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 Protestants from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. However, since the first settlement, substantial immigration from all of Europe, migration by African Americans from the Deep South and various ethnic groups from the Eastern United States, and new waves of more recent immigrants from Mexico and Africa have added layers of complexity to the workforce, culture, religious and social fabric of the city.

In "From Sea to Sea - Letters of Travel", published in 1899, Rudyard Kipling wrote of Omaha, "the city to casual investigation seemed to be populated entirely by Germans, Poles, Slavs, Hungarians, Croats, Magyars, and all the scum of the Eastern European States..." [Kipling, R. (1899) "The Works of Rudyard Kipling: From Sea to Sea - Letters of Travel." The Century Company. p 136.] In the 1920s Omaha "reached the zenith of its ethnic diversity", when more than 50 percent of the city's population were new immigrants or the children of immigrants. [Larsen and Cotrell. (1997) "The Gate City: A history of Omaha." University of Nebraska Press. p 158.]

Background

The first Nebraska Territory census was taken in 1854 and included parts or all of present-day North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. It counted 2,732 residents in the entire territory, not including American Indians. The first official census after Nebraska achieved statehood in 1867 was the 1870 census, which counted 122,993 people. [(2007) " [http://www.unicam.state.ne.us/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=PRI.2.1&p_p_id=20&p_p_state=exclusive&p_p_col_id=null&p_p_col_pos=1&p_p_col_count=2&_20_struts_action=%2Fdocument_library%2Fget_file&_20_folderId=165&_20_name=44-45.pdf Nebraska's Population Today] ." Nebraska Legislature. Retrieved 5/13/08.] After the founding of Omaha in 1854 many European immigrants came seeking employment in the city's burgeoning railroads, stockyards, and meatpacking industry. Others came after moving to the state to homestead and giving up, while still others were headed through Omaha to other western States beyond Nebraska, and simply ended up staying.

20th century population

In 1900 Omaha had a total population of 102,555, with 23,255 immigrants accounting for 23 percent of the population. Omaha’s black population doubled between 1910 and 1920. By 1910 the city's population was 124,096 people, with 27,179 immigrants included. After 1910 the city's ethnic groups began to stabilize. In 1920 only 19 percent of the population was foreign-born. By 1930, when Omaha's population was 214,066, the federal government had curtailed European immigration. In that year's census the city's immigrant population comprised 14 percent of the total.What the United States Census did not show were estimates of 10,000 persons with Danish heritage and 7,000 Bohemians.Fact|date=May 2008 There was a large community of Russian Jews who had come to the US to escape religious persecution and, like other immigrants, to Omaha for jobs. Also attracted by word of available jobs, the majority of Italians in Omaha came directly to the city after arrival in port cities from Southern Italy and Sicily.

In 1907 the Dillingham Commission of the U.S. Senate examined the meatpacking industry in Omaha and the high percentage of immigrant workers in the occupations at the plants. Their findings illustrated the prevalence of foreign-born laborers, with only 17.4 percent of all workers having been born in the United States with fathers who were born in the United States. The remaining 82.6 percent were either foreign-born or had fathers who were foreign-born. The Commission found that the Omaha Stockyards, slaughtering and meatpacking plants were second only to the Chicago Stockyards for the percentage total of foreign and foreign-born workers. [Dillingham, W.P. (1918) "Reports of the Dillingham Commission: Immigrants in the Industries", p. 14.] The same report stated that, "The only obstacle to immigration applies to but one race and is not general in its nature. Strong racial prejudice has existed for a great many years against the Greeks. It reached its climax in a race riot a few years ago, when the entire Greek settlement was driven from the community by a mob. Immigrants of other races meet with no general obstacles." [Dillingham, W.P. (1918) p 344.] The Greek Town Riot drove out the entirety of that population. Some people of Greek heritage later returned to the city, but the community might have been larger without the early troubles.

As with other industrial cities, Omaha's percentage of foreign-born residents was significantly higher than the national average from 1900 to 1930. It was also much higher than the rest of the Missouri River Valley or Nebraska. Omaha qualified as an "immigrant city" as did Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and New York City. [Larsen and Cotrell. (1997) p 157.]

Racial tension

The complexity of population and rapid rate of change has caused social tensions to erupt periodically in violence. Racial tension has marked Omaha since the 1880s. In 1890 several hundred white people dragged an black worker named Joe Coe from his jail cell after he was accused of abducting a five-year-old white child. He was probably killed before he was lynched in the downtown area. [Taylor, Q. (1999) p 205.] In 1905 more than 800 students from schools in South Omaha protested the presence of Japanese students at their school by refusing to attend and locking adults out of their school buildings. The protest was mostly because the Japanese students were children of strikebreakers brought in by the stockyards the previous year. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E01E7DD173DE733A2575BC1A9629C946497D6CF "Revolt over Japanese; South Omaha School Children Want Them Expelled"] , "The New York Times." April 18, 1905. Retrieved 4/20/08.]

