Racial tension in Omaha, Nebraska
Encyclopedia
Racial tension in Omaha, Nebraska
occurred mostly because of the city's volatile mixture of high numbers of new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and African-American migrants from the Deep South
. While racial discrimination existed at several levels, the violent outbreaks were within working classes. Irish Americans
, the largest and earliest immigrant group in the 19th century, established the first neighborhoods in South Omaha. All were attracted by new industrial jobs and most were from rural areas. There was competition among ethnic Irish, newer European immigrants
, and African-American migrants from the South, for industrial jobs and housing. They all had difficulty adjusting to industrial demands, which were unmitigated by organized labor in the early years. Some of the early labor organizing resulted in increasing tensions between groups, as later arrivals to the city were used as strikebreakers.
In Omaha as in other major cities, racial tension has erupted at times of social and economic strife, often taking the form of mob violence as different groups tried to assert power. Much of the early violence came out of labor struggles in early 20th century industries: between working class ethnic whites and immigrants, and blacks of the Great Migration
. Meatpacking companies had used the latter for strikebreakers in 1917 as workers were trying to organize. As veterans returned from World War I, both groups competed for jobs. By the late 1930s, however, interracial teams worked together to organize the meatpacking industry under the United Packinghouse Workers of America
(UPWA). Unlike the AFL and some other industrial unions in the CIO, UPWA was progressive. It used its power to help end segregation
in restaurants and stores in Omaha, and supported the civil rights movement
in the 1960s. Women labor organizers such as Tillie Olsen
and Rowena Moore
were active in the meatpacking industry in the 1930s and 1940s, respectively.
Most violence and civil unrest in the 1960s, by contrast, arose out of poverty and problems caused by massive loss of working-class jobs through industrial restructuring. The city's African-American community suffered particularly and erupted in protest.
was created in 1854 with the condition that the area stay slave-free. But, from 1855 on, there was debate in the Territorial Legislature about whether slavery should specifically be prohibited. As there were few slaves in the state, some legislators did not think the bill was needed. In 1859, the Daily Nebraskian newspaper reported its favoring of slavery
, writing,
During that period, some local newspapers openly editorialized against the presence of blacks in Omaha, for the Confederacy
and against the election of Abraham Lincoln
. The 1860 census showed that of the 81 Negroes in Nebraska, only 10 were slaves.
Because a clause in the original proposed Nebraska State Constitution limited voting rights in the state to "free white males", as had been common in many states, Nebraska was delayed about a year from entering the Union. In 1865, the Nebraska Territorial Legislature changed the proposed State Constitution to provide expanded suffrage. The territory gained statehood soon after.
After the Civil War, enough blacks lived in Omaha to organize St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church
in 1867 as the first church for African Americans in Nebraska. The first recorded birth of an African American was that of William Leper, recorded in Omaha in 1872. In 1891 a mob lynched George Smith
, an African American
man, for allegedly raping a "white" woman. No one was charged in his murder.
In the early 1900s, social tensions of the rapidly industrializing city absorbing waves of new immigrants and migrants broke out in riots between ethnic minorities. The riots included extensive property damage and some deaths.
to Polish and Czech. Little Italy and Little Bohemia
closely bordered South Omaha at it's north boundary as well. The immigrants comprised most of the workers at the stockyards and meatpacking plants, also located there. They started organizing different laborers and stopped work with strikes. The industry responded by hiring workers from other parts of the country who were also seeking work: both European immigrants and black migrants from the South (whose numbers doubled in Omaha from 1910-1920). In 1905, more than 800 students (mostly children of immigrant workers) in South Omaha protested the presence of Japanese
students at their school, calling them "scabs". The Japanese students were children of strikebreaker
s brought in by the Omaha Stockyards the previous summer during a fierce strike. Children of the regular workers refused to attend classes and locked teachers out of the building.
immigrant community in South Omaha. Other immigrants resented the Greeks, who had come to the city as strikebreaker
s. Many men of the community had been jobless for an extensive period after they were laid off following the strikes. Some Omaha citizens assumed they were lazy rather than unemployed. In September 1909 a male resident of the Greek community was arrested by an ethnic Irish South Omaha policeman for allegedly having a relationship with a "white" woman. (He was taking English lessons from her.) The man took the officer's gun and shot him. After the Greek was captured a short while later, a mob of ethnic whites numbering about 1,000 arrived at the door of the jail. By then the South Omaha policemen had transferred the man to the Omaha city jail. (The jurisdictions were then separate.) Frustrated, the mob turned to the Greek neighborhood and began to destroy it, threatening all of its residents with death if they stayed in town. Within a day the Greek residents abandoned the six-by-six block area and scattered into cities across the Midwest. Meanwhile, the mob destroyed the entire neighborhood. The accused Greek immigrant was brought to trial; but, after intervention from the Greek ambassador to the U.S., who protested the government's failure to protect the immigrant community, the city of Omaha released the man and dropped charges against him.
