The number of Black people in Omaha has always been more than zero. However, the forces of white supremacy have worked hard to discount, dismiss and otherwise extinguish the relevance of African Americans in the city. This article is a history of the Black population in Omaha.

Adam’s Note: I am not a demographer, a statistician or a census official. The following information has never been compiled in Omaha’s history and needs to be shared. Given the nature of NorthOmahaHistory.com, I am the one to share it. The following information is intended for educational purposes only and should be compared against the sources and additional information shared at the end of the article. Any errors herein should be shared with me. For more information contact me.

Race and Demographics

Demographics, which are statistical data relating to a group of people, are inherently political. They all have social, economic and cultural implications that affect every part of society, including government, education, social services, recreation and much more. But more importantly is that they are political. Demographics determine how much tax money is collected, how it is spent, who benefits from it and how they benefit, and much more.

Because of its political nature, a lot of entities are invested in the demographics of the state. In Nebraska, population is tracked by the Governor’s office, the University of Nebraska, the Nebraska Department of Education, the Nebraska Legislature, and many others. Since the nation was founded, the U.S. Census has been the main source of population data for the entire country including Nebraska. According to the University of Nebraska Kearney, the U.S. Census conducts a census of population and housing every 10 years. They also conduct other interesting data on different schedules.

According to the State of Nebraska Legislative Research Office, “census information is used to:

• Apportion representation among the states;
• Distribute federal dollars to states;
• Draw congressional and state legislative districts and other
  political election districts;
• Inform planning decisions of federal, tribal, state, and
  local government; and
• Inform organizational decisions of businesses and
  nonprofits, such as where to locate, size of market, etc.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, someone who identifies as Black or African American is,

“a person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as ‘Black or African American,’ or report responses such as African American, Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian, Ethiopian, or Somali. The category also includes groups such as Ghanaian, South African, Barbadian, Kenyan, Liberian, Bahamian, etc.”

That definition hasn’t always existed though. According to the Pew Charitable Trusts,

• 1790: The first census in 1790 had only three racial categories: free whites, all other free persons and slaves.
• 1850: “‘Mulatto’ was a category from 1850 to 1890 and in 1910 and 1920.
• 1870: “mulatto” was defined as including ‘quadroons, octoroons and all persons having any perceptible trace of African blood.’ The instructions to census takers said that ‘important scientific results’ depended on their including people in the right categories.
• 1890: ‘Octoroon’ and ‘quadroon’ were categories. Definitions for these groups varied from census to census.
• 1890: A mulatto was defined as someone with ‘three-eighths to five-eighths black blood,’ a quadroon had ‘one-fourth black blood’ and an octoroon had ‘one-eighth or any trace of black blood.’
• 1900: The word ‘Negro’ was added to replace ‘colored,’ and census officials noted that the new term was increasingly favored ‘among members of the African race.’
• 1900: Categories of mulatto, octoroon and quadroon were not on the 1900 census, after census officials judged the data “of little value and misleading.”
• 1910: Mulatto was added back in.
• 1930: Census takers were told that a person who was both black and white should be counted as black, ‘no matter how small the percentage of Negro blood,’ a classification system known as the ‘one-drop rule.’
• 1930: Mulatto removed again after the data were judged “very imperfect.”
• 1960: If someone was both Indian and Negro (the preferred term at the time), census takers were told the person should be considered Negro unless ‘Indian blood very definitely predominated’ and ‘the person was regarded in the community as an Indian.’
• 1960: Respondents could choose their own race.
• 2000: ‘African American’ was added to the census form.
• 2000: Respondents have had the option to identify with more than one race.
• 2013: the bureau announced that because ‘Negro’ was offensive to many, the term would be dropped from census forms and surveys.”

All of the data in this article has been derived from the U.S. Census findings. Additional findings have been extrapolated from other sources cited at the bottom of the article. Please share any additional information, questions and other thoughts at the comments section below.

1854: Present from the Beginning

The first census in Omaha City happened two years after it was founded in 1854, in 1856 when there were 13 Black people recorded living in the city.

Sally Bayne (brith and death dates unknown) arrived in Omaha in 1855 and is recognized as the first free Black person to settle in the Nebraska Territory. The number might have been higher though, as enslaved people were routinely undercounted by census takers and enslaved people owned by federal employees were counted in their owners’ places of residence. Young Omaha City had several of those employees.

