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.
This is a list of media serving the Omaha metropolitan area in Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Catherine Liggins Hughes is an American entrepreneur, radio and television personality and business executive. She has been listed as the second-richest Black woman in the United States, after Oprah Winfrey. She founded the media company Radio One, and when the company went public in 1999, she became the first African-American woman to head a publicly traded corporation. In the 1970s, Hughes created the urban radio format called "The Quiet Storm" on Howard University's radio station WHUR with disc jockey and fellow Howard student Melvin Lindsey.
Significant 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 social events that shaped the future of Omaha and the history of the nation. The timeline of North Omaha history extends to present, including recent controversy over schools.
The civil rights movement in Omaha, Nebraska, has roots that extend back until at least 1912. With a history of racial tension that starts before the founding of the city, Omaha has been the home of numerous overt efforts related to securing civil rights for African Americans since at least the 1870s.
Mildred D. Brown was an African-American journalist, newspaper baker, and leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska. Part of the Great Migration, she came from Alabama via New York and Des Moines, IA. In Omaha, she and her husband founded and ran the Omaha Star, a newspaper of the African-American community.
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.
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.
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 African-American community, and its name is often synonymous with the entire North Omaha area. It is bordered by Cuming Street on the south, 30th on the west, 16th on the east, and Locust Street to the north.
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.
The Omaha Star building is located at 2216 North 24th Street in North Omaha, Nebraska. As the site of publication of TheOmaha Star newspaper since 1938, the building is notable for its long service to Omaha's African-American community and its connections to the civil rights movement in the city. In recognition of its significance, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
The Houston Forward Times (FT) is a weekly newspaper headquartered in Houston, Texas. It is one of the largest black-owned newspapers in the city. It is published by the Forward Times Publishing Company, which also publishes other publications such as the Daily Cougar. As of 2014, the FT is one of the few remaining self-printing black newspapers.
Edward Danner was a butcher and state legislator in Nebraska. A member of the Nebraska state legislature from 1963 until his death in 1970, he represented North Omaha in the state senate. The only African American state senator in Nebraska at the time, he advocated for civil rights and equal protection under the law. He was a Democrat.
Ferdinand Lee Barnett was a journalist, civil rights activist, politician, and civil servant from Omaha, Nebraska. He was founder and editor of the newspaper The Progressive, which ran from 1889 to 1906 and served for a time as deputy clerk in the county court. He was elected to the Nebraska State House of Representatives in 1926.
George F. Franklin was a journalist and civic leader in Omaha, Nebraska, and Denver, Colorado. He owned and published two African-American newspapers, The Enterprise in Omaha, and The Denver Star in Denver. He was active in civil rights and was a member of the Nebraska branch of the National Afro-American League.
Symone D. Sanders-Townsend is an American political strategist and political commentator. She served as national press secretary for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign. She left the campaign abruptly in late June 2016, saying "she was not let go and that leaving the campaign was her decision." In October 2016, she was hired to be a Democratic strategist and political commentator by CNN. In April 2019, Symone Sanders joined the 2020 presidential campaign of former vice president Joe Biden as a senior advisor, and after Biden won election, was named chief spokesperson and a senior advisor for Vice President Kamala Harris. On December 2, 2021, Sanders announced that she would be resigning from her position by the end of 2021 to return to broadcasting, this time at MSNBC.
The Western Post was the first African American newspaper published in Nebraska. It was published in the town of Hastings between 1876 and 1877. No surviving copies of the paper remain.
The Omaha Guide was an African American newspaper in Omaha, Nebraska, published between 1927 and 1958. It was founded by Herman J. Ford, but editorial control was handed over to C.C. Galloway, a local businessman, after Ford's departure from the paper in 1930. Mildred Brown and her husband worked for the paper for a time, but left and founded the Omaha Star in 1938. The paper suffered low circulation in its final years due to competition from the Omaha Star and others, and it closed in 1958.
