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The Greek Town riot was a race riot that took place in South Omaha, Nebraska, on February 21, 1909, during which several Greeks were wounded or injured. [1] A mob of 3,000 men displaced some of the population of Greek Town, wrecked 30 buildings there, and started a riot. [2]
In February 1909, 36-year-old Greek immigrant John Masourides from a small village near Kalamata was taking English lessons from 17-year-old South Omaha resident Lillian Breese. [3] [4] Irish-American police officer Edward Lowry arrested Masourides and Breese on February 19, having accused Masourides of coercing Breese into a sexual relationship; while Lowry transported them to the jailhouse, Masourides pulled out a handgun and shot Lowry dead. [5] Greek immigrants had come to the city as strikebreakers, and earlier immigrants resented them; among the immigrants who were hostile towards the Greeks were the Irish, who had a large community in South Omaha.
Local newspapers were particularly renowned for their yellow journalism and xenophobia during this period; in one article, the local Omaha Examiner stated that "if California has a Japanese problem, the people of Omaha had better review the growing Italian, Greek, Bulgarian, and Serbian problem in their own back yard". [6] One local newspaper encouraged racism with salacious headlines about the circumstances of Lowry's death. [7] The Omaha Daily News wrote, "Their quarters have been unsanitary; they have insulted women... herded together in lodging houses and living cheaply, Greeks are a menace to the American laboring man –just as the Japs, Italians, and other similar laborers are." [8] The Omaha World Herald headline stated, "Ed Lowry, South Omaha Policeman, Is Shot and Killed By Greek." The bold font was followed by an article which insinuated that it was not just Masourides who was responsible for the conditions that would inevitably end in such a tragedy, but the entire Greek community of South Omaha. [3]
When Masourides was finally apprehended, state legislators Jeremiah Howard (an Irish immigrant) and J.P. Kraus and an attorney called a mass meeting of more than 900 men. They "harangued the mob" and raised emotions against the Greeks. [9] [10] The mob, gathering more men along the way, gathered around the South Omaha jail where Masourides was being held. The police decided it was unsafe to keep Masourides there and moved him to the main Omaha jail. The mob followed the police wagon as it left the jail and managed to get their hands on Masourides more than once, at one point almost lynching him.
After the wagon escaped their grasp, the agitated men turned back towards South Omaha. On February 21, a mob of more than 1,000 men stormed the city's Greek Town area. [11] The New York Times carried an article about the riot stating that 3,000 men were in the mob. [12] They looted homes and businesses while physically assaulting Greeks, as well as Italians and Romanians who they misidentified as Greeks. [13] According to some sources, a 14-year old Greek boy was killed, [14] although other sources state that nobody was killed. [15] The entire Greek population of South Omaha was warned to leave the city within one day or risk the ongoing wrath of the mob. During the violence, the South Omaha police could not control the mob. They asked for help from police in Omaha, which was a separate city at the time, but the police there decided not to join in. Within a few days, all of the Greeks living in South Omaha fled the city, moving mostly to Council Bluffs and Sioux City in Iowa or Salt Lake City in Utah. [16]
Soon after the riot,[ when? ] Masourides was put on trial. He was convicted and sentenced to death. The Nebraska Supreme Court reversed the decision on appeal, because the mob's bias in the city had denied him a fair trial. [17] During a second trial, Masourides was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison. After five and a half years, he was released at the request of Nebraska's governor and was then deported from the country, with the most recent report on his whereabouts indicating that he moved to Egypt. [18] At the trial, the Greek vice-consul to the United States asked the federal government to explain why Greeks in South Omaha had been kicked out and why the government had failed to protect its Greek residents. The court trial dragged on and no explanation was ever provided. [19]
Within a week of the Omaha incident, reports of the violence set off at least two other violent anti-Greek demonstrations in Kansas City, Missouri and Dayton, Ohio. [20] However, newspapers around the country tended to view the Greeks in Omaha as victims. [16] For example, the Chicago Record-Herald claimed that speakers of "recent origin" had incited the mob by discriminating between Greeks and Americans. [16] The Fort Worth Record cautioned against the evil consequences of a combination of racial and popular feeling. [16] Closer to home, the Omaha World-Herald said that the rioters were the "dregs" of South Omaha. [16]
Nevertheless, at the end, the two state legislators were exonerated:
At the opening session of Nebraska's legislature, Kraus flatly denied making a speech at the Sunday meeting and stated that his only contribution was a resolution directed to the governor and the Nebraska labor commissioner. He went on to defend Representative Howard who, he said, had not used exciting language in his speech. The day following Kraus' statement before the House, a special committee of the Nebraska House of Representatives gave Howard and Kraus "certificates of excellence" because their behavior at the meeting preceding the riot was not found to be "serious". [21]
Shortly before the riot, it was estimated that around 3,000 Greeks lived in South Omaha. Less than a year later, just 59 Greeks remained in the area. [6]
On January 14, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson received a report from his Secretary of State Robert Lansing which described the riot; Wilson subsequently submitted a request for $40,000 (approximately $1.08 million in 2022) to be paid to the Greek government as reparations. [10]
In the broader context of racism in the United States, mass racial violence in the United States consists of ethnic conflicts and race riots, along with such events as:
Omaha is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 10 mi (15 km) north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 40th-most populous city, Omaha's 2020 census population was 486,051.