and defeat of Germany by the Allies
, anti-German sentiment ran high across the country. The Nebraska legislature passed a law in 1919 that enforced teaching in English in public schools. (Because of substantial immigration by Germans to Nebraska, in earlier years, studies in German were available in the public schools, along with French and classical languages.) By law, "No person, individually or as a teacher, shall, in any private, denominational, parochial or public school, teach any subject to any person in any language than the English language." Robert Meyer was found to violate this law because he taught German. He was taken to court by the State of Nebraska, and when found guilty he appealed. Although his appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court
failed, the U.S. Supreme Court
in Meyer v. Nebraska
determined that Meyer had the right to teach the German language as a subject, and to teach it in German. During the course of the year, open discrimination
against Germans throughout Omaha was taking hold. Many German-language newspapers were forced to change to English, or to close.
to demand "justice". Within hours the mob grew to 10,000 people. Many were drinking. When the reform mayor Edward P. Smith attempted to intervene, he was lynched by the mob. Only a last-minute rescue saved him from being hanged. The mob threw stones at windows, far outnumbered the police, and set the courthouse on fire to force the release of Brown. The police turned him over to save other prisoners. In a frenzy, the mob hung Brown from a lamppost and shot him, later dragged his body and burned it. The mob turned against police vehicles and attacked any blacks they found in the street. They began to move toward a large African-American enclave
in North Omaha. The city and governor had called in the U.S. Army from Fort Omaha
to intervene. It stationed troops in North Omaha to protect the blacks, and after gaining control of the mob, in South Omaha to prevent any more riots forming. An unseasonal rainstorm cooled the mob down as well. The Army commander established martial law
for several days. A grand jury's investigation identified the mob as arising from South Omaha and being encouraged by the city's vice world. No one was charged in the events, however.
won a major upset at a national match in Reno, Nevada
. Upon hearing the news, a dozen fights broke out in different areas of the city between whites and blacks, as happened in other cities. Whites wounded several black men and killed one.
After World War I
, white veterans trying to return to their civilian jobs found African-American and Eastern European immigrants in their former positions. Their resentment led to several violent strikes in the South Omaha meat packing industry as groups tried to control access to jobs. During this period, Earl Little was a Baptist minister in North Omaha. After his son, Malcolm, was born in Omaha in 1925, the family moved away because of threats by the Ku Klux Klan
in 1926. (The KKK had undergone a revival and growth in the Midwest in the early 1920s.) Malcolm Little later changed his last name to X, when he joined the Black Muslims
, where he became an important leader known as Malcolm X
.
In the 1920s, racial segregation
became normalized in Omaha as redlining
and restrictive covenants kept African Americans concentrated in housing in North Omaha. The riot had discredited the city's newly elected reformist government. In the next election, "Cowboy" Jim Dahlman was returned to office with the support of Tom Dennison, the informal leader of the vice world. The labor struggles and social struggles led Omaha's African-American leaders, such as Earl Little, Harry Haywood
and George Wells Parker
, to push harder for civil rights. After this period, African Americans in Omaha were largely concentrated as residents on the city's north side, with a small community in South Omaha.
was forced off the Creighton University
campus, where they started. Mildred Brown
, a community activist and publisher, invited them to meet at the Omaha Star, the paper she directed for the African-American community for decades.
Omaha jazz legend Preston Love
reported that in the 1950s he saw signs in Omaha restaurants and bars that said, "We Don't Serve Any Colored Race", but that he was always welcome as a musician. In the 1950s, the United Meatpacking Workers of America (UPWA) helped use their power to have businesses in Omaha integrate their facilities.
The late 1950s and early 1960s was the period which Lois Mark Stalvey
wrote about in The Education of a WASP. She recounted her activist efforts to desegregate a middle-class West Omaha neighborhood for an African-American surgeon and his family who wanted to live in the area. Such efforts took place in a different environment from the struggles of most working-class families in North and South Omaha.
In 1955, the State of Nebraska took Omaha's main amusement park, Peony Park
, to district court. The state believed that the park, founded in 1919, violated Nebraska Civil Rights Law when African American
swimmers at the Amateur Athletic Union
Swimming Meet held at the park on August 27, 1955 were discriminated against. In State of Nebraska v. Peony Park, the Nebraska Supreme Court
found that two African-American participants were illegally barred from the meet because Peony Park barred them from the pool. On September 7, 1955, the court fined Peony Park $50 and costs of the trial. Additional civil suits were settled out of court. The Omaha Star
newspaper reported extensively on the trial, using the opportunity to highlight segregationist policies around the city as well as the city's burgeoning civil rights movement.
