Narrating Black Masculinity: An Examination of Racialized Violence and Gender in the Omaha Race Riot of 1919
By: Edith Ritt-Coulter, University of North Texas
When “lynching” is searched on the Internet, the image of William Brown’s unrecognizable body emerges upon the screen amongst the hundreds of other photos that depict victims of racialized mob violence. In William Brown’s case, a sea of jubilant faces towering over his charred remains has become the lasting legacy of his identity. In US society when racialized violence is present, the victim’s identity becomes synonymous with their demise. Oftentimes, the media creates demonized depictions of African Americans to perpetuate long-lasting narratives of black criminality. The trope of black hypersexuality and criminality was forced upon William Brown when the Omaha Daily Bee deemed Agnes Lobeck’s alleged attacker the “Black Beast.” After that moment, Brown became the embodiment of the socially constructed black gendered body in Omaha and subsequently met his demise at the hands of white men who believed their masculine role was under attack. Brown’s story is not a singular incidence of violence committed against African Americans but a part of a long history of controlled narratives that have been rooted in the white constructions of black masculinity.
Today, social media platforms and media outlets are flooded with the most recent acts of racialized violence committed against members of the African American community. Modern victims of white on black violence are demonized and vilified, similar to William Brown and other lynching victims of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Interrogating the gendered narratives present in the US’ history of violence towards African Americans allows us to conceptualize how the past is linked to instances of racialized violence today. It will help us deconstruct systems of oppression that are rooted in gendered identities. This article explores how competing notions of black and white masculinity resulted in the Omaha Race Riot of 1919 and the subsequent murder of William Brown.
The end of William Brown’s life began with an accusation based on white perceptions of black masculinity. On September 25, 1919, Agnes Lobeck reported that an unknown man had assaulted her. Lobeck claimed that the assailant had dragged her by the hair, covered her mouth, and assaulted her while holding her twenty-two-year-old male companion at gunpoint.[1] With little probable cause, the Omaha police department issued a warrant for Brown’s arrest. The arrest was primarily due to his proximity to the crime scene and ill feelings regarding his residence in a white woman’s home. On the evening of September 26, local men began to gather around Brown’s home demanding justice.[2] Brown, who had severe rheumatoid arthritis, took refuge under his bed until the local police arrested him. [3] No one questioned if Brown was physically capable of committing the alleged assault. Omaha’s men rejected rational thinking when they had located who the press deemed the “black beast” and whom they perceived as being responsible for the alleged attacks committed before Lobeck’s incident. Before the evening of the 25th of September, Tom Dennison, Omaha’s city boss, used local media outlets and political propaganda to incite racial turmoil based on competing concepts of African American and white masculinity. This lynching represents how corrupt political leaders manipulated the ever-dueling gender identities of black and white men, which culminated in a play for power in the form of mob violence that subsequently took William Brown’s life.
Before the events on September 26, 1919, the socio-political climate spoke to many factors that contributed to the lynching of black men. Racial tension in the United States reached one of its many high points during the Red Summer of 1919. Across the US an increase in the frequency of lynching and race riots plagued metropolitan areas in response to the returning home of black veterans and labor tension along the color line. Omaha, in particular, found itself at the crux of racial tension due to the political agenda of Tom Dennison and the increase of black workers, who were used as scabs to break strikes. According to Orville Menard, the African American population in Omaha doubled from 5,143 to 10,315 between 1910 and 1920. The rise of the African American population can be attributed to the mass migration of blacks from the agricultural South to the industrial North known as The Great Migration. African Americans moved to pursue better employment and hoped to escape the oppressive nature of Jim Crow ideologies that were embedded in Southern culture. Black men who sought scab employment were met with hostility from their white counterparts. These men were recruited out of the South by factory management who used paid railway fair and the promise of a decent wage to entice black men to cross picket lines. In Omaha, Peter Canyon claimed that his city had a race problem, which he attributed to the black workers being used to replace white men in blue-collar jobs.[4] This created an underlying discontent with Omaha’s African American community leading up to the murder of William Brown. An essential element of white male gender identity is the ability to provide for one’s family. In the months leading to Brown’s lynching, white masculinity in Omaha had already been challenged by the influx of black workers in the city. The liberatory moment of the Great Migration in conjunction with the First World War instilled a perceived threat to white hegemony. Perceived societal control was further destabilized by the reoccurring reports of alleged assaults committed against white women.