1860: Growing from the Jump

In 1860, there were 21 Black residents in Omaha, or 1.1% of 1,883 residents.

Among American territories in 1860, Utah had 29 enslaved residents, New Mexico claimed 24 and Nebraska originally said there were ten. Eventually, at least 13 of the state’s Black residents were found. to be enslaved, but in my research I’ve found the number was likely double that or greater. Enslaved people belonging to federal employees and military officers weren’t counted in the population of the state, and newspaper reports from that era portrayed more than a dozen other enslaved people than the number accounted for in the census. If enslaved people were undercounted, how do we know free Black people weren’t undercounted too? We don’t.

1870: Rising in Reconstruction

In 1870, 459 Black people lived in Omaha comprising 2.9% of the city’s 16,083 residents.

After the Civil War ended in 1865, formerly enslaved Black people left the South in droves. A federal program called Reconstruction was focused on rebuilding the South and bringing formerly enslaved people into the mainstream American population. In 1870, 789 Black people were recorded living in 19 counties in Nebraska, with the largest population—459—in Douglas County. The only nearby town with a notable population—9—was Plattsmouth.

1880: Great Exodus 

In 1880, 811 Black residents lived in Omaha making up 2.7% of the city’s population of 30,518 residents.

Reconstruction lasted from 1865 to 1877. However, when Reconstruction white supremacist terrorists blatantly struck out against Black people in the South again. They left en masse in what was called the Great Exodus in 1879.

When a large scale strike at the Omaha Smelting Works nearly forced a shut-down in 1880, more than 100 black men were recruited from the South as strikebreakers. However, when the strikers offered to pay their train fares back to their homes the Black workers reportedly accepted. After joining the white workers on the picket line until transportation arrived, they apparently left.

In the first large scale migration of Black people from the South, thousands of settlers referred to as Exodusters traveled to Kansas and into Nebraska. This led to a significant population boom of Black people in Omaha.

1890: Population Boom

By 1890, Omaha had 4,658 Black residents who comprised 3.3% of the city’s 140,452 residents. Note that according to newspaper accounts from this era, the 1890 census recorded “all people of color” in Omaha as “colored” including Chinese, Japanese, Indians, and others.

The next census recorded the first Black population boom in the city. That year there were 8,913 total Black residents across the state, with more than half of the state’s Black population living in Omaha. The Census recorded the state having a 134% overall population boom.

In 1891, the first recorded lynching of a Black man in Omaha happened. The proximity of this to the population boom happening was likely not coincidental. The first African American legislator in the Nebraska Legilsature was elected the next year in 1891.

1900: Turn of the Century

In 1900, the Black population was 3,443 or 3.5% of its 102,555 residents. The African American population of the entire state was 6,269.

In 1903, the newspaper reported a “falling off” of the Black population in Nebraska with “a decrease amounting to 29.7%.” It contended that the depreciation of the 1890 census’s discrepancies couldn’t account for the significant loss. Opining that “…Nebraska negroes, generally, are very well behaved. This state has had comparatively little trouble with its negro citizens… The opportunities for the negro in this state are good, and because these things are true it would be interesting if someone could explain the really considerable decrease in Nebraska’s negro population.”

1910: Another Doubling

Omaha had 4,426 Black residents in 1910, forming 3.6% of the city’s population of 124,096 people.

In the next two decades between 1910 and 1930, the state’s Black population doubled. 7,689 African Americans were recorded in Nebraska in 1910. Omaha had the third largest Black population among western cities after Los Angeles and Denver.

The 1910 Jack Johnson riot in Omaha occured at the beginning of the population boom during the next decade. North 24th Street became important to African Americans in Omaha after the lynching of Will Brown in 1919, when the US Army first redlined the Black neighborhood surrounding the street.

1920: More than Doubling Again

In 1920, 10,315 Black people or 5.4% of Omaha’s 191,601 residents were Black.

In the western United States, it was second in population only to Los Angeles. In 1919, the pastor of Zion Baptist Church estimated that the Black population of Omaha soared from 7,000 to 11,000 people between 1916 and 1919. By 1920 it was estimated that seventy percent of the state’s population lived in Omaha, where the Black population increased by 133.5% in the previous decade.

1930: Great Depression

The US Census counted 11,125 African Americans living in Omaha in 1930, comprising approximately 5.2% of the city’s population.

