402 North 22nd Street in the Near North Side neighborhood. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building was...
, organized in 1867; St. Phillip the Deacon Episcopal Church, organized in 1878, and; Zion Baptist Church, organized in 1884. The second St. John's building and Zion's current building were notable for being designed by future master architect Clarence Wigington. St. John's current building is lauded for being a notable example of the Prairie School
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
architectural style.
In 1921, the Omaha and Council Bluffs Colored Ministerial Alliance demanded that Tom Dennison
Tom Dennison (political boss)
Tom Dennison, aka Pickhandle, Old Grey Wolf, was the early-20th century political boss of Omaha, Nebraska. A politically savvy, culturally astute gambler, Dennison was in charge of the city's wide crime rings, including prostitution, gambling and bootlegging in the 1920s...
's cabarets in the Sporting District "wherein there is unwarranted mingling of the races" be closed indefinitely. It is unknown what their objectives were.
Other influential churches included Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church
Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church
Calvin Memorial Presbyterian Church, located at 3105 North 24th Street, was formed in 1954 as an integrated congregation in North Omaha, Nebraska...
, which opened in 1954 as an integrated congregation. Omaha had several interesting examples of integration in its churches, including those featured the documentary film A Time for Burning
A Time for Burning
A Time for Burning is a 1966 American documentary film which explores the attempts of the minister of Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, to persuade his all-white congregation to reach out to "negro" Lutherans in the city's north side. The film was directed by San Francisco filmmaker...
and Pearl Memorial United Methodist Church
Pearl Memorial United Methodist Church
Pearl Memorial United Methodist Church is a member of the Nebraska Conference of the United Methodist Church. It is located at 2319 Ogden Street in the Miller Park neighborhood of north Omaha, Nebraska...
, which began integration efforts in the 1970s. Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Sacred Heart Catholic Church (Omaha, Nebraska)
Sacred Heart Catholic Church is located at 2206 Binney Street in the Kountze Place neighborhood of North Omaha, Nebraska. Built in 1902 in the Late Gothic Revival Style, the City of Omaha declared it a landmark in 1979, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.The...
has operated since the late 19th century and has evolved numerous times as different ethnic groups succeeded each other in the neighborhood. North Omaha's Lizzie Robinson
Lizzie Robinson House
The Lizzie Robinson House, located at 2864 Corby Street in North Omaha, Nebraska, is the location of the first Church of God in Christ congregation in the state...
founded the first Church of God in Christ
Church of God in Christ
The Church of God in Christ is a Pentecostal Holiness Christian denomination with a predominantly African-American membership. With nearly five million members in the United States and 12,000 congregations, it is the largest Pentecostal church and the fifth largest Christian church in the U.S....
congregation in Nebraska in the 1920s. Salem Baptist Church
Salem Baptist Church
Salem Baptist Church is located at 3131 Lake Street in north Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1922, it has played important roles in the history of African Americans in Omaha, and in the city's religious community. Church leadership has impacted the city in a variety of ways, with long-time pastor Rev....
has been particularly important in the city's African-American community, hosting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a major speaking event in Omaha in 1957.
Historical social clubs
The African-American community in North Omaha was anchored with numerous important social clubs. According to one report from the 1930s, "There are today in Omaha alone some twenty-five clubs and societies with a total membership of over two thousand." These groups included the Pleasant Hour Club (which was estimated to be 50 years old in the late 1930s), Aloha Club, Entre Nous Club, the Beau Brummels Club, the Dames Club, the Jolly Twenty Club, the Trojan Club, and the Quack Club. Important locations included the North Side YWCA. This influential organization, starting in 1920, was located in a house at 2306 N. 22nd Street The African-American community in Omaha also supported the Old Colored Folks' Home, which was organized in 1913. In 1923 they received funds from the city's "Community Chest" fund, with which they purchased a building.The Royal Circle was a premier African-American social organization. The Royal Circle held annual cotillion
Cotillion
In American usage, a cotillion is a formal ball and social gathering, often the venue for presenting débutantes during the débutante season – usually May through December. Cotillions are also used as classes to teach social etiquette, respect and common morals for the younger ages with the...
s for young African-American women through the early 1960s, at which they were "introduced" to adult society. Formed in 1918, the War Camp Community Service became the local American Legion
American Legion
The American Legion is a mutual-aid organization of veterans of the United States armed forces chartered by the United States Congress. It was founded to benefit those veterans who served during a wartime period as defined by Congress...
the following year. The Centralized Commonwealth Civic Club, formed in 1937, promoted community business. Two local Boy Scout
Boy Scouts (Boy Scouts of America)
Boy Scouting is a membership level of the Boy Scouts of America for boys and young men. It provides youth training in character, citizenship, and mental and personal fitness...
troops (Troop 23, Troop 79) were founded for African-American youth.
The community also boasted halls for the Odd Fellows
Odd Fellows
Odd Fellows is a name broadly referring to any of a large number of friendly societies, fraternal and service organizations and/or Lodges.-Societies using the name "Odd Fellows" or variations:...
, the Masons
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
, (which had about 550 members in North Omaha in 1936), and the Elks
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is an American fraternal order and social club founded in 1868...
, (with about 250 members in the community in 1936). Perhaps the most elusive organization in North Omaha was the Knights and Daughters of Tabor, also known as the "Knights of Liberty". This was a secret African-American organization whose goal was "nothing less than the destruction of slavery."
Historic entertainment venues
From the 1920s through to the early 1960s, North Omaha boasted a vibrant African-American entertainment district, featuring both local and nationally known musicians. The most important venue in the area was the Dreamland Ballroom, opened in 1923 in the Jewell BuildingJewell Building
The Jewell Building is a city landmark in North Omaha, Nebraska. Built in 1923, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Located at 2221 North 24th Street, the building was home to the Dreamland Ballroom for more than 40 years, and featured performances by many jazz and blues...
at 24th and Grant Streets. Dreamland hosted some of the greatest jazz, blues, and swing performers, including Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, and the original Nat King Cole Trio. Whitney Young
Whitney Young
Whitney Moore Young Jr. was an American civil rights leader.He spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the United States and turning the National Urban League from a relatively passive civil rights organization into one that aggressively fought for equitable access to...
spoke there as well. Other venues included Jim Bell's Harlem, opened in 1935 on Lake Street, west of 24th; McGill's Blue Room, located at 24th and Lake, and; Allen's Showcase Lounge, which was located at 24th and Lake.