In the months leading to the riot’s outbreak, twenty-four cases of alleged assaults occurred within the city limits of Omaha. [5] An unnamed eighteen-year-old mob member stated to the Daily Bee, “authorities repeatedly ignored offenses committed against white women by Negro brutes and the people could stand it [any] longer.”[6] Canyon, who also spoke upon the labor issues in Omaha, repeated the mob leader’s sentiment and claimed that the actions of the lynch mob could not be condemned too strongly due to the government’s failure to protect women.[7] Media outlets perpetuated the story of sexual assault but never reported stories that exonerated African American men who were found innocent. One accused man maintained his innocence because he was out of state during the alleged assault. According to Menard, white men who worked for Tom Dennison committed several of the crimes while in blackface. The media’s continuous coverage of assaults in Omaha created more friction across the color line and contributed to the manifestation of white men’s fear of uncontrolled black masculinity.
Corrupt political leader, Tom Dennison, perpetuated this fear to advance his agenda against Mayor Edward Smith. During Omaha’s election in 1918, Edward Smith, who ran on a reformist platform, defeated James Dahlman, a candidate backed by Tom Dennison.[8] This election marked a political shift in Omaha from an administration that worked in alliance with the city boss to a government that opposed gambling and prostitution. Smith’s administration undermined the underground dealings of Dennison and thus made him a target for attacks. To turn the public against Mayor Smith, Dennison utilized local media and his friendship with Thomas Rosewater, the Omaha Daily Bee’s owner, to develop a narrative that exploited society’s perception of black masculinity. Dennison’s propaganda campaign focused on the so-called “race problem” in Omaha to turn public opinion against the Smith administration.[9] Dennison and the media’s campaign against Edward Smith created the fictitious “black beast” that sought to undermine white-dominated social structures’ stability. This creation caused Omaha’s white male population to question the meaning of their masculinity and thus allowed for an environment where they felt the need to display their dominance through racialized violence.
Accusing Brown
Dennison’s propaganda campaign against Mayor Edward Smith and the African American men of Omaha reached its culmination in September 1919. William Brown became the target of Omaha’s attack on black masculinity. Brown was a forty-year-old packinghouse worker. He moved to Omaha for work from Cairo, Illinois sometime between 1910 and the time of his death in 1919. While in Omaha, Brown had no family connections and suffered from severe rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that causes inflammation in the joints. This disease triggers deformity and immobility in the fingers, wrist, feet, and ankles. William Brown’s lack of community connection and disabilities made him the perfect scapegoat for Omaha’s white community to regain their sense of racial order.