By the early 1960s, economic progress by many African Americans and ethnic Americans became unraveled in the massive job losses caused by restructuring of railroad and meatpacking industries. By the mid-1960s, North Omaha had much more poverty than before and increasing social problems. On July 4, 1966, tensions broke out in a riot after a day of blistering 103 degree weather. Refusing a police order to disperse, African Americans demolished police cars and attacked the North 24th Street business corridor, throwing firebombs and demolishing storefronts. Businesses in the Near North Side suffered millions of dollars in damages. The riot lasted three days. The National Guard was called in to disperse the rioters. Less than a month later, on August 1, 1966, riots erupted after a 19-year-old was shot by a white off-duty policeman during a burglary. rioters firebombed three buildings and 180 riot police were required to quell the crowds. Leaders in the community criticized the Omaha World-Herald
and local television stations for blaming African Americans for the conditions they faced in their deteriorating neighborhoods, when the problems of joblessness and decreased maintenance were beyond city and regional control. That same year, 1966, A Time for Burning
, a documentary featuring North Omaha and the social problems, was filmed. Later it was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary.
In March 1968 a crowd of high school and university students 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 activists
, police brutality
led to dozens of protesters being injured. During the melee, an African-American youth was shot and killed by a police officer. Students' fleeing the outbreak attacked businesses and cars, causing thousands of dollars of damage.
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. He went on to serve a total of 38 years, longer than any of his predecessors. Robert Kennedy visited Omaha later that year in his quest to become president, speaking in support of Omaha's civil rights activists.
An African-American teenager named Vivian Strong was shot and killed by police officers in an incident at the Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects in June 1969. Young African Americans in the area rioted after the teenager's death, and looted along the North 24th Street business corridor. Eight businesses were destroyed by firebombing or looting. Events went on for several more days. This is the last noted riot in Omaha.
In 1970 an African-American man named Duane Peak was arrested, and quickly implicated six others in a bombing at a vacant house in North Omaha that killed a police officer. On August 31, local Black Panther Party
leaders David Rice and Ed Poindexter were arrested in the case, despite not having been originally implicated. In 1971 both men were convicted of murder in the controversial Rice/Poindexter Case
, and in 1974 a retrial of Rice and Poindexter was denied by the Nebraska State Supreme Court.
began court-ordered busing to achieve integration.
In 1981 arsonists burned an East Omaha duplex after an African-American family signed a rental agreement there. The arson is unsolved.
In 1993 the Nebraska Parole Board voted for the first time to unanimously commute the sentences of Rice and Poindexter to time served
. The Nebraska Board of Pardons refused to schedule a hearing in the matter. This same sequence of events has occurred no fewer than three times since then, with the same outcome each time.
In 1995 an African-American gang member murdered an Omaha police officer named Jimmy Wilson, Jr. The city responded by equipping every police car with a camera and giving North Omaha officers body armor. Later that year arsonists tipped over and burned an African-American woman's car in East Omaha near the site of the 1981 arson. Both cases are unsolved.
In 1996 the Omaha Public Schools ended court-ordered busing. That same year the Omaha World-Herald reported that, "One resident of Rose Garden Estates near 172nd and Pacific Streets said privately, for instance, that he finds the prospect of being incorporated into the city 'increasingly scary.' 'I left Benson
because I didn't like the changes,' he said. 'Too much crime, too much racial tension, too much school busing. I went to the suburbs to get away from that, and now I'm being forced back in.' The man, an insurance company employee, denied that his problems were based on race, but he asked that this part of the interview be anonymous."
In 1997, an African-American Gulf War
veteran named Marvin Ammons was shot and killed by an Omaha police officer. A grand jury
found the officer guilty of manslaughter
; the conviction was overruled on appeal due to a finding of jury misconduct. A second grand jury acquitted the offer of wrongdoing and admonished the Omaha police department for mishandling the case.
In 2000, George Bibbins, an African American, led Omaha police on a high-speed car chase. At the end of the chase, he was shot and killed by officers. A grand jury later acquitted the accused officers of any wrongdoing.
That year the Nebraska State Legislature enacted term limit
s. Some believed this action was directed against the long-time State Senator Ernie Chambers, an African American who had then served 27 years. In 2005 Chambers became the longest-serving State Senator in Nebraska history, with more than 32 years of service. Because of the 2002 law, he was not allowed to run for office again once his term expired in 2008.
Desegregation busing
and racial integration
in public schools were contentious issues in Omaha. Problems with public schools were a factor in middle-class people moving to the suburbs, but the shift in population to suburbs also followed the growth of the city and highways. Omahans' preference for larger, newer housing was just like that of other Americans. Middle-class African Americans have also moved to the suburbs here and in other cities.
