Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska
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- Further information: Timeline of Racial Tension in Omaha, Nebraska
The Civil rights movement in Omaha, Nebraska has roots that extend back until at least 1912.
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[edit] Background
The first African American in the Omaha area was called "York". He arrived in 1805 as a slave of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition traversing the new Louisiana Purchase.
The first slave known of in the city of Omaha was owned by an Omaha tribe woman. While slavery was not commonly practiced in the city, it was not entirely absent. In 1860 the Omaha-based Nebraskian newspaper quoted the Chicago Times and Herald regarding a slave named "Eliza" who ran away from an Omaha businessman to Chicago, and was arrested there. The 1860 census showed 81 Negroes in Nebraska, 10 of whom were slaves.[1]
In 1854, Omaha, Nebraska Territory was created by land speculators from Iowa before the Civil War ended. Despite federal government promises to keep the Nebraska Territory free from slavery, there was ongoing debate in the early Nebraska State Legislature regarding the issue.
| “ | The bill introduced in Council, for the abolition of slavery 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. - From an 1859 Daily Nebraskian newspaper.[2] | ” |
Omaha stands out in the American Civil Rights Movement as the location of the 1876 trail of Standing Bear v. Crook. A U.S. district court judge at Fort Omaha set U.S. legal precedent by recognizing the personhood of Native Americans, thereby granting American Indians the rights of citizens. With Standing Bear, a Ponca chief on trail, local journalist Thomas Tibbles, Omaha Susette LaFlesche and General Crook himself testified on behalf of acknowledging Native American rights. For the first time, a U.S. court had ruled that an Indian was, officially, a person. Standing Bear won the case, securing the right of his tribe to leave their Indian Territory reservation and return to their Nebraska homelands.[3]
[edit] Civil Rights and African Americans in Omaha
Omaha's African American community has been established since the late 1800s. In the early 1880s Omaha's original "Negro district" was located at Twentieth and Harney Streets.[4] The oldest African American churches in Omaha are St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church, organized 1880); St. Phillip the Deacon Episcopal Church, organized in 1878, and; Zion Baptist, organized in 1884. Several local newspapers openly editorialized against the presence of blacks in Omaha, for the Confederacy and against the election and re-election of Abraham Lincoln.[5]
- See also: History of North Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha's history of overt racism extends at least to 1891, when a large white mob lynched an African American named George Smith for "leering at a white woman."[6] This event was reinforced by the psychological effect of a second lynching in 1919, that of African-American Willy Brown. Brown was accused of raping Agnes Loebeck, a white woman, at gunpoint, and the event required the intervention of the National Guard to ensured a calm, although racial segregation persisted throughout the city, reinforced by redlining and housing covenants that kept African Americans isolated in North Omaha[7] The South Omaha Stockyards also employed African American workers from the South, often forcing them to work under brutal working conditions. These workers made significant gains after organizing with the I.W.W. in the 1920s; however, they were setback again after major packinghouse closures in the 1930s.[8]
During this time period several "black schools" were established. That list eventually included Kennedy School, Lake School, Lothrop School and Long School.[9] Dr. Matthew Ricketts, the first African American in the Nebraska State Legislature, was elected in 1892.
In 1909 a Greek immigrant was arrested in South Omaha for dating a "white" woman. When he was transferred from a South Omaha jail to the Omaha jail, he was almost lynched by a mob that gathered. That same group grew in numbers and stormed an area in South Omaha called Greek Town. Every building in the well-established area was burnt to the ground, and Greeks fled Omaha en masse, particularly because so many of them were beaten. On 14-year-old boy was murdered.
[edit] 1912-1962
| “ | We Don't Serve Any Colored Race.[10] | ” |
The first recorded efforts within the African American community in Omaha was the creation of the Omaha chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1912, continuing to this day.[11] In 1917 George Wells Parker founded the Hamitic League of the World in Omaha, and in 1918 it published his pamphlet Children of the Sun. At this time Cyril Briggs also became the editor of their journal, The Crusader, which subsequently became the journal of the African Blood Brotherhood. In the 1920s the Omaha chapter of Marcus Garvey's 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.
There are reports of African Blood Brotherhood-related action in Omaha, particularly around the time of the Willy Brown lynching. Harry Haywood is said to have become radicalized by the mob rule that overtook the city at the time, which drove him to become involved with the ABB, and later, the Communist Party of America - all of which happened for him in the Omaha of the 1920s.
The Urban League of Nebraska the first chapter of the national organization founded in the American West.[12] It was started in North Omaha in 1928 and led by Whitney Young, who more than tripled the membership. The Urban League of Nebraska continues today.[13] The National Federation of Colored Women had five chapters in North Omaha with more than 750 members. They actively conducted a variety of social, political and charitable work throughout the city of Omaha.[14]
The Omaha Star was founded in 1938 with a circulation of 6,000. Founded by Mildred Brown, it quickly became the city's only African American newspaper, featuring positive news, role models and activities throughout the community. The paper strongly supported the civil rights movement in Omaha, often featuring the successes and highlighting the challenges facing blacks in Omaha.