The Ritz Theater was opened in the mid-1930s at 2041 North 24th Street, near Patrick Avenue. It was specifically designated an "African-American theater" with seating for 548 people. It was closed in the 1950s and has since been demolished.
During this period, North Omaha and its main artery of North 24th Street
North 24th Street
North 24th Street is a two-way street that runs south-north in the North Omaha area of Omaha, Nebraska. With the street beginning at Dodge Street, the historically significant section of the street runs from Cuming Street to Ames Avenue...
were the heart of the city's African-American cultural and business community, with a thriving jazz and rhythm & blues scene that attracted top-flight swing, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
bands from across the country. Due to racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
, musicians such as Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....
stayed at Myrtle Washington's at 22nd and Willis, while others stayed at Charlie Trimble's at 22nd and Seward. Early North Omaha bands included Dan Desdunes Band, Simon Harrold's Melody Boys, the Sam Turner
Sam Turner
Samuel James Turner is an English professional footballer who plays as a right winger for Lincoln City.-Career:Born in Lincoln, Turner joined hometown club Lincoln City as a fifteen-year-old. He made his debut in the Football League on 9 October 2010, in a 2-1 victory against Macclesfield...
Orchestra, the Ted Adams Orchestra, the Omaha Night Owls, Red Perkins
Red Perkins
Frank Shelton "Red" Perkins was a bandleader of one of the oldest Omaha-based territory bands, The Dixie Ramblers. Born in Muchakinock on December 26, 1890, Perkins' band was based in the city's Near North Side. National Orchestra Service booked his gigs...
and his Original Dixie Ramblers, and the Lloyd Hunter
Lloyd Hunter
Lloyd Hunter was a trumpeter and big band leader from North Omaha, Nebraska. He led band across the Midwest from 1923 until his death. Hunter had also worked with Jessie Stone in Kansas City, Missouri.-Biography:...
Band who, in 1931, became the first Omaha band to record. A Lloyd Hunter concert poster can be seen on display at the Community Center in nearby Mineola, Iowa
Mineola, Iowa
Mineola is an unincorporated village in Mills County, Iowa, United States. This community on the highlands east of Keg Creek was first established as Lewis City during construction of the Wabash Railroad. The land had previously been owned by German immigrant freighter Louis Lanz and Germans long...
.
The intersection of 24th and Lake was the setting of the Big Joe Williams
Big Joe Williams
Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar...
song "Omaha Blues". Omaha-born Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris , born in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American blues shouter and rhythm and blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. With fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952, Harris is generally considered one of rock and roll's forerunners, influencing Elvis Presley...
, one of the founders of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, got his start at the North Omaha clubs, and for a time lived in the now-demolished Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
The Logan Fontenelle Housing Project was a historic public housing site located from 20th to 24th Streets, and from Paul to Seward Streets in the historic Near North Side neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It was built in 1938 by the Public Works Administration for housing working...
. There were innumerable African American churches, social and civic clubs, formal dances for young people, and many other cultural activities.
Several accounts attribute the decline of the African-American cultural scene in North Omaha to the riots of the 1960s and 70s. Television also took away from local entertainment. Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been a resurgence in interest in this vibrant period, with cultural and historical institutions created to honor it, such as Love's Jazz & Art Center, the Dreamland Project, and the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame
Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame
The Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame, or the OBMHoF, is a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 to celebrate, document and honour the legacy of the many top vocalists and musicians whose musical careers began in the metropolitan area of Omaha, Nebraska...
. In addition, new entertainment venues such as the Slowdown
Slowdown (venue)
Slowdown is an entertainment venue located at 729 North 14 Street in NoDo, a new development near the Near North Side neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska. A combination of a live music venue, shops, restaurants and apartments, the venue was developed by Saddle Creek Records as a direct competitor to...
and The Waiting Room Lounge have opened.
Historic musicians
Preston LovePreston Love
Preston Haines Love was a renowned alto saxophonist, bandleader and songwriter from Omaha, Nebraska.-Biography:Preston Love grew up in North Omaha and graduated from North High....
, who left Omaha to tour nationally, said,
The history of African Americans and music in Omaha is long and varied. The black music community was first organized in the early 20th century by Josiah Waddle, one of Omaha's first barbers. After teaching himself to play a number of brass instrument
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
s, Waddle pulled together Omaha's first AfricanAmerican band in 1902. In 1917 he brought together the first women's band in Omaha. One of his most famous students was Lloyd Hunter
Lloyd Hunter
Lloyd Hunter was a trumpeter and big band leader from North Omaha, Nebraska. He led band across the Midwest from 1923 until his death. Hunter had also worked with Jessie Stone in Kansas City, Missouri.-Biography:...
, who ran one of the most popular orchestras' in the United States Midwest. Anna Mae Winburn
Anna Mae Winburn
Anna Mae Winburn, née Darden was an African American vocalist and jazz bandleader who flourished beginning in the mid 1930s...
was a student of Waddle's as well.
After leading the Cotton Club Boys
Cotton Club Boys
The Cotton Club Boys was a territory band based in North Omaha, Nebraska in the 1930s. It was initially fronted by Anna Mae Winburn.-About:Personnel in the swing band included a variety of players. Trumpets players included Lloyd Hunter, Park King, Willie Long and Raymond Byron. The reed section...
and several smaller outfits, Winburn led the International Sweethearts of Rhythm
International Sweethearts of Rhythm
The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was the first integrated all women's band in the United States. During the 1940s the band featured some of the best female musicians of the day...
to fame during World War II. The Sweethearts were the first integrated all women's band in the United States. Nat Towles
Nat Towles
Nat Towles was an African American musician, jazz and big band leader popular in his hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana, North Omaha, Nebraska and Chicago, Illinois. He was also music educator in Austin, Texas...
also led an important territory band
Territory band
Territory bands were dance bands that crisscrossed specific regions of the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Beginning in the 1920s, the bands typically had 8 to 12 musicians. These bands typically played one-nighters, 6 or 7 nights a week at venues like VFW halls, Elks Lodges,...
out of Omaha during the swing era
Swing Era
The Swing era was the period of time when big band swing music was the most popular music in the United States. Though the music had been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by black bands led by such artists as Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Benny Moten, Ella Fitzgerald,...