Omaha Public Schools
ended busing to achieve integration in 1999. It responded to parental desires for neighborhood schools and for choice. It has created magnet schools to attract students from middle-class families. As in many other cities, concerns about schools are high. Like some other districts such as Louisville, Kentucky
, Omaha has begun to explore socioeconomic integration - assigning students according to family income - to change the makeup of their schools and address low test scores among poor children in the inner city. There have been delays in efforts to unite the Omaha public school district with newly annexed smaller, local districts in the western half of the city.
Chambers lobbied to create three districts in the city, with each drawn along geographic boundaries that loosely correlated to the racial segregation of the city: African Americans in North Omaha, Hispanic/Latinos in South Omaha, and Caucasians in West Omaha. Chambers defended his decision from the standpoint that much of the city had residential segregation
and that his plan would provide African American parents in North Omaha with more control over their district. The State Legislature signed this plan into law in April, 2006, with the plan going into effect in 2008.
Within a month of the legislature's passing the law, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
brought a lawsuit
, arguing that due to Omaha's racially segregated residential patterns, subdivided school districts will also be racially segregated, contrary to United States
law
. The case has also drawn national attention. Critics regard the plan as "state-sponsored segregation".
In February, 2007, unknown assailants robbed, firebomb
ed, and spray painted a racist epithet on the side of an East Omaha grocery store owned by an Ethiopian
immigrant. That crime is unsolved.
In October the Omaha World-Herald
noted recent census statistics showed that Omaha, the 43rd largest city in the United States, has the fifth highest poverty rate for African Americans among the 100 largest cities. More than one in three live below the poverty line. The city has plans for public-private development in North Omaha that are intended to revive the area. Investment in infrastructure, parks and street design has already begun.
Some groups have tried to manufacture political power out of immigration issues, but more people in the city and community have rallied in support of the Hispanic community, who comprise the most numerous recent immigrants. In 2007 a neo-Nazi group tried to organize a protest and had 65 participants outside the city's Mexican
consulate. They were far outnumbered by the thousands in counter-protests, as well as those celebrating at events marking the diversity of the city.
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...
occurred mostly because of the city's volatile mixture of high numbers of new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and African-American migrants 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...
. While racial discrimination existed at several levels, the violent outbreaks were within working classes. Irish Americans
Irish in Omaha, Nebraska
The Irish in Omaha, Nebraska have constituted a major ethnic group throughout the history of the city, and continue to serve as important religious and political leaders. They compose a large percentage of the local population....
, the largest and earliest immigrant group in the 19th century, established the first neighborhoods in South Omaha. All were attracted by new industrial jobs and most were from rural areas. There was competition among ethnic Irish, newer European immigrants
Ethnic groups in Omaha, Nebraska
Various ethnic groups in Omaha, Nebraska have lived in the city since its organization by Anglo-Americans in 1854. Native Americans of various nations lived in the Omaha territory for centuries before European arrival, and some stayed in the area. The city was founded by white Anglo-Saxon...
, and African-American migrants from the South, for industrial jobs and housing. They all had difficulty adjusting to industrial demands, which were unmitigated by organized labor in the early years. Some of the early labor organizing resulted in increasing tensions between groups, as later arrivals to the city were used as strikebreakers.
Great Migration
Great Migration, Great Migrations, or The Great Migration may refer:In history:* Great Migration of Puritans from England to New England * Great Serb Migrations from the Ottoman Empire to the Habsburg Monarchy...
. Meatpacking companies had used the latter for strikebreakers in 1917 as workers were trying to organize. As veterans returned from World War I, both groups competed for jobs. By the late 1930s, however, interracial teams worked together to organize the meatpacking industry under the United Packinghouse 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....
(UPWA). Unlike the AFL and some other industrial unions in the CIO, UPWA was progressive. It used its power to help end segregation
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
in restaurants and stores in Omaha, and supported 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. Women labor organizers such as Tillie Olsen
Tillie Olsen
Tillie Lerner Olsen was an American writer associated with the political turmoil of the 1930s and the first generation of American feminists.-Biography:...
and 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...
were active in the meatpacking industry in the 1930s and 1940s, respectively.
Most violence and civil unrest in the 1960s, by contrast, arose out of poverty and problems caused by massive loss of working-class jobs through industrial restructuring. The city's African-American community suffered particularly and erupted in protest.
19th century
The Nebraska TerritoryNebraska Territory
The Territory of Nebraska was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until March 1, 1867, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Nebraska. The Nebraska Territory was created by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854...
was created in 1854 with the condition that the area stay slave-free. But, from 1855 on, there was debate in the Territorial Legislature about whether slavery should specifically be prohibited. As there were few slaves in the state, some legislators did not think the bill was needed. In 1859, the Daily Nebraskian newspaper reported its favoring of slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
, writing,
- The bill introduced in [Omaha City] Council, for the abolition of slaveryAbolitionismAbolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
in this Territory, was called up yesterday, and its further consideration postponed for two weeks. A strong effort will be made among the Republicans to secure its passage; we think, however, it will fail. The farce certainly cannot be enacted if the Democrats do their duty.