An interesting instance of student activism and community organizing in Omaha was the development of the DePorres Club. Founded at Creighton University in 1947,[15] this club was a group of African American high school students and white Creighton University students that actively sought to fight racial discrimination in housing and the workplace.[16] In the 1950s the offices of the Omaha Star hosted the DePorres Club after Creighton banned them from campus. The club hosted a community center called The Omaha DePorres Center to meet the needs of low-income families, and eventually started branches in Denver and Kansas City. According to one historian, "Their goals and tactics foreshadowed the efforts of civil rights activists throughout the nation in the 1960s."[17] In 1958 the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached at Salem Baptist Church in North Omaha.
[edit] 1963-1971
In the summer of 1963 the 4CL, Citizens Civic Committee for Civil Liberties, rallied together to demand change equal rights for all African Americans throughout Omaha through the influence of the national civil rights movement. Their picketing, stand-ins during city council meetings and other efforts provided a powerful mechanism for social change, including new jobs and housing opportunities, in Omaha.[18]
- "Unlike the DePorres Club, a predecessor organization led by a white Jesuit priest (John Markoe) and an interracial coalition of Creighton University students and others, the 4CL was led by black ministers (Revs. Rudolph McNair, Kelsey Jones, General Woods and R.F. Jenkins) and drew on a largely black grassroots constituency for its membership and support." Later in that year, the Omaha Human Rights Commission was created in response to the city's history of civil rights activism. They hosted a massive protest of more than 10,000 people later in that year. However, organizations such as 4CL saw this Commission, led by Omaha's mayor, as a stalling tactic. Members of Salem Baptist Church and several others throughout the community moved the city towards equal opportunity.[19]
According to the Nebraska Legislature, civil rights demonstrations in Omaha in 1963 led to the creation of the Omaha Human Rights Commission.[20] According to a period documentary, this commission was set up only to placate civil rights activists, and because of that, failed.
Malcolm X spoke in Omaha in 1964.[21] During the 1960s popular locations in North Omaha for community activists to gather included the Fair Deal Cafe on 24th Street and Goodwin’s Spencer Street Barbershop at 3116 N. 24th Street, where young Ernie Chambers was a barber.[22]
The National Guard was called to North Omaha to quell two days of rioting on July 5, 1966 that are frequently addressed as race riots.[23] Riots erupt again in North Omaha in April, 1968 in response to assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Later that year Robert Kennedy visited North Omaha in his quest to become president, speaking at Creighton University in support of Omaha's civil rights activists.
On June 24, 1969 riots erupt after an Omaha police officer fatally shot teenager Vivian Strong in the Logan Fontenelle Public Housing Projects.[24]
Throughout the 1960s the Black Association for Nationalism Through Unity (BANTU) was a unique Omaha youth activism group that organized African American students in the city's high schools. Focusing on black power and self-determination, BANTU claimed concessions from the Omaha City Council with Senator Edward R. Danners lobbying that Nebraska State Legislature on their behalf. BANTU maintained a unique relationship with the Omaha chapter of the Black Panther Party, which may have included being a recruiting group for the BPP.[25]
The Black Panthers were active in Omaha, with many crediting them for the race riots of the 1960s.[26] In 1970, Omaha police officer Larry Minard was killed in an explosion in North Omaha blamed on the Black Panther Party. David Rice and Ed Poindexter were given life sentences in a controversial case about the explosion (see Rice/Poindexter Case).
While the Omaha civil rights movement did not gain its popularly stated goals of gaining a law from the Nebraska State Legislature ensuring equal housing opportunities or a separate law ensuring equal job opportunities, it is seen as successful for raising awareness of the inequities facing African Americans in Omaha.[27] Where the film A Time for Burning tracked the sentiment of 1960s white Omaha towards African Americans, recent actions of Senator Ernie Chambers illustrate the sentiment today.
[edit] 1972-present
Desegregation busing and racial integration in public schools has been a particularly contentious issue in Omaha. From 1976 to 1999, Omaha had a forced busing plan as an effort to integrate the schools.[28] This was an early goal of civil rights leaders in Omaha, including 4CL, who particularly lauded busing as improving race relations.[29] For instance, Concerned and Caring Educators, a 100-member group of black administrators and supervisors advocated against the cessation of forced busing and praised the system as improving race relations and the education of Omaha's students.[30]
However, busing and racial tension has been a factor in Omaha's white flight.[31] Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers has been critical of the ineffective nature of busing in Omaha, as well as the shortcomings of the predominately white administration of the Omaha Public School District to the point of proposing the separation of the district into three subdistricts, one for the predominately white western part of Omaha, one for the predominately Hispanic South Omaha, and one for predominately black North Omaha.[32]
[edit] Important individuals in Omaha's Civil Rights Movement
Prior to the formal founding of the Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, several African Americans secured status that was relevant to later struggles. The first African American born in Omaha was William Leper, born in 1872 at 13th and Jackson Streets. The first black physician in Omaha was a Dr. Stephenson who came to Omaha in 1890.[33] The first African American fair ever held in the United States took place in Omaha July 3-4, 1894. According to a report, "Only Negro-owned horses were entered in the races, and all exhibits were restricted to articles made or owned by Negroes."[34] African Americans in Omaha also took care of their own: The community built an "Old Colored Folks Home" in North Omaha in the 1910s, and sustained it for a number of years.[35]
Malcolm X, one of the primary civil rights movement leaders of the 1960s, was born in North Omaha and spoke there on at least one occasion. George Wells Parker attended college at Creighton University and founded the Hamitic League of the World in Omaha. Whitney Young was Omaha's Urban League president for several years, eventually encouraging the national organization to become more aggressive in its efforts to secure civil rights for African Americans. Harry Haywood was a leading African American member of both the Communist Party of the United States from the 1920s through to his death in 1981, known for his significant theoretical contributions to the question of Marxist nation-building around the world.