Agnes Lobeck, who media outlets later described as the “Helen of Troy” for Omaha, brought forth the accusations that would lead to the murder of William Brown.[10] According to news reports, September 25, 1919 was a beautiful fall night, perfect for an evening stroll. Lobeck and her boyfriend, Milton Hoffman, took advantage of the pleasant weather by walking home from a movie.[11] Lobeck, who at the time was nineteen-years-old, worked for a local eating-house in the Gibson district of Omaha. Milton Hoffman worked for the Otis Elevator Company. He is believed to have worked for Tom Dennison and allegedly was the nephew of Thomas Rosewater, the owner of the Daily Bee. As the couple approached Riverview Park, an African American man jumped out of the shadows.[12] The duo alleged that the man pressed a revolver into their backs and demanded their belongings. Lobeck and Hoffman reported that they were robbed of sixteen dollars and a Tiffany ruby ring. After the attacker stripped the couple of their possessions, he then proceeded to drag Lobeck by the hair into the ravine and sexually assault her. Lobeck claimed her assailant covered her mouth and pulled her hair while holding her male companion at gunpoint.[13] She further reported that after her assault the man carried her back to the spot where Hoffman sat and subsequently told the pair to wait ten minutes before leaving.[14] Lobeck later stated, “I know Milton wanted to help me, but the Negro kept the gun on him. My companion was afraid of getting shot. I did not want him to lose his life, for he is a cripple.”[15] Lobeck and Hoffman returned to their home and reported the incident. In a 1982 article, Henry Welch shared his father’s account, who was the deputy sheriff the night of Lobeck’s alleged assault. Welch claimed that when he approached Lobeck’s home, he looked in the window and witnessed Lobeck cleaning her floor.[16] Upon knocking, the officer had to wait a substantial amount of time before Lobeck told them to come in.[17] When the officer entered Lobeck’s home her demeanor changed. Welched reported that she was lying on the couch with a big towel wrapped around her head.[18] The deputy sheriff divulged that he believed the woman was faking it.[19]
News of the attack spread fast amongst the citizens of Omaha. The night of the 25th, Gibson men began canvassing the streets and local railways looking for the perceived attacker. In the morning Omaha police rounded up forty-five African American men who did not have an alibi for the previous evening.[20] As the day progressed an anonymous tip claimed, “two suspicious Negros were with a white woman near the crime scene.”[21] Police officers and the blue-collar men that prowled the streets shifted their search to the home of Virginia Jones. Brown rented a room from Jones, a white woman, which cultivated suspicion amongst the neighbors. At ten o’clock on the 26th, Brown attempted to retire for the evening when he heard noises coming from outside his home. When he initially looked out of his window, he thought that a group of drunkards was gathering.[22] Brown realized that the growing mob outside meant him harm when they began to beat on the front door. One member of the crowd yelled, “Come out here big boy we want to talk to you!”[23] At that moment Brown took cover under his bed and waited for the inevitable. The crowd outside of Brown’s home reached two hundred and fifty people by the time Officer Al Sinclair and his partner Officer Lighthall reached the residence. Jones, Brown’s landlord, told the police that her tenant returned home after midnight the evening before and that she did not know of his whereabouts.[24] At this time the officers arrested Brown and took him to the home of Agnes Lobeck for identification. At first, Lobeck claimed, “yes, it was a black man all right, but I can’t tell whether this is the man or not.”[25] The Omaha Daily Bee claimed that Lobeck screamed. “ That’s the man, that’s him!” which invigorated the crowd outside.[26] The competing narratives of the identification and police officers’ acknowledgment of Brown’s diminished physical ability in connection with Lobeck’s actions further perpetuated the idea that the assault was fraudulent. The men and women who gathered in the name of vengeance did not inquire if Brown was innocent or not. The jury of public opinion found him guilty and wanted nothing more than to take his life. As Officer Sinclair attempted to transport Brown to the county jail, a member of the crowd stole the car’s key, stalling Brown’s escape. Further, the mob threw a rope around Brown’s neck, but the officers luckily saved him. After a back and forth battle between the angry mob and the police, three backup squads showed up and finally escorted Brown to the Douglas County Courthouse. The failed attempt to murder Brown did not detour the bloodthirsty masses in Omaha. They had found their “black beast” and would stop at nothing to restore racial order in their city.