The Omaha Race Riot occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, September 28–29, 1919. The race riot resulted in the lynching of Will Brown, a black civilian; the death of two white rioters; the injuries of many Omaha Police Department officers and civilians, including the attempted hanging of Mayor Edward Parsons Smith; and a public rampage by thousands of white rioters who set fire to the Douglas County Courthouse in downtown Omaha. It followed more than 20 race riots that occurred in major industrial cities and certain rural areas of the United States during the Red Summer of 1919.
The 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. When it was legal to claim land in Indian Country, William D. Brown was operating the Lone Tree Ferry to bring settlers from Council Bluffs to Omaha. A treaty with the Omaha Tribe allowed the creation of the Nebraska Territory, and Omaha City was founded on July 4, 1854. With early settlement came claim jumpers and squatters, and the formation of a vigilante law group called the Omaha Claim Club, which was one of many claim clubs across the Midwest. During this period many of the city's founding fathers received lots in Scriptown, which was made possible by the actions of the Omaha Claim Club. The club's violent actions were challenged successfully in a case ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Baker v. Morton, which led to the end of the organization.
The 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 community was replete with Greek bakers, barbers, grocers and cafes. After a 1909 mob attack on the community, Greek immigrants fled from Omaha. Today even though the Greek-American community is smaller than it was in 1909, it includes many prominent doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, business people and others who have achieved great success here. It currently maintains two Greek Orthodox Churches.
The timeline of racial tension in Omaha, Nebraska lists events in African-American history in Omaha. These included racial violence, but also include many firsts as the black community built its institutions. Omaha has been a major industrial city on the edge of what was a rural, agricultural state. It has attracted a more diverse population than the rest of the state. Its issues were common to other major industrial cities of the early 20th century, as it was a destination for 19th and 20th century European immigrants, and internal white and black migrants from the South in the Great Migration. Many early 20th-century conflicts arose out of labor struggles, postwar social tensions and economic problems, and hiring of later immigrants and black migrants as strikebreakers in the meatpacking and stockyard industries. Massive job losses starting in the 1960s with the restructuring of the railroad, stockyards and meatpacking industries contributed to economic and social problems for workers in the city.
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.
The Near North Side of Omaha, Nebraska is the neighborhood immediately north of downtown. It forms the nucleus of the city's historic African-American community, and its name is often synonymous with the entire North Omaha area. Originally established immediately after Omaha was founded in 1854, the Near North Side was once confined to the area around Dodge Street and North 7th Street. Eventually, it gravitated west and north, and today it is bordered by Cuming Street on the south, 30th on the west, 16th on the east, and Locust Street to the north. Countless momentous events in Omaha's African American community happened in the Near North Side, including the 1865 establishment of the first Black church in Omaha, St. John's AME; the 1892 election of the first African American state legislator, Dr. Matthew Ricketts; the 1897 hiring of the first Black teacher in Omaha, Ms. Lucy Gamble, the 1910 Jack Johnson riots, the Omaha race riot of 1919 that almost demolished the neighborhood and many other events.
Tom Dennison, known as Pickhandle or Old Grey Wolf, was an American political boss and racketeer in 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. Dennison is credited with electing "Cowboy" James Dahlman mayor of Omaha eight times, and when losing an election, inciting the Omaha Race Riot of 1919 in retribution against the candidate who won.
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 being from Mexico, have been accounted for in the history of Omaha, Nebraska since 1900. The entire Latino population of Omaha increased ninety percent between 1990 and 1997.
African Americans in Omaha, Nebraska are central to the development and growth of the 43rd largest city in the United States. Black people are first recorded arriving in the area that became the city when York came through in 1804 with the Lewis and Clark expedition and the residence of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable who lived at Fort Lisa for an extended period in 1810. There were also enslaved Black people at the Church of Latter Day Saints Winter Quarters in 1846. The first free Black settler in the city arrived in 1854, the year the city was incorporated.
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The Omaha Daily Bee was a leading Republican newspaper that was active in the late 19th and early 20th century. The paper's editorial slant frequently pitted it against the Omaha Herald, the Omaha Republican and other local papers. After a 1927 merger, it was published as the Bee-News until folding in 1937.
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The 1918 Toronto anti-Greek riot was a three-day race riot that took place across Toronto, Ontario, Canada, targeting Greek immigrants in early August 1918. The date range of the riots is variously cited as 2–4 August or 1–5 August, with some sources using the latter range to include the event that triggered the violence and the date of the final restoration of the peace. It was the largest riot in the city's history and one of the largest anti-Greek riots in the world. In the newspapers of the time, the events were referred to as the Toronto troubles. The riot was the result of prejudice against new immigrants as well as the false belief that Greeks were not fighting in World War I and held pro-German views.