The Omaha World-Herald generally didn’t seem to know what to do with changes in the African American population, generally explaining them away with racism and stereotypes. In an example from 1931, the paper wrote “The slight growth of Nebraska’s Negro population during the decade contrasts with the general movement of [the] Negro population north.” To show how census numbers are used, we can look no further than the 1934 Nebraska Supreme Court ruling that threw out redistricting efforts that placed the majority of Omaha’s African American population in a single legislative district. Calling it gerrymandering, there was little fight afterward.

1940: Gearing Up For War and Afterward

The city of Omaha was home to 12,015 Black people forming 5.4% of its 223,844 residents.

In 1949, the Omaha Star reported that Omaha’s Black population had increased 85% since 1940. In 1949, the Omaha Star reported that “Omaha’s Negro population has increased by 85% since 1940. Overcrowding became a major concern in the Near North Side during this decade, activating fair housing advocates and others.

1950: Post-War Growth

In 1950, 16,311 African Americans called Omaha home. They made up 6.5% of the city’s 251,117 residents.

The statistics used in the 1950 census were fodder for the Civil Rights Movement, who threw back the realities of redlining, school segregation, economic segregation and more as never before during this decade.

1960: Transforming Sixties

8.3% of Omaha’s population of 301,598 were Black people in 1960, amounting to 25,155 residents.

In 1961, the city’s workforce was estimated to include 18,000 Black people out of a total of 158,000 workers. In 1966, the Omaha Urban League disagreed with the federal count and estimated the steady rise of Black residents in Omaha to amount to 37,000 people, which was 10.6% of the city’s population. The growth rate of Black students in Omaha Public Schools was 10% annually during the same era, “shooting up” from 5.846 in 1956 to 11,696 in 1966. In 1969, blaming it as a reason for needing more state funding, an Omaha Public Schools official claimed the district had “89 percent of the state’s Negro population” and “the percentage is increasing.”

During the previous decades, Omaha’s white population only grew 18%, leaving many white people scratching their heads. The media and politicians grappled for answers to what seemed like a perplexing puzzle; however, while the resistance to white supremacy continued quieter than before, this dynamic might have reflected to changing order of things due to Omaha’s Civil Rights Movement and beyond.

According to the World-Herald, an official at the Center for Urban Affairs at the University of Nebraska at Omaha said that “checks conducted by the Census Bureau following the 1960 census indicated that 2.5 million Negroes may have been missed nationwide…”

While the 1960 census showed a massive increase in Omaha’s Black population, it also revealed disproportionately smaller gains in the city’s white population. While I haven’t uncovered any substantive evidence to prove it, perhaps this boom led city leaders to think they needed to stifle Black population growth. Just a few years later, the riots happened and became a convenient lever to take away previous economic gains in Omaha’s Black community.

1970: Population Changes

In 1970, 34,431 people, or 9.9% of the city’s 346,929 residents were African Americans.

The Omaha World-Herald made note that “several Omahans… took issue with official 1970 census figures placing Omaha’s negro population at 34,431.” The disputed that Black people only comprised 9.9% of Omaha’s total population. Saying that the Black population was “very mobile,” the head of the Urban League of Nebraska said he felt “Omaha’s Negro population is somewhere between 42,000 and 45,000.” Those numbers were arrived at by applying local figures to “national averages concerning normal growth and migration.” A Creighton University department head, Richard Shugrue, and Jack West, a veteran community worker in North Omaha, agreed that the census was incorrect. The paper quoted West, writing “he thinks census figures concerning Omaha’s Black population ‘are off between 7,100 and 8,000.”

“We feel Omaha’s minority citizens are being shortchanged on the basis of population count in reference to federal dollars.”

—Jack Clayter, Executive Director of the Urban League of Nebraska, February 1, 1971

In 1970, African Americans comprised approximately two percent of Nebraska’s population with 39,911 residents statewide. That same year though, 8.9 percent of Douglas County’s population was Black, showing an increase of 37.4 percent in the previous decade from 25,269 to 34,722.

A penetrating analysis of 1970 census demographics in the city reported that less than .5 percent of the population of Omaha west of North 48th Street was Black, with just one in 35 Black people living west of that street. North Omaha, the area historically associated with the Black population in Omaha, became more segregated by losing 56 percent of white residents in the prior decade and gained 27 percent of the city’s Black population. In particular, the Near North Side neighborhood lost 71 percent of its white population and 30 percent of its overall Black population.