The Riot
On September 27,1919, Milton Hoffman and his Bancroft schoolmates gathered outside the courthouse demanding popular justice. J.J. Friedman witnessed two police officers posted at the entrances of the seven-year-old courthouse to protect Brown inside. Young men stood in front of the YMCA and began throwing rocks at the building across the road in an attempt to provoke officers.[27] The crowd slowly began to grow in size and intensity around 6:00 p.m. Stones in the hands of rioters turned into revolvers and a physical altercation broke out between the authorities and citizens. Friedman noted that the cause of such action was due to the alleged assaults of white women in the months preceding the riot.[28] In his written history, Friedman accredited the mob’s anger to the lack of police intervention in protecting women from the unscrupulous attacks by black men.[29] Several men who expressed their thoughts after the Omaha race riot cited this exact reason as the underlying cause of the violence. An unknown mob leader spoke to the Daily Bee and claimed the event was carefully planned in detail. He stated, “ the assault had been the topic of conversation for days in his neighborhood.”[30] He further explained that someone was behind the event and spent a lot of money.[31] Early on the morning of September 27th, liquor was distributed to the white men of Omaha, and they were transported by taxicabs to the courthouse where they were handed armaments.[32] Bystander J.J. Friedman observed the planned execution first hand. He expressed that he saw a blond burly fellow directing the actions of the mob.[33] The observed orchestration of racialized mob violence speaks to the desire to destroy black masculinity in the name of political gain. Dennison, who notably controlled Omaha’s underground activities, maintained access to the necessary tools (i.e., liquor and guns) to escalate the instability felt by white men into an all-out race riot. Fueled by whiskey and the belief that their masculine hegemony was under attack, the men of Omaha proceeded to pursue gender dominance by destroying the political center of their city and ultimately murdering William Brown.
As the evening went on, twenty-thousand rioters participated in setting fire to the Douglas County Courthouse in an attempt to persuade officers to hand over Brown. W.H. Cummings, a Douglas County police officer, witnessed first-hand the effects of the lynch mob. He described rioters climbing the courthouse walls with rope in an attempt to gain access inside through windows.[34] Around 9:30 PM, rioters put the magnificent seven-year-old courthouse to the torch. Rioters poured gasoline on tumbled piles of valuable records. To deter firefighters, members of the mob chopped up fire hoses.[35] At eleven o’clock, when the frenzy reached its peak, Mayor Smith came out of the courthouse’s east door.[36] Edward Smith walked to the south entrance of the building in an attempt to speak to the crowd. The rioters hooted, jeered and threw stones so viciously that Mayor Smith did not get the opportunity to speak.[37] The Mayor shouted, “ If you get him, you will have to get me first.”[38] A shot rang out amongst the surging crowd when Mayor Smith emerged in the midst of the mob. An unidentified man dressed as an US soldier screamed, “ He shot me, Mayor Smith shot me.”[39] Eugene Sullivan Davis hit the mayor on the head with a baseball bat. Mayor Smith gasped, “If you must hang somebody, then let it be me.” [40] A member of the crowd tied a noose around the mayor’s neck then dragged him down the street. People in the crowd attempted to save the mayor multiple times. During one instance, a woman reached out and tore the noose from the Mayor’s neck. During another, men wrestled the mayor from his captors and placed him in a police automobile.[41] The angry lynch mob muscled their way back to the mayor’s unconscious body and suspended him from the Harney street traffic signal. Detectives Danbaum and Anderson came to the Mayor’s rescue. Anderson cut the mayor down and Danbaum sped away. In the safety of the hospital, Smith deliriously repeated that mob rule should not prevail in Omaha[42] Mayor Smith’s attack at the courthouse left William Brown vulnerable. Smith’s absence enabled the mob to breach Brown’s haven. At this point, his death became imminent.