, and most of these bands were represented by the National Orchestra Service
National Orchestra Service
The National Orchestra Service, Inc. , was the most important booking and management agency for territory bands across the Great Plains and other regions from the early 1930s through 1960...
, which was also based out of Omaha. It was a nationally regarded company which acted as agent for dozens of bands.
International Jazz legend Preston Love
Preston Love
Preston Haines Love was a renowned alto saxophonist, bandleader and songwriter from Omaha, Nebraska.-Biography:Preston Love grew up in North Omaha and graduated from North High....
was an important figure in Omaha's African-American community. After playing in Towles' and Hunter's bands, Love joined Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
as a saxophonist. After traveling the world, Love came back to North Omaha and founded his own band. He also joined the staff of the Omaha Star
Omaha Star
The Omaha Star is a newspaper founded in 1938 in North Omaha, Nebraska by Mildred Brown and her husband S. Edward Gilbert. Housed in the historic Omaha Star building in the Near North Side neighborhood, today the Omaha Star is the only remaining African-American newspaper in Omaha and the only one...
newspaper. Love toured the U.S. and Europe into the late 1990s and died in 2004.
North Omaha's musical culture gave rise to several influential African-American musicians. Rhythm & Blues singer Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris , born in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American blues shouter and rhythm and blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. With fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952, Harris is generally considered one of rock and roll's forerunners, influencing Elvis Presley...
and influential drummer Buddy Miles
Buddy Miles
George Allen Miles, Jr. , known as Buddy Miles, was an American rock and funk drummer, most known as a founding member of The Electric Flag in 1967, then as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 through to January 1970.-Early life:George Allen Miles was born in Omaha, Nebraska on...
, who played with guitarist Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, were friends while they grew up and played together. They collaborated throughout their lives, and while they were playing with the greatest names in Rock and Roll, Jazz, R&B and Funk. Big Joe Williams
Big Joe Williams
Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar...
and funk band leader Lester Abrams
Lester Abrams
Lester Abrams is a singer, songwriter, musician and producer who has played with such artists as B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Peabo Bryson, Quincy Jones, Manfred Mann, Brian Auger, The Average White Band, The Doobie Brothers, Rufus and many others. Two of his co-compositions appeared on the Grammy...
are also from North Omaha.
Historic newspapers
George Wells Parker
George Wells Parker
George Wells Parker was an African American political activist and writer who co-founded the Hamitic League of the World....
, co-founder of the Hamitic League of the World
Hamitic League of the World
Hamitic League of the World was an African American nationalist organization. Its declared aims were:The word Hamitic derives from Ham the son of Noah in the Old Testament. The organisation was founded in 1917 by George Wells Parker. In 1918 it published his pamphlet Children of the Sun...
, founded the New Era in Omaha from 1920 through until 1926. The Omaha Guide was established by B.V. and C.C. Galloway in 1927. The Guide, with a circulation of over 25,000 and an advertisers' list including business firms from coast to coast, was the largest African-American newspaper west of the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
through the 1930s.
Today, African-American culture in Omaha is regarded as being anchored, in large part, by The Omaha Star, founded by the late Mildred D. Brown and her husband S.E. Gilbert in 1938. Brown is believed to be the first female, certainly the first African-American woman, to have founded a newspaper in the nation's history. She managed the paper for the rest of her life. Since 1945 the paper was the only one representing the black community in Omaha and the only black paper being printed in the state. Today the paper has a circulation of more than 30,000; distribution to the 48 continental states, and is being managed by her niece.
Other cultural institutions
Omaha's African-American community celebrates its heritage in numerous ways. The biennial Native Omahans Days is a week-long celebration including picnics, family reunions and a large parade. Also held on a biennial calendar is the induction ceremony for the Omaha Black Music Hall of FameOmaha Black Music Hall of Fame
The Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame, or the OBMHoF, is a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 to celebrate, document and honour the legacy of the many top vocalists and musicians whose musical careers began in the metropolitan area of Omaha, Nebraska...
, or OBMHoF. Their inductees include African American contributors to rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, swing, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and R&B, as well as other cultural contributions.
Formed by Bertha Calloway in the 1960s, the Negro Historical Society opened the Great Plains Black Museum in North Omaha in 1974. Located at 2213 Lake Street, the museum is home to Omaha's only African American history collection. The annual Omaha Jazz and Blues Festival also promotes African American culture throughout the city.
Race relations
Joe Coe
Joe Coe, also known as George Smith, was an African-American laborer who was lynched on October 18, 1891 in Omaha, Nebraska. Overwhelmed by a mob of one thousand at the Douglas County Courthouse, the twelve city police officers stood by without intervening...
was lynched at the Douglas County Courthouse, accused as a suspect for allegedly attacking a young girl. While little is known about Smith, reports of the incident described a mob dragging Smith from his cell, before any court trial, and hanging him from a nearby street post.
In July 1910 racial tension flared towards the African-American community after a tremendous upset victory by African-American boxer Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson (boxer)
John Arthur Johnson , nicknamed the “Galveston Giant,” was an American boxer. At the height of the Jim Crow era, Johnson became the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion...
in Reno, Nevada
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
. Mobs of whites roamed throughout Omaha rioting, as they did in cities across the U.S.. The mobs wounded several black men in the city, killing one.