During that period, some local newspapers openly editorialized against the presence of blacks in Omaha, for the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
and against the election of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
. The 1860 census showed that of the 81 Negroes in Nebraska, only 10 were slaves.
Because a clause in the original proposed Nebraska State Constitution limited voting rights in the state to "free white males", as had been common in many states, Nebraska was delayed about a year from entering the Union. In 1865, the Nebraska Territorial Legislature changed the proposed State Constitution to provide expanded suffrage. The territory gained statehood soon after.
After the Civil War, enough blacks lived in Omaha to organize 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 1867 as the first church for African Americans in Nebraska. The first recorded birth of an African American was that of William Leper, recorded in Omaha in 1872. In 1891 a mob lynched George Smith
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...
, an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
man, for allegedly raping a "white" woman. No one was charged in his murder.
20th century
South Omaha
South Omaha was where many different immigrant groups established their own neighborhoods. These ranged from Sheelytown for ethnic IrishIrish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
to Polish and Czech. Little Italy and Little Bohemia
Little Bohemia (Omaha, Nebraska)
Little Bohemia, or Bohemian Town, is a historic neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska. Starting in the 1880s, Czech immigrants settled in this highly concentrated area, also called "Praha" or "Bohemian Town", bounded by South 10th Street on the east, South 16th Street on the west, Pierce Street on the...
closely bordered South Omaha at it's north boundary as well. The immigrants comprised most of the workers at the stockyards and meatpacking plants, also located there. They started organizing different laborers and stopped work with strikes. The industry responded by hiring workers from other parts of the country who were also seeking work: both European immigrants and black migrants from the South (whose numbers doubled in Omaha from 1910-1920). In 1905, more than 800 students (mostly children of immigrant workers) in South Omaha protested the presence of Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
students at their school, calling them "scabs". The Japanese students were children of 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 brought in by the Omaha Stockyards the previous summer during a fierce strike. Children of the regular workers refused to attend classes and locked teachers out of the building.
Greek Town Riot
Greek Town was a growing GreekGreeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
immigrant community in South Omaha. Other immigrants resented the Greeks, who had come to the city as 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. Many men of the community had been jobless for an extensive period after they were laid off following the strikes. Some Omaha citizens assumed they were lazy rather than unemployed. In September 1909 a male resident of the Greek community was arrested by an ethnic Irish South Omaha policeman for allegedly having a relationship with a "white" woman. (He was taking English lessons from her.) The man took the officer's gun and shot him. After the Greek was captured a short while later, a mob of ethnic whites numbering about 1,000 arrived at the door of the jail. By then the South Omaha policemen had transferred the man to the Omaha city jail. (The jurisdictions were then separate.) Frustrated, the mob turned to the Greek neighborhood and began to destroy it, threatening all of its residents with death if they stayed in town. Within a day the Greek residents abandoned the six-by-six block area and scattered into cities across the Midwest. Meanwhile, the mob destroyed the entire neighborhood. The accused Greek immigrant was brought to trial; but, after intervention from the Greek ambassador to the U.S., who protested the government's failure to protect the immigrant community, the city of Omaha released the man and dropped charges against him.
Anti-German sentiments
In the immediate years after World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and defeat of Germany by the Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
, anti-German sentiment ran high across the country. The Nebraska legislature passed a law in 1919 that enforced teaching in English in public schools. (Because of substantial immigration by Germans to Nebraska, in earlier years, studies in German were available in the public schools, along with French and classical languages.) By law, "No person, individually or as a teacher, shall, in any private, denominational, parochial or public school, teach any subject to any person in any language than the English language." Robert Meyer was found to violate this law because he taught German. He was taken to court by the State of Nebraska, and when found guilty he appealed. Although his appeal to the Nebraska Supreme Court
Nebraska Supreme Court
The Nebraska Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Nebraska. The Court consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. Each Justice is initially appointed by the Governor of Nebraska; using the Missouri Plan, each Justice is then subject to a retention vote for additional...
failed, the U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
in Meyer v. Nebraska
Meyer v. Nebraska
Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 , was a U.S. Supreme Court case that held that a 1919 Nebraska law restricting foreign-language education violated the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.-Context and legislation:...
determined that Meyer had the right to teach the German language as a subject, and to teach it in German. During the course of the year, open discrimination
Discrimination
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their membership in a certain group or category. It involves the actual behaviors towards groups such as excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to another group. The term began to be...
against Germans throughout Omaha was taking hold. Many German-language newspapers were forced to change to English, or to close.