As the flames engulfed the Courthouse, inmates and police began to turn on Brown. Shortly before Brown was captured, a note fell from the roof stating, “The judge says he will give up the Negro Brown. He is in the dungeon. There are one hundred white prisoners on the roof save them.”[43] Fear filled the burning courthouse. Every married police officer left inside the burning courthouse called his wife by telephone. Anguish filled each officer’s voice as they surrendered tearful good-byes.[44] The men in the courthouse could not hold up against the lynch mob any longer. Police officers and prisoners on the fourth floor of the courthouse escaped with an extension ladder. When they touched the ground, they received beatings from the crowd.[45] Some prisoners went looking for Brown to throw him off the roof and save their own lives.[46] According to reports, members of the mob found Brown cowering in his cell. Rioters penetrated the prison gates with a battering ram and dragged Brown through the burning courthouse. A small group of men emerged dragging the helpless and already inanimate figure of Brown by the end of a rope.[47] The mob yanked his body up unto the Sixteenth Street light pole. There, his body swung over the heads of his attackers in the autumn breeze.[48] The mob continued their assault on Brown’s body as a means to demonstrate their dominance and to annihilate his existence. Jack Rhodes wrote in his journal,
His arms hung grotesquely at his side and his limbs dangled in the most inhuman way. As he was drawn upward, men continued to fire and we could hear the sound of the bullets hitting the iron post. The big searchlight was turned upon this scene and my blood turned cold at the sight. Everything seemed so unreal, the shouting and cursing mob, the sounds of the shots, the burning Court House and the naked and lifeless body of the negro hanging there with blood pouring from his countless wounds[49]
The lynch mob’s torture only escalated from there. The white mob planned to drag Brown’s body down Twenty-fourth Street and Lake, towards the African American neighborhood in Northern Omaha. This plan showed the mob’s need to make Brown an example. The lynch mob leaders wanted to prove they had successfully slain the “black beast”. Rumors that the African Americans in North Omaha planned to ambush white rioters stopped them from dragging Brown’s body thirty-five miles from the courthouse. The leaders of the crowd decided to drag his lifeless body between Ninth and Dodge Street. When Brown’s body was tortured beyond recognition, the lynch mob began to pile railroad ties and lumber. Members of the crowd cast Brown’s body onto the pile and set him on fire. Men involved with the lynching felt satisfied with the amount of mutilation they inflicted on their target. Grown men kicked around Brown’s limbs like soccer balls, while little boys weaved amongst the people selling pieces of the lynching rope. Members of the lynch mob stopped to commemorate their triumph over black masculinity by posing for a photograph that would be published in the World Herald. This image is still circulated today on the Internet and has become one of the most infamous depictions of mob violence in the US.
After the death of Brown, rioters began planning further attacks on Omaha’s “black belt.” News reports claimed a young mob leader stood on top of an automobile and yelled, “Those Negros up there are armed and your life will be endangered. Don’t go tonight, go tomorrow when you are armed right and you can get as many of them as you like.”[50] The crowd acknowledged this plan by cheering back, “ You bet, we’ll go tomorrow.”[51] Several men decided to jump into a truck to convey a very unambiguous message to the black men of Omaha. They yelled, “Any nigger who does this thing again will know what is coming!”[52] Contradicting the claim that African Americans in Northern Omaha were armed, official reports found that the black district was calm and that there were very few people of color on the streets that night.[53] Many African Americans hid in their homes because the true danger came from the white community. Rioters pulled black men off streetcars to assault and scare them. Detective Noah Thomas, a black policeman, was harassed until his sergeant had to remove him from his post at the courthouse.[54] Rioters perpetuated the idea among themselves that every black person had a gun in order to validate their continued violence.[55] At three o’clock in the morning on September 28th, General Leonard Wood and eight hundred national guardsmen entered Omaha to regain control of the city. Military authorities ordered their men to keep a watchful eye on the black district, instead of focusing their energy on the rioters.[56] The National Guard mounted machine guns on to trucks and proceeded to patrol the northern neighborhoods of Omaha.[57] This act was not to protect African American residents from white attacks, but was used as a tool to give a visible military presence that would deter any acts of retaliation. Further, black men were subject to arrest if they concealed a weapon for their own safety. During the state of martial law after the riot, nine African American men were charged with carrying a concealed weapon.[58] George Harrif was even arrested for inciting a riot. Military rule policed the black community instead of protecting them from the threat of violence. Charles Smith received a threatening letter for simply wanting to boycott a white owned grocery store whose owner may have been connected with the lynching. The letter read, “Charley Smith: We the race of men of Omaha are informed that you are being made the goat for Frankenstain, by trying to keep his name out of the lynching instigation. The best thing for you to do is to keep out of it or else you will take what is coming to you. This is a warning.”[59] As a result of the lynching and its aftermath, two thousand African Americans left Omaha.[60] They escaped across the border into Iowa and some even chose to relocate in the South.[61] The policing of the black community and the threat of violence pushed families to seek refuge in the region of the US associated with Jim Crow. Black men after the riot continued to be stereotyped and subsequently punished for merely attempting to protect themselves while walking down the street. The perpetuated fear of armed black men shifted the focus of martial law to gaze upon the black community, not as victims of racialized violence but potential destabilizers of white masculinity.