The Red Summer of 1919
Red Summer of 1919
Red Summer describes the race riots that occurred in more than three dozen cities in the United States during the summer and early autumn of 1919. In most instances, whites attacked African Americans. In some cases groups of blacks fought back, notably in Chicago, where, along with Washington, D.C....
caused one Omaha newspaper to run a front page declaration that 21 Omaha women reported that they were assaulted from early June to late September 1919. In an example of yellow journalism
Yellow journalism
Yellow journalism or the yellow press is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism...
, twenty of the victims were white and 16 of the assailants were identified as black, while only one of the victims was black. A separate newspaper warned that vigilante committees would be formed if the "respectable colored population could not purge those from the Negro community who were assaulting white girls." During the ensuing Omaha Race Riot of 1919
Omaha Race Riot of 1919
The Omaha Race Riot occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 28–29, 1919. The race riot resulted in the brutal lynching of Will Brown, a black worker; the death of two white men; the attempted hanging of the mayor Edward Parsons Smith; and a public rampage by thousands of whites who set fire to...
in September, a white ethnic mob from South Omaha took over the Douglas County Courthouse. The white rioters lynched Willy Brown, an accused packinghouse worker. They then tried to attack blacks on the street and move against the community in North Omaha. Soldiers from Fort Omaha
Fort Omaha
Fort Omaha, originally known as Sherman Barracks and then Omaha Barracks, is an Indian War-era United States Army supply installation. Located at 5730 North 30th Street, with the entrance at North 30th and Fort Streets in modern-day North Omaha, Nebraska, the facility is primarily occupied by ...
put down the riot. They reestablished control and were stationed in South Omaha, to prevent any more mobs from forming, and in North Omaha at 24th and Lake streets "to prevent any further murders of black citizens. Orders were issued that any citizen with a gun faced immediate arrest. All blacks were ordered to remain indoors."
Segregation
A legacy of this terrible summer was the de facto racial segregationRacial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
of many of Omaha's neighborhoods. Introduced in the 1930s, the practices of redlining
Redlining
Redlining is the practice of denying, or increasing the cost of services such as banking, insurance, access to jobs, access to health care, or even supermarkets to residents in certain, often racially determined, areas. The term "redlining" was coined in the late 1960s by John McKnight, a...
by banks and racially restrictive housing covenants
Restrictive covenant
A restrictive covenant is a type of real covenant, a legal obligation imposed in a deed by the seller upon the buyer of real estate to do or not to do something. Such restrictions frequently "run with the land" and are enforceable on subsequent buyers of the property...
effectively ended for decades the ability of African Americans to buy or rent outside North Omaha. Originally built in the 1930s, Omaha housing projects were intended for occupancy without reference to race. A 1937 report from the Omaha Housing Authority
Omaha Housing Authority
Omaha Housing Authority, or OHA, is the government agency responsible for providing public housing in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the parent organization of Housing in Omaha, Inc., a nonprofit housing developer for low-income housing.-About:...
reported that residents included "both black and white occupants and there are 284 units. There is no distinct segregation of the whites from the blacks but individual buildings will be confined to either Negro or white." The Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
The Logan Fontenelle Housing Project was a historic public housing site located from 20th to 24th Streets, and from Paul to Seward Streets in the historic Near North Side neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It was built in 1938 by the Public Works Administration for housing working...
, built during the Depression, with an addition completed in 1941, to improve working class housing in North Omaha, was closed to African Americans through the 1950s. Even in the 1940s, housing was so overcrowded in the area that some families stayed at the projects although their income exceeded the limits, because they couldn't find housing elsewhere. With civil rights challenges, the segregation policy that kept African Americans out of public housing changed in the 1960s.
The massive loss of industrial jobs changed the nature of families and the issues in public housing. Although the Logan Fontenelle projects were first built for working families, they came to be dominated by the unemployed. Other public housing projects also reflected later de facto segregation. A concentration of problems here and in other cities led the City of Omaha, along with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to radically rethink public housing in the 1990s. The Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
The Logan Fontenelle Housing Project was a historic public housing site located from 20th to 24th Streets, and from Paul to Seward Streets in the historic Near North Side neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It was built in 1938 by the Public Works Administration for housing working...
was torn down in 1996. Today public housing is scattered throughout Omaha and often combined with market rate housing and community amenities.
Civil Rights Movement
The lynching of Willy Brown has been credited for radicalizing Omaha's African-American community. In the 1920s the Omaha chapter of Marcus Garvey'sMarcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH was a Jamaican publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League...
Universal Negro Improvement Association was founded by Earl Little, a Baptist minister and the father of Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
. Malcolm X was born in Omaha
Malcolm X House Site
The Malcolm X House Site located at 3448 Pinkney Street in North Omaha, Nebraska, marks the place where Malcolm X first lived with his family. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and is also on the Nebraska list of heritage sites.-History:Malcolm Little was born...
in 1925. Malcolm X's mother reported a 1924 incident where her family was warned to leave Omaha
Omaha
Omaha may refer to:*Omaha , a Native American tribe that currently resides in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Nebraska-Places:United States* Omaha, Nebraska* Omaha, Arkansas* Omaha, Georgia* Omaha, Illinois* Omaha, Texas...
by Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
smen. She was told that her husband Earl Little, was "stirring up trouble" through his involvement with Universal Negro Improvement Association was The family moved shortly thereafter.
Another radical leader, Communist spokesman and one-time leader of American forces in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
Harry Haywood
Harry Haywood
Harry Haywood was a leading figure in both the Communist Party of the United States and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . He contributed major theory to Marxist thinking on the national question of African Americans in the United States...
, was born in 1898 in South Omaha as Haywood Hall to parents who were former slaves. In 1913 his father was beaten by a white gang at the South Omaha meatpacking plant where he worked, forcing the family to move from the city. The African Blood Brotherhood
African Blood Brotherhood
The African Blood Brotherhood for African Liberation and Redemption was a radical U.S. black liberation organization established in 1919 in New York City by journalist Cyril Briggs. The group was established as a propaganda organization built on the model of the secret society...
, started in Omaha, contributed to radicalizing Haywood when he joined it the group in Chicago, where his family had moved in 1915.