Red Summer
In September 1919, following a summer of racial riots in several other industrial cities, an African-American laborer named Willy Brown was lynched in Omaha. He had been accused of raping a young white woman. A mob of 5,000 ethnic white men marched from South Omaha (some young men were classmates of the woman) and appeared at the Douglas County CourthouseDouglas 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...
to demand "justice". Within hours the mob grew to 10,000 people. Many were drinking. When the reform mayor Edward P. Smith attempted to intervene, he was lynched by the mob. Only a last-minute rescue saved him from being hanged. The mob threw stones at windows, far outnumbered the police, and set the courthouse on fire to force the release of Brown. The police turned him over to save other prisoners. In a frenzy, the mob hung Brown from a lamppost and shot him, later dragged his body and burned it. The mob turned against police vehicles and attacked any blacks they found in the street. They began to move toward a large African-American enclave
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...
in North Omaha. The city and governor had called in the U.S. Army 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 ...
to intervene. It stationed troops in North Omaha to protect the blacks, and after gaining control of the mob, in South Omaha to prevent any more riots forming. An unseasonal rainstorm cooled the mob down as well. The Army commander established martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
for several days. A grand jury's investigation identified the mob as arising from South Omaha and being encouraged by the city's vice world. No one was charged in the events, however.
Anti-Black racism
On July 4, 1910 African American boxer Jack JohnsonJack 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...
won a major upset at a national match 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...
. Upon hearing the news, a dozen fights broke out in different areas of the city between whites and blacks, as happened in other cities. Whites wounded several black men and killed one.
After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, white veterans trying to return to their civilian jobs found African-American and Eastern European immigrants in their former positions. Their resentment led to several violent strikes in the South Omaha meat packing industry as groups tried to control access to jobs. During this period, Earl Little was a Baptist minister in North Omaha. After his son, Malcolm, was born in Omaha in 1925, the family moved away because of threats by the 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...
in 1926. (The KKK had undergone a revival and growth in the Midwest in the early 1920s.) Malcolm Little later changed his last name to X, when he joined the Black Muslims
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
, where he became an important leader known as 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...
.
In the 1920s, 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...
became normalized in Omaha as 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 restrictive covenants kept African Americans concentrated in housing in North Omaha. The riot had discredited the city's newly elected reformist government. In the next election, "Cowboy" Jim Dahlman was returned to office with the support of Tom Dennison, the informal leader of the vice world. The labor struggles and social struggles led Omaha's African-American leaders, such as Earl Little, 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...
and 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....
, to push harder for civil rights. After this period, African Americans in Omaha were largely concentrated as residents on the city's north side, with a small community in South Omaha.
Civil Rights Movement-era
In 1947 a student-led civil rights group called the DePorres ClubDePorres Club
The DePorres Club was an early pioneer organization in the Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska, whose "goals and tactics foreshadowed the efforts of civil rights activists throughout the nation in the 1960s." The club was an affiliate of CORE.-History:...
was forced off the Creighton University
Creighton University
Creighton University is a private, coeducational, Jesuit, Roman Catholic university located in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the school is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. The university is accredited by...
campus, where they started. 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...
, a community activist and publisher, invited them to meet at the Omaha Star, the paper she directed for the African-American community for decades.
Omaha 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....
reported that in the 1950s he saw signs in Omaha restaurants and bars that said, "We Don't Serve Any Colored Race", but that he was always welcome as a musician. In the 1950s, the United Meatpacking Workers of America (UPWA) helped use their power to have businesses in Omaha integrate their facilities.
The late 1950s and early 1960s was the period which 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...
wrote about in The Education of a WASP. She recounted her activist efforts to desegregate a middle-class West Omaha neighborhood for an African-American surgeon and his family who wanted to live in the area. Such efforts took place in a different environment from the struggles of most working-class families in North and South Omaha.
In 1955, the State of Nebraska took Omaha's main amusement park, Peony Park
Peony Park
Peony Park was an amusement park located at North 78th and Cass Streets in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1919, over the next seventy-five years the park included a pool, beach and waterslide, a ballroom that billed itself as "1 acre under one roof," an open air dance area for 3000 dancers,...
, to district court. The state believed that the park, founded in 1919, violated Nebraska Civil Rights Law when African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
swimmers at the Amateur Athletic Union
Amateur Athletic Union
The Amateur Athletic Union is one of the largest non-profit volunteer sports organizations in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs.-History:The AAU was founded in 1888 to...