The Omaha World-Herald tepidly announced that between 1950 and 1970, the state’s Black population gained approximately 10,000 residents annually.

1980: Population Stagnation

In 1980, there were 42,901 Black residents in Omaha who comprised 13.7% of the city’s 313,939 residents.

In 1980, the US Census recorded 37,852 African Americans living in Nebraska. The Black population of Lincoln was 3,444, with Omaha assuming more than 30,000 African American residents.

1990: Growing Again

In 1990, 43,989 African Americans, or 13.1% of Omaha’s 335,795 residents, were Black people.

In 1990, the two largest Black communities in Nebraska continued to be Omaha with 43,989 African American residents and Lincoln with 4,515. The entire African American population of Nebraska was 57,404 in 1990.

2000: Turn of the Millineum

At the turn of the 21st century, Omaha had 51,910 Black residents who made up 12.7% of 409,868 residents. The city’s population grew by 118,480 residents in the decade before that.

2010: Omaha Grows Continually

The Omaha metropolitan region experienced a growth of 865,350 from 2010 to 2020. The city’s Black population grew by almost 4,000 people to 55,950 residents, or 13.7% of Omaha’s 408,958 residents.

2020: Smaller Percentages

The City of Omaha had 57,883 Black residents in the 2020 census who comprised 11% of Omaha’s population.

A Black man was killed during a Civil Rights protest in downtown Omaha in 2020. With increased awareness of white supremacy after the murder of George Floyd, the City of Omaha and other entities started paying attention to the racial disparities facing Omaha’s Black population, many for the first time.

In 2021, the U.S. Census has predicted that the eight-county Omaha metro population is expected to reach 1,000,000 residents by 2024. Between 2012 and 2023, the Omaha Public Schools have lost almost 1,000 African American students, who now make up 12,501 students, or 24.1% out of the district’s entire student population.

According to the Nebraska Department of Revenue, in 2022 the population of Omaha was 491,841. African Americans made up 11.8% of the population with 57,883 residents.

Findings

There are a lot of things that can be deduced from the data shared in this article. They include…

• Black people have been in Omaha since its establishment in 1854.
• Omaha’s Black population has grown successively since 1854.
• There has never been a decade-over-decade decrease in Omaha’s Black population.
• There have been three big African American population jumps in Omaha history: 1880-1890, 1910-1920 and 1940-50. They were caused by Exodusters at the end of Reconstruction, recruiting by Black Omahans during the Great Migration, and the downfall of the Southern economy after WWII in the second Great Migration.
• There is been a statistical downturn evident in the overall population of Black people living in the City of Omaha in the last few years. However, the number of Black people living in the greater Omaha metropolitan area is growing, as well as the overall population of Black people living in Nebraska.

Additional findings from my overarching history project include…

• Black people have not been passive recipients in the discrimination against them in Omaha’s history.
• Large scale mob racial violence in Omaha has often happened during or after population jumps in the African American community.
• There are correlations between the increases in Omaha’s Black population and police brutality, school segregation, and other racial violence on smaller scales.

These are the observations of a white historian who is deeply versed in Omaha’s Black history and the history of African Americans in Nebraska. If you have questions, comments, concerns or considerations for me please share them in the comments below. And criticisms — please share your thoughts, all of them!

You Might Like…

• Black History in Omaha
• A History of Community Leaders in North Omaha
• A History of North Omaha’s African American Legislators

MY ARTICLES ABOUT CIVIL RIGHTS IN OMAHA
General: History of Racism | Timeline of Racism
Events: Juneteenth | Malcolm X Day | Congress of White and Colored Americans | George Smith Lynching | Will Brown Lynching | North Omaha Riots | Vivian Strong Murder | Jack Johnson Riot | Omaha Bus Boycott (1952-1954)
Issues: African American Firsts in Omaha | Police Brutality | North Omaha African American Legislators | North Omaha Community Leaders | Segregated Schools | Segregated Hospitals | Segregated Hotels | Segregated Sports | Segregated Businesses | Segregated Churches | Redlining | African American Police | African American Firefighters | Lead Poisoning
People: Rev. Dr. John Albert Williams | Edwin Overall | Harrison J. Pinkett | Vic Walker | Joseph Carr | Rev. Russel Taylor | Dr. Craig Morris | Mildred Brown | Dr. John Singleton | Ernie Chambers | Malcolm X | Dr. Wesley Jones | S. E. Gilbert | Fred Conley |
Organizations: Omaha Colored Commercial Club | Omaha NAACP | Omaha Urban League | 4CL (Citizens Coordinating Committee for Civil Rights) | DePorres Club | Omaha Black Panthers | City Interracial Committee | Providence Hospital | American Legion | Elks Club | Prince Hall Masons | BANTU | Tomorrow’s World Club |
Related: Black History | African American Firsts | A Time for Burning | Omaha KKK | Committee of 5,000