Starting in 1920, the Colored Commercial Club organized to help blacks in Omaha secure employment and to encourage business enterprises among African Americans. The National Federation of Colored Women had five chapters in Omaha. In 1928 the first Urban League chapter in the American West was founded in city. Whitney Young
Whitney Young
Whitney Moore Young Jr. was an American civil rights leader.He spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the United States and turning the National Urban League from a relatively passive civil rights organization into one that aggressively fought for equitable access to...
led the chapter in 1950 and tripled its membership. After a few years he left Omaha, taking over the national leadership of the Urban League by 1961.
The I.W.W. organized African-American workers in the South Omaha Stockyards in the 1920s. Along with the rest of the working class, they suffered setbacks during layoffs in the Great Depression.
In the 1930s, however, an interracial committee succeeded in organizing the United Meatpacking Workers of America
United Packinghouse Workers of America
The United Packinghouse Workers of America , later the United Packinghouse, Food and Allied Workers, was a labor union that represented workers in the meatpacking industry....
, one of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
(CIO) unions. They worked to end segregation of job positions in meatpacking in the 1940s. Community leader Rowena Moore
Rowena Moore
Rowena Moore was a union and civic activist, and founder of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation in Omaha, Nebraska. She led the effort to have the Malcolm X House Site recognized for its association with the life of the national civil rights leader...
attacked gender restrictions and organized to expand opportunities in industry for black women. UMPWA helped African Americans extended their political power and gain an end to segregation in retail places in the 1950s. After all this progress, however, the loss of more than 10,000 jobs due to structural changes in the railroad and meatpacking industries in the 1960s sharply reduced opportunities for the working class communities.
As a major western city, Omaha was visited by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1958 and Robert Kennedy in 1968, who helped galvanize the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
in North Omaha. Local leaders continued to struggle against racism. North Omaha was marred by race-related violence and de facto segregation throughout the 20th century. When the Black Panthers were implicated in a police killing in North Omaha in 1970, the trial highlighted political tensions. The Rice/Poindexter Case
Rice/Poindexter Case
David Rice and Edward Poindexter were charged and convicted of the murder of Omaha Police Officer Larry Minard. Minard died when a suitcase containing dynamite exploded in a North Omaha home on August 17, 1970...
continues to highlight Omaha's contentious legacy of racism. A majority of Omaha's African-American population still lives in North Omaha.
Integration
Studies have shown starting in the 1950s Omaha's white middle class moved from North Omaha to the suburbs of West Omaha in the phenomenon called "white flightWhite flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
." The inability of government money to solve the problems of Omaha's African American community was accented by white flight. The city's schools were greatly affected by racial unrest. Consequential to the 1971 Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 was an important United States Supreme Court case dealing with the busing of students to promote integration in public schools...
ruling enforcing Desegregation busing in the United States, Omaha was reputed to have adapted well to integrated busing. However, an analysis of white flight found that public schools in Omaha had enhanced racial discrimination despite their integration attempts. Optional attendance zones, the location of new schools, and feeder patterns were found to enhance segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
. This study found that mandatory busing was required to attain racial balance in every school. Enrollment of white students in the Omaha Public Schools
Omaha Public Schools
Omaha Public Schools is the largest school district in the state of Nebraska. This public school district serves a diverse community of more than 46,000 students at over 80 elementary and secondary schools in Omaha, Nebraska...
plummeted in the 1970s, while the enrollment of black students during the same period rose from 21% to 30%, primarily due to the loss of white students. In the 1990s the Omaha Housing Authority adopted a scattered site housing plan, eventually destroying several of the housing projects in the city, including the Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
Logan Fontenelle Housing Project
The Logan Fontenelle Housing Project was a historic public housing site located from 20th to 24th Streets, and from Paul to Seward Streets in the historic Near North Side neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska, United States. It was built in 1938 by the Public Works Administration for housing working...
.
Race riots
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
and against racism to Omaha. While youth
Youth
Youth is the time of life between childhood and adulthood . Definitions of the specific age range that constitutes youth vary. An individual's actual maturity may not correspond to their chronological age, as immature individuals could exist at all ages.-Usage:Around the world, the terms "youth",...
throughout the city were being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, funding for education and youth programs were being cut, and policing tactics were targeting African-American youth. This led to a series of protests and riot
Riot
A riot is a form of civil disorder characterized often by what is thought of as disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, property or people. While individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are thought to be typically chaotic and...
s, the repercussions of which are still felt today in some communities.
On July 4, 1966, the temperature soared to 103 degrees. A crowd of African Americans gathered at the intersection of North 24th and Lake Streets in the evening. When police requested their dispersal they responded violently. After demolishing police cars, the mob roamed the North 24th Street business corridor for hours, throwing firebombs and demolishing storefronts. After three days of rioting millions of dollars of damage was reported by affected businesses.
Riots erupted again on August 1, 1966 after a 19-year-old was shot by a white, off-duty policeman during a burglary. The Omaha World-Herald
Omaha World-Herald
The Omaha World-Herald, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is the primary daily newspaper of Nebraska, as well as portions of southwest Iowa. For decades it circulated daily throughout Nebraska, and in parts of Kansas, South Dakota, Missouri, Colorado and Wyoming. In 2008, distribution was reduced to the...
and local television stations blamed African Americans for the conditions they faced in their deteriorating neighborhoods during this period. Three buildings were firebombed, and 180 riot police were required to quell the crowds.
On March 4, 1968 a crowd of high school and university students were gathered at the Omaha Civic Auditorium
Omaha Civic Auditorium
The Omaha Civic Auditorium is a multi-purpose convention center in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 1954, it surpassed the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum as the largest convention/entertainment complex in the city, until the completion of CenturyLink Center Omaha in 2003....
to protest the presidential campaign of George Wallace
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
, the segregationist governor of Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. After counter-protesters began acting violently toward the youth activists
Youth activism
Youth activism is when the youth voice is engaged in community organizing for social change. Around the world, young people are engaged in activism as planners, researchers, teachers, evaluators, social workers, decision-makers, advocates and leading actors in the environmental movement, social...
