A History of the Committee of 5,000

Like a disease on a rotting tree, Omaha has been awash with hatred for nearly its entire existence. Starting with the discriminatory Omaha Claim Club in 1854 and extending to the Proud Boys in 2022, forces have long sought to use vehemence, intolerance, ignorance and terror to their advantage. One such local effort struck against “the Jews, negroes and Catholics” for several years. This is a history of Omaha’s historic homegrown hate group called the Committee of 5,000.

The Myth of the Group

In the course of World War I, Omaha politicians felt the need for a gimmick to ensure their ticket was elected. The heads of the Democratic party in Omaha formed an ad hoc association called the Committee of 500. Within a few years, the name was changed to the Committee of 5,000 because of its supposed growth. Fred D. Wead (1866-1936), a real estate and insurance salesman, was often the spokesman for the organization.

In an re-introduction letter article published by the Omaha Bee in 1920, the group said,

“Our purposes are still the same: Prohibition, women’s suffrage, law enforcement, good government and progressive legislation. We recommend candidates for offices which have to do with legislation and law enforcement and who are favorable to our program. We are more interested in the quality of our citizenship than its quantity, and we intend to stay in this fight for the duration of the war. We believe all of those recommended stand for our program…”
—Omaha Daily Bee, April 16, 1920

The Committee had a lot of opinions, and the Omaha Daily News was named the unofficial promotional engine for the group. In 1920 they hired an advertising agency to build their membership, and soon after they praised the Omaha Bee for giving them and their opinions column space in the newspaper. Their promoters spoke at several churches that year, too.

The Committee had “members of both parties” who worked together to promote Prohibition, including its adoption and enforcement by supporting political candidates. One academic says that because of their aims and methods, “members of the Committee of 5,000… must be seen as radicals within the prohibition movement… they wanted… the actual elimination of the illicit alcohol from society.”

In February 1921, the League of Women Voters decided to align with the Committee to work “for good candidates in spring elections.”

Throughout the years of their operation, roughly 1917 through 1921, the group promoted Reform politics pushing their agenda. They influenced local politics in many ways, including citywide offices and positions by elected officials. They also affected state politics by nominating and supporting state senators and the governor’s race.

However, it turned out the Reformist label was merely a ruse for the home-grown white supremacist hate group beliefs of the Committee.

The Reality of the Group

Omaha was a corrupt city. From the start of the pioneer town in 1854, it was known as a “wide-open city” where all types of crimes were permitted, including gambling, prostitution, moonshine and more. The city’s notorious crime boss Tom Dennison began his rule in the 1890s, manipulating the levers of power to ensure the success of his money-making operation throughout the city. Lots of forces didn’t like Dennison’s domination and starting in 1917, Omaha’s criminal enterprise was meant by bigotry to influence voters.

In 1918, the Committee ran a slate of candidates for public office in Omaha, including reformer Ed Smith for mayor. Showing its mixed stripes, it also four Republicans for city commissioners, J. Dean Ringer, William G. Ure, Roy N. Towl, and Henry W. Wulf. When the Committee’s slate of reformers was defeated, the World-Herald wrote, “Omaha has administered its unmistakable rebuke to the spirit of intolerance, fanaticism and bigotry. It was the leaders of the ‘Committee of 5,000’ who were defeated and chastised…” This began to publicly reveal what several people believed behind the scenes.

In the next few years the popular work of the Committee included driving voters’ beliefs and ensuring candidates alignment, as well as politicians delivery on their promises. However, their unpopular work included behind-the-scenes machinations that might have…

Encouraged police to beat John Aytch in 1919
Drove police to shoot Eugene Scott in 1919
Led to the lynching of Will Brown in 1919
Made it okay for the Omaha KKK to start in 1921
…as well as several other race-oriented crimes.

Just before the elections that month, Omaha Civil Rights activist George Wells Parker accused Harrison Pinkett of being in line with members of the Omaha Ku Klux Klan by extension of their membership in the Committee.

“[The Committee of 5,000] is an organization merely of whites, Protestant ministers and church members and that the white Protestant church members are arrayed against the Jews, negroes and Catholics.”
—Rev. John Albert Williams, 1921

In April of that year, Rev. John Albert Williams, editor of the Omaha Monitor, supported Parker in more than one sermon and called out the Committee of 5,000 for its bigotry. In a sermon quoted by the Omaha Bee and a subsequent newspaper column in the Monitor, Rev. Williams claimed the Committee consisted of ministers and members of Omaha’s white Protestant churches who campaigned against Jews, Catholics, and Black people in the city. He aligned the group and its members with the Omaha KKK, too, and suggested the members were the same.

Early in April 1921, The Monitor ran a headline declaring “Ex-Mayor Dahlman Sweeps City” and detailed how he beat the Committee’s slate of candidates. Dahlman was Tom Dennison’s man, and his win was a blow against the Reform-minded slate of the Committee. A general meeting of the Committee of 5,000 was planned for the Omaha Civic Auditorium in late April, then May of 1921. However, no report on their activity was shared, and after May 1921, they weren’t mentioned again in the city’s mainstream newspapers or the Monitor.

However, in September 1921, the Omaha newspaper called The Jewish Press announced the group was trying to comeback.

“The Committee of 5,000 is at it again. Every lover of decency, fair play and tolerance remembers with disgust the tactics of prejudice and bigotry that it injected in the last municipal campaign… the Committee of 5,000, self-appointed and anointed, evidently regard themselves as those medieval kings whose motto was, ‘The King can do no wrong.’”
—The Jewish Press, September 15, 1921

Calling out Fred Wead for a statement against Italians in the city, the Jewish newspaper said nobody needed to stick up for them because they can handle their own business—but people needed to speak out against the Committee because of their hatred.

And after that? Never another word. Apparently Rev. Williams’ effort to suffocate the group worked along with the Jewish Press alerting the public to their attempt to resurrect their influence. Spokesman Fred Wead ran for the MUD board in 1924 and lost, and eventually left Omaha.

The extent of the Committee’s influence has never been examined, at least in any sources I can find from the academic databases or the public library. However, during the time of the Committee the Omaha NAACP (1918), the Omaha-based Hamitic League of the World (1917), the Omaha Commercial Club (1920) and Omaha chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1921) were all established. Omaha’s Black community was having none of the nonsense of another group that claimed to be Reformist but were simply another hate group cloaked in righteousness.

By the same token, the Omaha KKK emerged immediately after in the wake of the Committee’s demise.

The corruption and terrorism behind Omaha’s hate groups hasn’t ceased to this day, and. the Committee of 5,000 was one avenue used to promote that hatred. Its important for Omaha to remember that this, too, is the city’s history.

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