Gale Sayers of Omaha was the first African American NFL player to share a room with a white player. Senator Ernie Chambers is a long-time civil rights activist from Omaha and the longest-serving State Senator in Nebraska history. His early views about race, Omaha and civil rights were illustrated in the 1960s documentary A Time for Burning. They have recently been brought to the spotlight by his controversial school separation plan.
[edit] See also
- American Civil Rights Movement
- History of North Omaha, Nebraska
- Timeline of North Omaha, Nebraska history
- The Communist Party and African-Americans
- Timeline of Racial Tension in Omaha, Nebraska
[edit] References
- ^ (1938) http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/wpa:@field(DOCID+@lit(wpa116041210+)) Authur Goodlett]. American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940.
- ^ A Daily Nebraskian newspaper editorial from 1859, as quoted in Bristow, D. (2002) A Dirty, Wicked Town: Tale of 19th Century Omaha. Caxton Press.
- ^ Bristow, D. (2002)
- ^ (1936) Henry Black: Life Histories from the Folklore Project, WPA Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940; American Memory. U.S. Library of Congress.
- ^ Several sources in Bristow, D.
- ^ Bristow, D. (2000) A Dirty, Wicked Town: Tales of 19th Century Omaha. Caxton Press.
- ^ A Street of Dreams Nebraska Public Television.
- ^ Larsen, L. and Cottrell, B.J. (1997) The Gate City: A History of Omaha.
- ^ (n.d.) Excerpts from Interviews - Evelyn Montgomery Crestridge School of International/Global Studies, Omaha Public Schools.
- ^ Preston Love reported seeing this sign repeatedly in Omaha cafes in the 1950s in Bristow, D. (n.d.) Swingin' with Preston Love. Nebraska Life.
- ^ (n.d.)Timeline: Omaha's 150th Birthday. KETV.com
- ^ (2007) African American History in the American West: Timeline. University of Washington.
- ^ (2007) Our History Urban League of Nebraska.
- ^ Nebraska Writers Project (n.d. est 1938) Negroes in Nebraska Workers Progress Administration.
- ^ (1992) A Street of Dreams. Nebraska ETV Network (video)
- ^ (n.d.)Mildred Brown Nebraska Studies.
- ^ Taylor, Q. (2007) The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed - Timeline. Seattle: University of Washington.
- ^ A Street of Dreams.
- ^ Cutting the path to freedom. The Reader.
- ^ (n.d.) [www.unicam.state.ne.us/bluebook/intro/history.pdf History: Earliest records]. State of Nebraska Unicameral.
- ^ Cutting the path.
- ^ "Cutting the path..."
- ^ (n.d.) National Guard Mobilized in North Omaha. Black Facts Online.
- ^ (n.d.) Distilled in Black and White Omaha Reader.
- ^ Howard, A. M. (2006, Sep) The Omaha Black Panther Party and BANTU: Exploitation or a Relationship of Mutual Convenience Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, NA, Atlanta, GA.
- ^ A Street of Dreams.
- ^ A Street of Dreams.
- ^ 1954-1979. Omaha World Herald (Nebraska) June 13, 2004
- ^ A Street of Dreams.
- ^ Ngyren, Judith. Black Group: Ending Busing A Step Back Omaha World Herald. March 14, 1996
- ^ "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 (Freed, Kenneth. "The Lure of the Suburbs Do City Problems Grow With Growth?" Omaha World Herald (August 7, 1996)). This article notes other similar instances
- ^ Saunders, Michaela. Chambers up close A Q&A with the senator, whose OPS views are rooted in his youth. Omaha World Herald (April 30, 2006))
- ^ (1895) "Negroes in Omaha," Omaha Progress February 21, 1895.
- ^ Nebraska Writers Project (n.d. est 1938) Negros in Nebraska Workers Progress Administration.
- ^ (1936) Henry Black: Life Histories from the Folklore Project, WPA Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940; American Memory. U.S. Library of Congress.
[edit] External links
- Fast Facts about Omaha's African American community
- Discover North Omaha website
- Discover Black Omaha website
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