Surprisingly, a court case did emerge after the murder of Brown. Out of the forty-five men charged in association with the riot, only two were charged with murder. The district attorneys notably stated, “We officials have the same feelings as the men” referring to the alleged attacks on women, which rioters claimed as their primary reason for the lynching.[62] The acceptance of this idea allowed for the case to focus on the destruction of the courthouse and the attempted murder of Mayor Smith, thus ignoring the injustices committed against an innocent Brown. On November 18,1919 the Grand Jury decided to discharge the investigation. Two days later, they released their report that detailed the court’s perception of what transpired before and during the riot. The jury claimed that they did not find any eyewitnesses who could identify the persons who killed William Brown.[63] This statement is somewhat peculiar given the abundance of young men boasting about their involvement in the lynching and the twenty thousand people who witnessed the events. Fifteen-year-old William Robinson from Chicago left home to travel the world when his father, Reverend Robinson, wanted him to attend college.[64] Omaha police arrested Robinson and received his confession in which he admitted to being on the third floor of the courthouse and participating in Brown’s murder.[65] When Robinson’s father arrived to bail him out, his narrative suddenly changed. He then claimed to be at home asleep during the riot.[66] In the US, public willingness to step forward and assist in lynching cases is a rare occurrence, which contributes to the lack of indictments and ultimately no justice for the victims. The Grand Jury had sufficient evidence to bring cases against the rioters who attempted to murder Mayor Edward Smith. The public amnesia in regards to Brown’s lynching compared to the public outcry associated with crimes against the mayor shows how society viewed black victims of extralegal violence. Rioters considered the Smith administration the protector of the perceived threat, which in turn enabled the mob to rationalize the attempted lynching of Edward Smith. Unlike Brown, Mayor Smith was saved that evening. His authority and proximity to whiteness allowed for an avenue of escape and later prosecution of his case. Brown, who became the target of white society’s fear of uncontrolled black masculinity, was subsequently silenced and his murder pushed to the background of the more prominent narrative.
The Grand Jury report, although biased as to the lynching of Brown, does provide critical insight into the mob’s mentality. First and foremost they claimed, “The immediate and fundamental cause of the riot is believed to be the raping of white women by Negros, also undue criticism given to courts, public officials by the press of this city.”[67] Further, the report noted organized propaganda existed before the riot whose purpose was to incite the downfall of institutions, destroy economic policies and engender class hatred.[68] The Grand Jury who expressed sympathy for the alleged assaults committed against women did, in fact, address a gender-based division in Omaha. Tom Dennison and his cohort, Thomas Rosewater, perpetuated negative stereotypes of black men in order to advance their political agenda. The men of Omaha already felt a sense of social unrest due to the influx of black workers into the area and the rise of black political consciousness during this time. These two factors established a mindset in which white masculine hegemony was being impeded upon. When Dennison added fear of uncontrolled black sexuality into the social mix with the false reports of rape, this created an environment where white men felt that black masculinity needed to be vilified. This social construction made the act of lynching William Brown not only racialized violence, but also gendered violence. Brown symbolizes the socialized black gendered body, where his identity and subsequent personhood became intertwined with Western ideas of the “Black Beast.” This ideological belief attempted to alienate black men from their humanity, separated them from any trace of individuality, and viewed their bodies as accessible to acts of violence. Black economic and political movements during the First World War challenged this idea and thus set the stage for a gendered power struggle between competing notions of manhood.