Swimming Meet held at the park on August 27, 1955 were discriminated against. In State of Nebraska v. Peony Park, the Nebraska Supreme Court
Nebraska Supreme Court
The Nebraska Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Nebraska. The Court consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. Each Justice is initially appointed by the Governor of Nebraska; using the Missouri Plan, each Justice is then subject to a retention vote for additional...
found that two African-American participants were illegally barred from the meet because Peony Park barred them from the pool. On September 7, 1955, the court fined Peony Park $50 and costs of the trial. Additional civil suits were settled out of court. 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 reported extensively on the trial, using the opportunity to highlight segregationist policies around the city as well as the city's burgeoning civil rights movement.
By the early 1960s, economic progress by many African Americans and ethnic Americans became unraveled in the massive job losses caused by restructuring of railroad and meatpacking industries. By the mid-1960s, North Omaha had much more poverty than before and increasing social problems. On July 4, 1966, tensions broke out in a riot after a day of blistering 103 degree weather. Refusing a police order to disperse, African Americans demolished police cars and attacked the North 24th Street business corridor, throwing firebombs and demolishing storefronts. Businesses in the Near North Side suffered millions of dollars in damages. The riot lasted three days. The National Guard was called in to disperse the rioters. Less than a month later, on August 1, 1966, riots erupted after a 19-year-old was shot by a white off-duty policeman during a burglary. rioters firebombed three buildings and 180 riot police were required to quell the crowds. Leaders in the community criticized 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 for blaming African Americans for the conditions they faced in their deteriorating neighborhoods, when the problems of joblessness and decreased maintenance were beyond city and regional control. That same year, 1966, 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...
, a documentary featuring North Omaha and the social problems, was filmed. Later it was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary.
In March 1968 a crowd of high school and university students 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 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 dozens of protesters being injured. During the melee, an African-American youth was shot and killed by a police officer. Students' fleeing the outbreak attacked businesses and cars, causing thousands of dollars of damage.
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. He went on to serve a total of 38 years, longer than any of his predecessors. Robert Kennedy visited Omaha later that year in his quest to become president, speaking in support of Omaha's civil rights activists.
An African-American teenager named Vivian Strong was shot and killed by police officers in an incident at the Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects in June 1969. Young African Americans in the area rioted after the teenager's death, and looted along the North 24th Street business corridor. Eight businesses were destroyed by firebombing or looting. Events went on for several more days. This is the last noted riot in Omaha.
In 1970 an African-American man named Duane Peak was arrested, and quickly implicated six others in a bombing at a vacant house in North Omaha that killed a police officer. On August 31, local Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
leaders David Rice and Ed Poindexter were arrested in the case, despite not having been originally implicated. In 1971 both men were convicted of murder in the controversial 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...
, and in 1974 a retrial of Rice and Poindexter was denied by the Nebraska State Supreme Court.
Late 20th century
The 1970s construction of the North Freeway bisected North Omaha, effectively cutting the African-American community in half and creating social problems. In 1976, the Omaha Public SchoolsOmaha 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...
began court-ordered busing to achieve integration.
In 1981 arsonists burned an East Omaha duplex after an African-American family signed a rental agreement there. The arson is unsolved.
In 1993 the Nebraska Parole Board voted for the first time to unanimously commute the sentences of Rice and Poindexter to time served
Time served
In criminal law, "time served" describes a sentence where the defendant is credited immediately after the guilty verdict with the time spent in remand awaiting trial. The time is usually subtracted from the sentence, with only the balance being served after the verdict...
. The Nebraska Board of Pardons refused to schedule a hearing in the matter. This same sequence of events has occurred no fewer than three times since then, with the same outcome each time.
In 1995 an African-American gang member murdered an Omaha police officer named Jimmy Wilson, Jr. The city responded by equipping every police car with a camera and giving North Omaha officers body armor. Later that year arsonists tipped over and burned an African-American woman's car in East Omaha near the site of the 1981 arson. Both cases are unsolved.
In 1996 the Omaha Public Schools ended court-ordered busing. That same year the Omaha World-Herald reported that, "One resident of Rose Garden Estates near 172nd and Pacific Streets said privately, for instance, that he finds the prospect of being incorporated into the city 'increasingly scary.' 'I left Benson
Benson, Nebraska
Benson is a historic neighborhood in Omaha, Nebraska. Now a pocket within North Omaha, Benson Place was originally platted in 1887 and was annexed into the City of Omaha in 1917.-History:...
because I didn't like the changes,' he said. 'Too much crime, too much racial tension, too much school busing. I went to the suburbs to get away from that, and now I'm being forced back in.' The man, an insurance company employee, denied that his problems were based on race, but he asked that this part of the interview be anonymous."
In 1997, an African-American Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
veteran named Marvin Ammons was shot and killed by an Omaha police officer. A grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
found the officer guilty of manslaughter
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
; the conviction was overruled on appeal due to a finding of jury misconduct. A second grand jury acquitted the offer of wrongdoing and admonished the Omaha police department for mishandling the case.