, police brutality
Police brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
led to the injury of dozens of protesters. An African-American youth was shot and killed by a police officer during the melee, and fleeing students caused thousands of dollars of damage to businesses and cars. The following day a local barber named Ernie Chambers
Ernie Chambers
Ernest W. Chambers is a former Nebraska State Senator who represented North Omaha's 11th District in the Nebraska State Legislature. He is also a civil rights activist and is considered by most citizens of Nebraska as the most prominent and outspoken African American leader in the state...
helped calm a disturbance and prevent a riot by students at Horace Mann Junior High School. Chambers was already recognized as a community leader. After finishing his law degree, Chambers was elected to the Nebraska State Legislature, and served a total of 38 years, longer than any of his predecessors.
African-American teenager Vivian Strong was shot and killed by police officers in an incident at the Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects on June 24, 1969. Young African Americans in the area rioted in response to the teenager's death, with looting along the North 24th Street business corridor. During this initial surge, eight businesses were destroyed by firebombing or looting. Rioting went on for several more days. This is the last noted riot in Omaha.
The effects of these riots is still evident in the North 24th Street
North 24th Street
North 24th Street is a two-way street that runs south-north in the North Omaha area of Omaha, Nebraska. With the street beginning at Dodge Street, the historically significant section of the street runs from Cuming Street to Ames Avenue...
district, with high numbers of vacant lots and general economic depression still prevalent.
Commemorations and recognitions
There have been several different organizations formed to commemorate the history of Omaha's African Americans. In the 1960s Bertha CallowayBertha Calloway
Bertha Calloway is an African-American community activist and historian in North Omaha, Nebraska. The founder of the Negro History Society and the Great Plains Black History Museum, Calloway won awards from several organizations for her activism in the community and Nebraska...
founded the Nebraska Negro Historical Society, and in 1974 the Society opened the Great Plains Black History Museum
Great Plains Black History Museum
The Great Plains Black History Museum is located at 2213 Lake Street in the Near North Side neighborhood in North Omaha, Nebraska. It is housed in the Webster Telephone Exchange Building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places...
. It includes material related to the history of black homesteaders on the plains, as well as the more numerous urbanites based chiefly in Omaha, the major city of the state.
In 1976 the community began Native Omaha Days
Native Omaha Days
Native Omahan Days is a bi-annual event in North Omaha, Nebraska celebrating the community's historical and cultural legacies. Held since 1976, the Native Omaha Days include picnics, family reunions, class reunions and a large parade...
, devised as a series of activities to celebrate black history in the city. In addition to being a labor organizer in meatpacking in the 1940s, Rowena Moore
Rowena Moore
Rowena Moore was a union and civic activist, and founder of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation in Omaha, Nebraska. She led the effort to have the Malcolm X House Site recognized for its association with the life of the national civil rights leader...
led an effort to recognize the Malcolm X House Site
Malcolm X House Site
The Malcolm X House Site located at 3448 Pinkney Street in North Omaha, Nebraska, marks the place where Malcolm X first lived with his family. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and is also on the Nebraska list of heritage sites.-History:Malcolm Little was born...
in the 1970s. A monument to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was placed along North 24th Street
North 24th Street
North 24th Street is a two-way street that runs south-north in the North Omaha area of Omaha, Nebraska. With the street beginning at Dodge Street, the historically significant section of the street runs from Cuming Street to Ames Avenue...
in the late 1990s. The Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame
Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame
The Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame, or the OBMHoF, is a nonprofit organization founded in 2005 to celebrate, document and honour the legacy of the many top vocalists and musicians whose musical careers began in the metropolitan area of Omaha, Nebraska...
was founded in 2005 to celebrate the city's musical history.
Economics
The director of a statewide poverty advocacy group was quoted as saying in 2007, "In Omaha, you start talking about low-income issues, people assume you’re talking about minority issues..." As of October 2007, the city of Omaha, the 42nd largest in the country, has the fifth highest percentage of low-income African Americans in the country. Census data from 2000 in Douglas County show more than 7,800 families live below the poverty line, about 6.7 percent of families. The percentage of black children in Omaha who live in poverty rank ranks number one in the United States, with nearly six of 10 black kids living below the poverty line. Only one other metropolitan area in the U.S., Minneapolis, has a wider economic disparity between blacks and whites.African Americans from Omaha
| Notable African Americans from Omaha (Alphabetical) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Image | Role | Era |
| Lester Abrams Lester Abrams Lester Abrams is a singer, songwriter, musician and producer who has played with such artists as B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Peabo Bryson, Quincy Jones, Manfred Mann, Brian Auger, The Average White Band, The Doobie Brothers, Rufus and many others. Two of his co-compositions appeared on the Grammy... |
Funk musician | 1970s | |
| Houston Alexander Houston Alexander Houston Alexander is an American professional mixed martial artist, who fights as a light heavyweight and heavyweight. He also works as a DJ in North Omaha, Nebraska... |
 |
Extreme fighter, hip hop artist and radio DJ | 1980s-present |
| John Beasley John Beasley (actor) John Beasley is an American actor known for his role as Irv Harper on the TV series Everwood and recurring roles on CSI, Millennium and The Pretender. He also portrayed General Lasseter in The Sum of All Fears and Rev. C. Charles Blackwell in The Apostle. In 1992 he played Jesse Hall's dad in the... |
Television and film actor | 1980s-present | |
| Bob Boozer Bob Boozer Robert Louis "Bob" Boozer is a retired American professional basketball player. Boozer was born and raised in North Omaha, Nebraska and graduated from Tech High in Omaha.... |
Former National Basketball Association National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada... player, gold medalist at the 1960 Summer Olympics 1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held from August 25 to September 11, 1960 in Rome, Italy... |
1950s–1960s | |