In February 1909 a Greek immigrant was arrested for loitering after being accused of having sex with a white woman. During the arrest, an Irish police officer was shot. The accused man was captured, and shortly thereafter a mob of 3,000 men and boys gathered outside the South Omaha jail where he was being held. Police distracted the crowd while the prisoner was moved to the Omaha City Jail. After discovering this, the mob attacked Greektown, a local ethnic enclave. They forced Greek residents to abandon the area, destroyed businesses, and completely demolished 30 buildings. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C05E1D91731E733A25751C2A9649C946897D6CF&scp=8&sq=omaha+riot&st=p "South Omaha mob wars on Greeks"] , "The New York Times." February 21, 1909. Retrieved 4/16/08.] [ [http://www.nebraskastudies.org/0700/stories/0701_0130.html "Racial tension in Nebraska in the 1920s."] NebraskaStudies.Org. Retrieved 6/7/07.]

While incidents of racial tension in Omaha have been reported through its history, the worst was the Omaha Race Riot of 1919. This followed Red Summer, when other major industrial cities such as Chicago were also inflamed by severe race riots, arising from social, job and housing tensions after WWI. In Omaha an African-American laborer named Will Brown was lynched, the city's mayor was almost lynched, and four other people were murdered. Although the U.S. Army arrived to restore order, many observers believed torrential rains contributed more to dampening emotions and sparing the city more damage. Some feared that related rioting might occur in other Midwestern United States, particularly in Chicago; but none did. [Tuttle, W.M. (1972) "Race Riot: Chicago in the Red Summer of 1919." University of Chicago Press. p 244.]

Local civil rights campaigns started in the 1940s, along with organizing laborers in the meatpacking industry. African Americans gained some progress, but restructuring of railroads and the meatpacking industry cost Omaha tens of thousands of jobs in mid-century, slowing the economy drastically. Poverty and related problems became more endemic in North Omaha. In the mid-to late-1960s, as in other once powerful industrial cities that had neglected long-identified problems, riots erupted in the African-American community.

On July 4 1966 a crowd of African Americans gathered at the intersection of North 24th and Lake Streets refused to disband and reacted violently against the local police. Three days of rioting ensued, causing millions of dollars of damage to the North 24th Street corridor.. [Luebtke, F.C. (2005) "Nebraska: An Illustrated History. University of Nebraska Press. p. 334.] [Levine, B.J. (2004) "Resolving Racial Conflict: The Community Relations Service and Civil Rights." University of Missouri Press. p 105.] A month later, on August 1 1966, riots erupted again after a 19-year-old was shot by an off-duty white policeman during a burglary. Three buildings were firebombed, and 180 riot police were required to quell the crowds. [Olson, J.C. and Naugle, R.C. (1997) "History of Nebraska." University of Nebraska Press. p 371.]

Two years later, on March 4 1968, a crowd of high school and university students were gathered at the Omaha Civic Auditorium to protest the presidential campaign of George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama. After counter-protesters began attacking youth activists, police brutality led to the injury of dozens of protesters. An African-American youth was shot and killed by a police officer during the ruckus. Fleeing students attacked property and caused thousands of dollars of damage to businesses and cars. [ [http://press.creighton.edu/031904/cu125.html "Peaceful protest turns violent"] , "The Creightonian Online." Retrieved 4/16/08.] The following day a local barber named Ernie Chambers helped calm a disturbance and prevent a riot by students at Horace Mann Junior High School. Chambers was already recognized as a community leader. After finishing his law degree, Chambers was elected to the Nebraska State Legislature, and served a total of 38 years, longer than any of his predecessors. [Olson, J.C. and Naugle, R.C. (1997) "History of Nebraska." University of Nebraska Press. p 371.]

The last major riot occurred on June 24 1969 when young African Americans in North Omaha rioted in protest after the killing of an African-American teenager named Vivian Strong, shot by police officers in an incident at the Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects. African Americans looted along the North 24th Street business corridor. During this initial surge, eight businesses were destroyed by firebombing or looting. [Luebtke, F.C. (2005) "Nebraska: An Illustrated History. University of Nebraska Press. p. 372.] Events went on for several more days. ["Firebombings in Omaha", "The New York Times." June 26, 1969. Retrieved 4/21/08.]

ee also

* History of Omaha

References

Additional reading

* Chaudacoff, H.P. (1976) "Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Omaha, 1880-1920," "International Migration Review. 10";1. Spring. pp. 110-112.
* Harkins, A.M., Zeyman, M.L. and Woods, R.G. (1970) "Indian Americans in Omaha and Lincoln." University of Minnesota.
* Karpf, M. (2006) [http://www.dailynebraskan.com/news/2006/05/01/MeetGenerationOne/Family.An.Important.Factor.In.Omaha.Students.College.Choice-1877190.shtml "Family an important factor in Omaha student's college choice,"] "Daily Nebraskan". May 1, 2006. Retrieved 5/13/08.]
* Sullenger, T.E. (1937) "Problems of Ethnic Assimilation in Omaha," "Social Forces. 15";3. March. pp. 402-410.

External links

* [http://omahatabletalk.org/default.aspx Omaha Table Talk] - A local program promoting dialog between racial and ethnic groups.