That year the Nebraska State Legislature enacted 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...
s. Some believed this action was directed against the long-time State Senator Ernie Chambers, an African American who had then served 27 years. In 2005 Chambers became the longest-serving State Senator in Nebraska history, with more than 32 years of service. Because of the 2002 law, he was not allowed to run for office again once his term expired in 2008.
Desegregation busing
Desegregation busing
Desegregation busing in the United States is the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools in such a manner as to redress prior racial segregation of schools, or to overcome the effects of residential segregation on local school demographics.In 1954, the U.S...
and racial integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
in public schools were contentious issues in Omaha. Problems with public schools were a factor in middle-class people moving to the suburbs, but the shift in population to suburbs also followed the growth of the city and highways. Omahans' preference for larger, newer housing was just like that of other Americans. Middle-class African Americans have also moved to the suburbs here and in other cities.
Schooling
From 1976 to 1999, Omaha had a busing plan as an effort to integrate the schools. Busing was an early goal of civil rights leaders and groups in Omaha, including 4CL, who lauded integrated busing as a particularly important step in improving race relations. When the city considered ending busing in the 1990s, Concerned and Caring Educators, a 100-member group of black education administrators and supervisors, praised the system as having improved race relations and the education of Omaha's students.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...
ended busing to achieve integration in 1999. It responded to parental desires for neighborhood schools and for choice. It has created magnet schools to attract students from middle-class families. As in many other cities, concerns about schools are high. Like some other districts such as Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, Omaha has begun to explore socioeconomic integration - assigning students according to family income - to change the makeup of their schools and address low test scores among poor children in the inner city. There have been delays in efforts to unite the Omaha public school district with newly annexed smaller, local districts in the western half of the city.
21st century
Senator Ernie Chambers proposed a controversial school separation plan for Omaha in the Nebraska State Legislature in response to concerns by suburban districts outside Omaha boundaries. The state legislature was interested in seeking a way to use suburban districts to help integrate the city's schools. "The law, intended to resolve a boundary dispute between the Omaha schools and largely white suburban districts, created a learning community of area school districts that would operate with a common tax levy and required them to draw up an integration plan for metropolitan Omaha."Chambers lobbied to create three districts in the city, with each drawn along geographic boundaries that loosely correlated to the racial segregation of the city: African Americans in North Omaha, Hispanic/Latinos in South Omaha, and Caucasians in West Omaha. Chambers defended his decision from the standpoint that much of the city had residential segregation
Residential Segregation
Residential segregation is the physical separation of cultural groups based on residence and housing, or a form of segregation that "sorts population groups into various neighborhood contexts and shapes the living environment at the neighborhood level."...
and that his plan would provide African American parents in North Omaha with more control over their district. The State Legislature signed this plan into law in April, 2006, with the plan going into effect in 2008.
Within a month of the legislature's passing the law, 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...
brought a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
, arguing that due to Omaha's racially segregated residential patterns, subdivided school districts will also be racially segregated, contrary to United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
law
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
. The case has also drawn national attention. Critics regard the plan as "state-sponsored segregation".
In February, 2007, unknown assailants robbed, firebomb
Firebomb
Firebomb may refer to:* Firebombing* Incendiary device* Molotov cocktail* A season 2 episode of the television show Alias* "Fire Bomb", a song by Rihanna from her 2009 album Rated R...
ed, and spray painted a racist epithet on the side of an East Omaha grocery store owned by an Ethiopian
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
immigrant. That crime is unsolved.
In October 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...
noted recent census statistics showed that Omaha, the 43rd largest city in the United States, has the fifth highest poverty rate for African Americans among the 100 largest cities. More than one in three live below the poverty line. The city has plans for public-private development in North Omaha that are intended to revive the area. Investment in infrastructure, parks and street design has already begun.
Some groups have tried to manufacture political power out of immigration issues, but more people in the city and community have rallied in support of the Hispanic community, who comprise the most numerous recent immigrants. In 2007 a neo-Nazi group tried to organize a protest and had 65 participants outside the city's Mexican
Mexicans in Omaha, Nebraska
Mexicans 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...
consulate. They were far outnumbered by the thousands in counter-protests, as well as those celebrating at events marking the diversity of the city.
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...
- Timeline of North Omaha, Nebraska historyTimeline of North Omaha, Nebraska historySignificant events in the history of North Omaha, Nebraska include the Pawnee, Otoe and Sioux nations; the African American community; Irish, Czech, and other European immigrants, and; several other populations. Several important settlements and towns were built in the area, as well as important...
- History of Omaha, NebraskaHistory of Omaha, NebraskaThe history of Omaha, Nebraska began before the settlement of the city, with speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa staking land across the Missouri River illegally as early as the 1840s. Before it was legal to claim land in Indian Country, William D. Brown was operating the Lone Tree...
- 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...