| Frank Brown (politician) | City of Omaha City councilmember | 1970s-present | |
| Mildred Brown Mildred Brown Mildred Brown was an African American journalist, newspaper publisher, and leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska. Part of the Great Migration, she came from Alabama via Chicago and Des Moines, Iowa... |
Founder, Omaha Star Omaha Star The Omaha Star is a newspaper founded in 1938 in North Omaha, Nebraska by Mildred Brown and her husband S. Edward Gilbert. Housed in the historic Omaha Star building in the Near North Side neighborhood, today the Omaha Star is the only remaining African-American newspaper in Omaha and the only one... newspaper |
1930s–1980s | |
| Willy Brown | Local worker lynched by white mob | 1919 | |
| Bertha Calloway Bertha Calloway Bertha Calloway is an African-American community activist and historian in North Omaha, Nebraska. The founder of the Negro History Society and the Great Plains Black History Museum, Calloway won awards from several organizations for her activism in the community and Nebraska... |
Founder of the Great Plains Black History Museum Great Plains Black History Museum The Great Plains Black History Museum is located at 2213 Lake Street in the Near North Side neighborhood in North Omaha, Nebraska. It is housed in the Webster Telephone Exchange Building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places... |
1960s–1990s | |
| Ernie Chambers Ernie Chambers Ernest W. Chambers is a former Nebraska State Senator who represented North Omaha's 11th District in the Nebraska State Legislature. He is also a civil rights activist and is considered by most citizens of Nebraska as the most prominent and outspoken African American leader in the state... |
Longest-serving Nebraska State Senator in history | 1960s-present | |
| Brenda Council Brenda Council Brenda J. Council is a labor lawyer in North Omaha, Nebraska. She is currently a Nebraska State Senator. She represents the 11th District in the Nebraska State Legislature, serving as the successor of Ernie Chambers.-Political career:... |
City of Omaha councilmember, school board member | 1970s-present | |
| Alfonza W. Davis Alfonza W. Davis Alfonza W. Davis was the first African-American aviator from North Omaha, Nebraska to be awarded his "wings." He was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, a recipient of the Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Unit Citation... |
Captain in the Tuskegee Airmen Tuskegee Airmen The Tuskegee Airmen is the popular name of a group of African American pilots who fought in World War II. Formally, they were the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Army Air Corps.... , first black military aviator from Omaha to receive his wings from Tuskegee Field |
1940s | |
| Bob Gibson Bob Gibson Robert "Bob" Gibson is a retired American professional baseball player. Nicknamed "Hoot" and "Gibby", he was a right-handed pitcher who played his entire 17-year Major League Baseball career with St. Louis Cardinals... |
National Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher for St. Louis Cardinals St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are members of the Central Division in the National League of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships, the most of any National League team, and second overall only to... |
||
| Ahman Green Ahman Green Ahman Rashad Green is a retired American football running back. He is the all-time leading rusher for the Green Bay Packers. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in the 3rd round of the 1998 NFL Draft... |
 |
Professional football player | 1990s-first decade of the 21st century |
| Wynonie Harris Wynonie Harris Wynonie Harris , born in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American blues shouter and rhythm and blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. With fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952, Harris is generally considered one of rock and roll's forerunners, influencing Elvis Presley... |
Rhythm & Blues singer | 1960s-present | |
| Harry Haywood Harry Haywood Harry Haywood was a leading figure in both the Communist Party of the United States and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . He contributed major theory to Marxist thinking on the national question of African Americans in the United States... |
High profile international Communist Party leader | 1940s–1970s | |
| Cathy Hughes Cathy Hughes Cathy Hughes, born Catherine Elizabeth Woods in Omaha, Nebraska on April 22, 1947, is an African-American entrepreneur, radio and television personality and business executive. Hughes founded the media company Radio One and later expanded into TV One, the company went public in 1998, making... |
Founder and president of Radio One | 1970s-present | |
| Lloyd Hunter Lloyd Hunter Lloyd Hunter was a trumpeter and big band leader from North Omaha, Nebraska. He led band across the Midwest from 1923 until his death. Hunter had also worked with Jessie Stone in Kansas City, Missouri.-Biography:... |
Big band leader | 1920s–1950s | |
| Kenton Keith Kenton Keith Kenton Jermaine Keith is an American football running back who is currently a free agent. He was signed by the Saskatchewan Roughriders as an undrafted free agent in 2003... |
Professional football player | ||
| Preston Love Preston Love Preston Haines Love was a renowned alto saxophonist, bandleader and songwriter from Omaha, Nebraska.-Biography:Preston Love grew up in North Omaha and graduated from North High.... |
Jazz player | 1950s–1990s | |
| Lois "Lady Mac" McMorris | Guitarist | 1970s-present | |
| Buddy Miles Buddy Miles George Allen Miles, Jr. , known as Buddy Miles, was an American rock and funk drummer, most known as a founding member of The Electric Flag in 1967, then as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 through to January 1970.-Early life:George Allen Miles was born in Omaha, Nebraska on... |
Musician | 1960s–1990s | |
| Rowena Moore Rowena Moore Rowena Moore was a union and civic activist, and founder of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation in Omaha, Nebraska. She led the effort to have the Malcolm X House Site recognized for its association with the life of the national civil rights leader... |
Labor activist in meatpacking industry. Also Founder of the Malcolm X House Site Malcolm X House Site The Malcolm X House Site located at 3448 Pinkney Street in North Omaha, Nebraska, marks the place where Malcolm X first lived with his family. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and is also on the Nebraska list of heritage sites.-History:Malcolm Little was born... |
1940s for union. 1970s–1980s as civic activist | |
| Sandra Organ | Longtime Houston Ballet Houston Ballet The Houston Ballet, operated by the Houston Ballet Foundation, is the fourth-largest professional ballet company in the United States, based in Houston, Texas. The foundation also maintains a ballet academy, the Ben Stevenson Academy, which trains more than half of the company's dancers... soloist |
1980s-present | |
| George Wells Parker George Wells Parker George Wells Parker was an African American political activist and writer who co-founded the Hamitic League of the World.... |