News features reported that the murder of William Brown cost the city of Omaha a little over a million dollars. Did his humanity mean so little to the bigger picture that his legacy has been merely reduced to a price tag and a picture that glorifies his destruction? After the men of Omaha accomplished the task they set out to complete, the coroner collected Brown’s remains and then buried him in an unmarked grave located in Douglas County’s potter’s field. Young men who bragged to the local papers about “what fun the lynching was” were allowed to maintain their personhood in the eyes of the community while Brown became plot number 2457 Potter’s Field cemetery.[69] The couple that instigated the lynching of Brown got married after the riot and moved to Denver, Colorado where they had five children.[70] Orville Menard, who originated much of the historical analysis of the Omaha Race Riot brought to light that in Hoffman’s old age, he confirmed his employment with Tom Dennison, thus confirming the many suspicions that the couple’s accusation had been fraudulent.
[1] “Untitled,” (Omaha Race Riot Vertical File) W. Dale Library, Omaha, Nebraska.
[2] “Negro Rescued from Angry Mob at Gibson,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE) September 27, 1919.
[3]“Negro Rescued from Angry Mob at Gibson,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE) September 27, 1919.
[4]Peter C. Canyon, “Our Race Problem,” Voice (Omaha, NE), October 3, 1919.
[5] “Mob Spirit Here Outgrow of the Failure of “Reformers” to “Reform Declare K.C. Stat,” Omaha Bee (Omaha, NE) October 2, 1919.
[6] “Young Leader of Sunday Night’s Mob Proud of the Part he Played in the Lynching and Says He’d do the Same Thing Over Again.” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), October 3, 1919.
[7] Peter C. Canyon, “Our Race Problem,” Voice (Omaha, NE), October 3, 1919.
[8] Orville D.Menard, “Tom Dennison, The Omaha Bee, and the 1919 Omaha Race Riot,” Nebraska History 68 (1987): 152.
[9] Peter C. Canyon “Our Race Problem,” Voice (Omaha, NE), October 3, 1919.
[10] “Omaha’s Version of Helen of Troy” (Newspaper Clipping, Race Riot Vertical File) Douglas County Archives.
[11] Jim Clemon, “Prisoner lynched, Courthouse burned, Mayor nearly Hanged as Mob Rule Prevails,” Omaha World Herald (Omaha, NE), August 21, 1960.
[12] “Negro Assaults Young Girl While Male Escort Stands by Powerless to Aid Her,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), September 26, 1919.
[13] “Untitled,” W. Dale Library Achieves, Omaha, Nebraska.
[14] “Negro Assaults Young Girl While Male Escort Stands by Powerless to Aid Her,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), September 26, 1919.
[15] “Untitled,” W. Dale Library Achieves, Omaha, Nebraska.
[16] Susan Darst Williams, “Past Lives On in Here and Now,” Omaha World Harold (Omaha, NE), May 16, 1982.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Susan Darst Williams, “Past Lives On in Here and Now,” Omaha World Harold (Omaha, NE), May 16, 1982.
[19] Ibid.
[20] “Riot Stirs Questions even after 75 years” (Omaha Race Riot, Vertical File) Douglas County Archives, Omaha Nebraska.
[21] “Officers Keep Mob Off Negro,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), September 27, 1919.
[22] “Negro declares innocent” (Omaha Race Riot, Vertical File) Douglas County Archives, Omaha Nebraska.
[23] Ibid.
[24] “Negro Rescued for Angry Mob at Gibson,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE) September 27, 1919.
[25] “Negro declares innocent” (Omaha Race Riot, Vertical File) Douglas County Archives, Omaha Nebraska.
[26] “Negro Rescued From Angry Mob at Gibson,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE) September 27, 1919.
[27] J.J. Friedman “The Courthouse Riot” (Omaha Race Riot, Vertical File) Douglas County Archive.