Sources

Author’s Note: I don’t like divulging sources, because you should do your own research. However, I’m making an exception here.

• Mapping Quality of Life in Nebraska: Population Distribution by Race, Ethnicity, and Age by Sarah Taylor, Maria Rosario T. de Guzman, Grant Daily, Rodrigo Cantarero, and Soo-Young Hong for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2018). Retrieved July 19, 2023.
• “Redistricting Analysis: Nebraska” by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
• “Nebraska: State Immigration Data Profiles” by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI). Retrieved July 16, 2023.
• “Nebraska State Race Breakdown: 2000“, U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
• Nebraska Department Of Education Data, Research And Evaluation “2022-2023 Membership By Grade, Race And Gender.” Updated 2/13/2023. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
• “Race/Ethnicity Composition in Omaha Public Schools: 2013-14 to 2022-23.” Omaha Public Schools. retrieved July 18, 2023.
• “Characteristics of the Omaha Metro’s Black/African American Population” by David Drozd for the Center for Public Affairs Research on February 20, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2023.
• Racial Segregation in Iowa’s Metro Areas, 1990 – 2010 by Seiple E., Zitzner, A., et al. for the School of Urban & Regional Planning, University of Iowa in January 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
• “Census of 1900” by History Nebraska. Retrieved July 17, 2023.
• “Nebraska Historical Populations Quick Reference Tables” Prepared by Drozd, D. and Deichert J. for the Center for Public Affairs Research University of Nebraska at Omaha (2018). Retrieved July 15, 2023.
• “The State of Black Omaha,” The Urban League of Nebraska, Inc. (1978) Retrieved July 15, 2023.
• “Omaha Profile of Change,” Center for Public Affairs Research (CPAR). University of Nebraska at Omaha (1973). Retrieved July 18, 2023.
• “Industrial and business life of Negroes in Omaha,” James Harvey Kerns University of Nebraska at Omaha (1932). Retrieved July 20, 2023.
• “Nebraska’s Population” by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (2022). Retrieved July 18, 2023.

Elsewhere Online

• American Community Survey from the U.S. Census.
• Explore Census Data from the U.S. Census.
• Nebraska QuickFacts from the U.S. Census Bureau.
• QuickFacts from the U.S. Census. Select counties or cities from drop-down menus. For town smaller than 5,000 or county subdivisions (e.g. townships, precincts) scroll to bottom of select a city menu and select “other places not listed”.
• Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America from the USDA. This is a mapping application that provides a spatial interpretation of county-level, economic and social conditions. Data is taken from the Census, American Community Survey, Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources.
• Certified Municipal Populations from the Nebraska Department of Revenue.
• Department of Economic Development Research from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, this is comprehensive source for statistics on many topics
• Income and Poverty Statistics for Nebraska Counties and Towns from the State of Nebraska.
• Nebraska Education Profile from the Nebraska Department of Education. This is a one-stop location for Nebraska education data.
• Market Information from the Nebraska Office of Labor.
• Reports & Statistics from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). These are vital Statistics from DHHS.
• City-Data.com collected and analyzed data from numerous sources to create as complete and interesting profiles of all U.S. cities
• Nebraska Townships from City-Data.com.
• Population for Nebraska Places and Counties
• State Health Facts Online
• Tax Research Nebraska Department of Revenue reports on state aid to counties and municipalities, taxable sales by county, annual reports, etc. from the Nebraska Department of Revenue
• UNO College of Public Affairs and Community Service and Center for Public Affairs Research
• Code For Nebraska volunteer-run, Nebraska-based civic technology projects using open data from state and local government sources.
• Lincoln Vital Signs

BONUS!