Co-founder of the Hamitic League of the World Hamitic League of the World Hamitic League of the World was an African American nationalist organization. Its declared aims were:The word Hamitic derives from Ham the son of Noah in the Old Testament. The organisation was founded in 1917 by George Wells Parker. In 1918 it published his pamphlet Children of the Sun... |
1910s–1930s | |
| Ron Prince Ron Prince Ron Prince is an American football coach who currently is the assistant offensive line coach with the Indianapolis Colts of the NFL. From 2006 through 2008, Prince was the head football coach at Kansas State University. He was one of six African-American head coaches in the NCAA Division I-Bowl... |
 |
Head football coach at Kansas State University Kansas State University Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States... |
1980s-first decade of the 21st century |
| Dr. Matthew Ricketts Matthew Ricketts Matthew Oliver Ricketts was an American politician and physician. He was the first African-American state senator in the Nebraska Legislature, where he served for two terms... |
First African American elected to the Nebraska State Legislature in 1892. | 1880s–1900 | |
| Joe Rogers Joe Rogers Joseph B. Rogers is a politician who was the youngest Lieutenant Governor in Colorado history.Rogers is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.... |
Colorado Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains... Lieutenant Governor, 1999–2003 (R Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S... ) |
1990s | |
| Johnny Rodgers Johnny Rodgers Johnny Steven Rodgers is a former American college football player voted the University of Nebraska's "Player of the Century" and the winner of the 1972 Heisman Trophy.-College career:... |
1972 Heisman Trophy Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial... Winner, College Football Hall of Fame College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move... Inductee and voted University of Nebraska's "player of the century" |
1960s–1980 | |
| Gale Sayers Gale Sayers Gale Eugene Sayers also known as "The Kansas Comet", is a former professional football player in the National Football League who spent his entire career with the Chicago Bears.... |
 |
Professional football player, Pro Football Hall of Fame Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees... inductee |
1960s |
| Gabrielle Union Gabrielle Union Gabrielle Monique Union is an American actress and former model. Among her notable roles is as the cheerleader opposite Kirsten Dunst in the film Bring it On. Union starred opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in the blockbuster film Bad Boys II and played a medical doctor in the CBS drama... |
Television and film actress | 1990s-first decade of the 21st century | |
| Luigi Waites Luigi Waites Luigi Waites was a jazz drummer and vibraphonist from Omaha, Nebraska. He performed weekly gigs in the Omaha area both solo and with ensembles such as Luigi, Inc. He served the Omaha music community for over 60 years. He toured Europe twice and performed with jazz legends such as Sarah Vaughan,... |
 |
Musician | 1960s-present |
| Clarence W. Wigington Clarence W. Wigington Clarence Wesley "Cap" Wigington was an African-American architect who grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. After winning three first prizes in charcoal, pencil, and pen and ink at an art competition during the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in 1899, Wigington went on to become a renowned architect across... |
Architect | 1910s–1950 | |
| Big Joe Williams Big Joe Williams Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar... |
Musician | ||
| Anna Mae Winburn Anna Mae Winburn Anna Mae Winburn, née Darden was an African American vocalist and jazz bandleader who flourished beginning in the mid 1930s... |
Big band leader | 1930s–1960 | |
| Helen Jones Woods Helen Jones Woods Helen Jones Woods is a jazz and swing trombone player most renowned for her performances with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. She was inducted into the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame in 2007.-About:... , |
Big band trombonist | 1930s–1960 | |
| Malcolm X Malcolm X Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its... |
 |
Civil rights leader (grew up elsewhere) | 1930s–1960s |
| Whitney Young Whitney Young Whitney Moore Young Jr. was an American civil rights leader.He spent most of his career working to end employment discrimination in the United States and turning the National Urban League from a relatively passive civil rights organization into one that aggressively fought for equitable access to... |
 |
Former head of Omaha Urban League | 1930s–1960s |
See also
- History of North Omaha, NebraskaHistory of North Omaha, NebraskaThe history of North Omaha, Nebraska includes wildcat banks, ethnic enclaves, race riots and social change spanning over 200 years. With a recorded history that pre-dates the rest of the city, North Omaha has roots back to 1812 with the founding of Fort Lisa...
- Culture in North Omaha, Nebraska
- People from North Omaha, Nebraska
- Music in Omaha
- History of slavery in NebraskaHistory of slavery in NebraskaThe history of slavery in Nebraska is generally seen as short and limited. The issue was contentious for the legislature between the creation of the Nebraska Territory in 1854 and the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. However, there was apparently a particular acceptance of African...
- Greeks in Omaha, NebraskaGreeks in Omaha, NebraskaThe community of Greeks in Omaha, Nebraska has a history that extends back to the 1880s. After they originally moved to the city following work with the railroads, the community quickly grew and founded a substantial neighborhood in South Omaha that was colloquially referred to as "Greek Town." The...
- Mexicans in Omaha, NebraskaMexicans in Omaha, NebraskaMexicans in Omaha are people living in Omaha, Nebraska, United States who have citizenship or ancestral connections to the country Mexico. They have contributed to the economic, social and cultural well-being of Omaha for more than a century. Mexicans, or Latino people identified incorrectly as...
External links
- African American Information NEGenWeb Project.
- (2003) The Negroes of Nebraska: The Negro Comes to Nebraska. CFC Productions.
- (1940) The Negroes of Nebraska. Nebraska Writers' Project. Works Progress Administration.
- "First" African Americans in Omaha.
- African American Empowerment Network.
- Building Bright Futures
Additional reading
- Angus, J. (2004) Black and Catholic in Omaha: A Case of Double Jeopardy: The First Fifty Years of St. Benedict the Moor Parish. iUniverse, Inc.
- Bish, James D. (1989) The Black Experience in Selected Nebraska Counties, 1854–1920. M.A. Thesis, University of Nebraska at Omaha.
- Mihelich, Dennis. (1979) "World War II and the Transformation of the Omaha Urban League," Nebraska History 60(3) (Fall 1979):401–423.
- Paz, D.G. (1988) "John Albert Williams and Black Journalism in Omaha, 1895–1929." Midwest Review 10: 14–32.
- Johnson, T. (2001) African American Administration of Predominately Black Schools: Segregation or Emancipation in Omaha, NE. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History in Charlotte, NC.