[28] J.J. Friedman “The Courthouse Riot” (Omaha Race Riot, Vertical File) Douglas County Archive.
[29] Ibid.
[30] “Young Leader of Sunday Night’s Mob Proud of the Part he Played in the Lynching and Says He’d do the Same thing Over Again,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), October 3, 1919.
[31] Ibid.
[32] Ibid.
[33] J.J. Friedman “The Courthouse Riot” (Omaha Race Riot, Vertical File) Douglas County Archive.
[34] Tom Gitter, “Oldest Living Police Retiree Recalls Way it Was,” Omaha World Herald (Omaha, NE), May 10, 1973.
[35] Jim Clemon, “Prisoner lynched, Courthouse burned, Mayor nearly Hanged as Mob Rule Prevails,” Omaha World Herald (Omaha, NE), August 21, 1960.
[36] “Omaha Race Riot in Pictures,” W. Dale library achieves, Omaha Nebraska.
[37] “Mayor Smith On Stand Tells of Attack on Him,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), December 16, 1919.
[38] John C. Chatelain, “Omaha’s Darkest Hour,” Omaha Bar Association Newsletter 3(1991): 8.
[39] “Omaha Race Riot in Pictures,” W. Dale library achieves, Omaha Nebraska.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Ibid.
[42] John C.Chatelain, “Omaha’s Darkest Hour,” Omaha Bar Association Newsletter 3(1991): 8.
[43] “S.O.S note dropped from Roof of Jail,” Omaha Daily News (Omaha, NE), September 29, 1919.
[44] “Omaha Race Riot in Pictures,” W. Dale library achieves, Omaha Nebraska.
[45] “Lynching from start to finish,” Omaha World Herald (Omaha, NE), September 29, 1919.
[46] “History Project Recalls Old Omaha,” Omaha World Herald (Omaha, NE), May 16, 1962.
[47] Howard Teichman, Fonda: My Life,as Told to Howard Teichman, (Scarborough, Ontario: New American Library, 1981), 24.
[48] Ibid.
[49] Jack “Aj” Rhodes, Journal entry, September 28, 1919.
[50] “Lynching Committee of 30 Receives Will Brown From Other Court House Prisoners” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), September 29, 1919.
[51]Ibid.
[52] Jim Clemon, “Prisoner lynched, Courthouse burned, Mayor nearly Hanged as Mob Rule Prevails,” Omaha World Herald (Omaha, NE), August 21, 1960.
[53] Ibid.
[54] Frenzied Thousands Join in Orgy of Blood and Fire,” Omaha World Harold (Omaha, NE), September 29, 1919.
[55] “800 Heavily Armed Troops to Check Further Rioting” Omaha World Herald (Omaha, NE), September 29, 1919.
[56] Ibid.
[57] Ibid.
[58] “Lynching Committee of 30 Receives Will Brown From Other Court House Prisoners” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), September 29, 1919.
[59] “Negro Alleges Warning to keep still about riot,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), October 11, 1919.
[60] “Thousand Negros Leave Omaha,” Omaha World Herald, (Omaha, NE), October 1, 1919.
[61] Ibid.
[62] “Rioters Will Face Charges” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), September 30, 1919.
[63] “Grand Jury Report Scores in Omaha Police” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), October 4, 1919.
[64] “Alleged Rioters” Newspaper Clipping, (Omaha Race Riot, Vertical File) Douglas County Archive.
[65] Ibid.
[66] Ibid.
[67] “Crimes Against Women Cause of Riot Jury Says,” Omaha World Herald (Omaha, NE), November 31, 1919.
[68] “Grand Jury Report Scores in Omaha Police,” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), October 4, 1919.
[69] “Youngest Riot Prisoner Says it was Great Fun” Omaha Daily Bee (Omaha, NE), October 7, 1919.
[70] Orville D. Menard, “Lest We Forget: The Lynching of Will Brown, Omaha’s 1919 Race Riot,” Nebraska History 91 (2010):162.