North Omaha has a long history of segregated businesses. Informal Jim Crow rules kept African Americans from owning, operating, and enjoying many businesses in the community. This is a history of North Omaha’s Black-owned Dairy Queen franchise.
After soft-serve ice cream was invented in 1938, the first Dairy Queen opened in 1940 in Illinois. There were more than 2,500 franchises by 1950, including four in Omaha.
In 1950, a new Dairy Queen opened at 1922 North 24th Streets, on the corner of Blondo Street between the Near North Side neighborhood and the Long School Neighborhood. It was notable to the Omaha Star when the business hired an African American woman to work the counter. It operated without note for several years.
In 1958, the Omaha Star reported that “Albert ‘Al’ Tibbs, popular young man about town, recently invested his future in the Near Northside.” For the next several years, Tibbs operated the Dairy Queen.
The business closed around 1963, and Tibbs was working as an employment counselor for the Nebraska Employment Service by 1969.
After it was Dairy Queen, the building on the southwest corner of North 24th and Blondo served many other purposes, including being Sadie’s Bakery. The pic at the beginning of this article shows the building as of 2019.
You Might Like…
- History of Black-Owned Businesses in Omaha
- History of North 24th Street
- History of the Near North Side Neighborhood
MY ARTICLES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF FOOD IN NORTH OMAHA
Places: Drive-Ins | Restaurants | Bakeries | Truck Farms
Businesses: Iten-Barmettler Factory | Uncle Sam Breakfast Food Company | Forbes Bakery, Ak-Sar-Ben Bakery, and Royal Bakery
Restaurants: Carter’s Cafe | Fair Deal Cafe | Mister C’s Steakhouse | Parkside Cafe | Jerry and Johnny’s Drive-In | Nite Hawkes Cafe | Hillcrest Mansion | Tic Toc Diner | 24th Street Dairy Queen | Birchwood Club | Skeet’s BBQ | Mama Mac’s Hash House | Beal’s Grill | Off Beat Super Club | Metoyer’s BBQ | Mary’s Chicken Hut | La Rue’s Steak House | Zesto
People: Helen Mahammitt | Jim Bell | Jimmy Jewell | Paul Allen | Alfred Brooks
Related: Social Clubs and Social Halls | Bali-Hi Lounge | Stage II Lounge | Allen’s Showcase | Dreamland Ballroom | Carnation Ballroom | Club Harlem | King Solomon’s Mines |
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When dairy queen opening, my Mom was giving birth to me.
I went to school with Sadie’s son, John Biddle. He was a basketball player at Central High School. Sadie’s was one of the places we would stop at on our way home from school. Thanks for sharing!!
Those huge cookies from Sadies were legendary!!!!! My baby sitter who lived on Blondo would get one for me from time to time. I’d love to reopen the bakery in the same location if it’s still there.
Not only were the cookies huge, the donuts had a taste to this day I still remember and have never been able to find anywhere else. I worked there in the mid/late 70’s when Charlie Evans opened it up as a weekend only outlet to the “Big Steer” drive-in he and his wife ran on 16th and Binney.