Long before there was a community called North Omaha or even the Near North Side, the young Omaha City had a segregated neighborhood for African Americans. Before 24th and Lake even existed, Omaha’s first Black neighborhood was established in the 1850s. It surrounded 10th and Dodge Street, and was a segregated enclave of a few blocks of tenements and shacks. It housed significant community leaders and institutions, witnessed early civil rights struggles and eventually led to North Omaha’s integration in the 1960s.This is a history of Omaha’s first Black neighborhood.

A History of the Neighborhood

Built near the Missouri River, Omaha’s first Black neighborhood was an informal enclave that started in the 1850s as soon as the city started. While “North Omaha” is the modern heart of the community, in the 1860s, the Black community lived in this neighborhood surrounding 10th and Dodge in what was called the “Near North Side,” which was actually south of what we now consider North Omaha.

Centered on 9th, 10th, and 11th Streets, the neighborhood was located between Douglas and Capitol Avenue. Most Black families lived on 9th and 10th Streets near Dodge in tenements and early shacks built for them. This area was used because of its proximity to the Missouri River docks, the Union Pacific shops located at the foot of 9th Street, and other places where Black men found work as laborers, teamsters, and barbers.

Long before the North Omaha “Black Belt” was established, the heart of African American life in Omaha beat along the riverfront, centered roughly around 11th and Dodge Streets. In the 1860s and 1870s, this area—now part of the downtown business district—was a bustling, integrated, yet often hostile frontier within the city.

During the pioneer era of the 1850s and 1860s, Omaha was a hub for the steamboat trade and later became the primary jumping-off point for the Union Pacific Railroad, the earliest Black residents settled near the river and the Omaha Shops where work was available.

The first Black neighborhood in Omaha was home to pioneers like Sally Bayne, often (mis)attributed as the first Black settler in Omaha who arrived in 1854, as well as Bill Lee, who I identify as the first recorded Black business owner in Nebraska. He opened a barbershop at the Douglas House nearby in 1856. Phillip King (1822–1888) was an early Black Omahan who arrived in 1855 and worked as a printer for the Omaha Republican. Important leaders who lived in this neighborhood included Dick Curry (1831–1885), a Civil War veteran and founder of the Prince Hall Masons in Nebraska who was also a business owner, and Edwin Overall (1835–1901), who became a central figure in the early fight for civil rights from his home in this neighborhood. When he became a mail clerk in 1869, he became the first African American federal government employee in Nebraska.

This wasn’t the only neighborhood where Black people lived in Omaha; however, it has the signs of being its first large, designated segregated area for the city’s African American population to live. There is no evidence that it was formally identified this way (de jure segregation), but that it was just understood that this is where Black people were allowed to live (de facto segregation). The newspapers at the time, including The Omaha Republican and the Omaha Daily Herald identified other Black neighborhoods including Casey’s Row at S. 15th and Douglas Streets as well as other places. However, the first Black neighborhood in the city was around 10th and Dodge.

The “Colored School” (1867–1872)

The most significant landmark of this early neighborhood was the segregated “Colored School” that was run by the Omaha school district. Despite the 1867 statehood mandate that prohibited racial discrimination, Omaha’s city leaders attempted to maintain Jim Crow norms.

In 1867, the school board rented a crammed room on 10th Street between Dodge and Douglas to serve as the city’s official “Colored School.” The facility was notoriously inferior; records describe the original building provided by the city as literally falling over and structurally unsound. Even after moving to a heated rented room, the school remained a symbol of second-class citizenship. It was overseen by Superintendent Howard Kennedy, but the Black community, led by Edwin Overall, viewed the school’s very existence as a violation of their rights as taxpayers and citizens.

The Dodge Street School

As the city grew, the school board built more permanent structures. The Dodge Street School, located near the 11th and Dodge hub, was one of the “ward schools” that Black parents initially were barred from attending.

The conflict reached a head in 1868. Black parents in the original Near North Side neighborhood organized a boycott of the “Colored School” and demanded that their children be allowed to attend the neighborhood schools around Omaha that were closer to their homes and better funded. The local press, specifically the Omaha Daily Herald, fought back with mean and racist editorials, but the persistence of the neighborhood’s families made the segregated system a logistical and financial burden for the city.

Freedom Seekers in Omaha

From 1854 to 1861, enslavement was legal in Omaha and there were several enslaved people held captive. As a central hub for transportation north and west, there were also freedom seekers fleeing into and away from the city. Even though Nebraska was supposed to be a “free state,” there were 15 enslaved people recorded in the 1865 census, and my own research has found the identities of more than 50 enslaved people in the territory before 1865.

In 1858, two enslaved people named Hercules and Martha escaped from Nebraska City. Owned by an early Nebraska City judge named Charles Holly, when they became freedom seekers, he hired professional slave catchers to kidnap the pair. Getting to the Omaha riverfront likely via the Near North Side, Hercules and Martha were forcibly captured and returned to their enslaver.

In late 1860, a woman named Celia escaped from her enslaver in Omaha. Kidnappers patrolled the Near North Side and the levee for days, and despite the efforts of the hunters, Celia successfully evaded capture. She likely did this through the assistance of the Underground Railroad network led by residents, perhaps including African American community leader Edwin Overall.

Even after enslavement was made illegal in the Nebraska Territory in 1861, federal workers and military officers were allowed to keep Black people as property. This continued until 1861 and Emancipation in 1865. The first Black neighborhood in Omaha became one of the earliest sites for Emancipation Day celebrations and stayed that way for more than 50 years afterwards.

Nearby Landmarks of Early Black Life in Omaha

The neighborhood surrounding 10th and Dodge was not just a place to live — it was the site of several of Omaha’s first Black institutions:

• St. John’s AME Church: Founded in 1865, its early meetings were held in the homes and small rented spaces of this riverfront district before moving to more permanent locations further north. It’s first church was located at N. 18th and Webster Streets, in the direction the Black neighborhood was expanding in the 1870s.
• The Prince Hall Masons: Established in 1866 (Rough and Ready Lodge No. 1), this group provided a vital social and political network for the men working the railroads and docks. It met at businesses in this first Black neighborhood.
• The Union Pacific Railyards: Just blocks away, the railyards were the primary employer for the neighborhood, providing the “middle-class” income that allowed leaders like Overall to fund legal challenges against the city.

Immediately south of the neighborhood, around 10th and Jackson, was a rougher area of boarding houses called the Burnt District where many single Black people who came to Omaha first stayed before moving into more permanent family homes around Dodge Street.

The Northward Shift

Four of Omaha’s early Black leaders include William R. Gamble, Lewis Washington, Celia Clenlans, and Dr. Matthew Ricketts.

By the late 1870s and 1880s, the 11th and Dodge neighborhood began to change. As the business district expanded and the “Great Exodus” of 1879 brought thousands of new Black residents to Omaha, the community began moving north toward 24th and Lake Streets.

The closure of the “Colored School” in 1872 marked the end of the neighborhood’s era as a segregated enclave. When the school was shuttered, its 25 remaining students were distributed among the city’s eight other public schools, including the Dodge Street School. This move effectively integrated Omaha’s classrooms nearly a century before the federal government would mandate it nationwide, proving that Omaha’s first Black neighborhood was the cradle of the city’s civil rights movement.

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MY ARTICLES ABOUT BLACK HISTORY IN OMAHA
MAIN TOPICS: Black Heritage Sites | Black Churches | Black Hotels | Segregated Hospitals | Segregated Schools | Black Businesses | Black Politics | Black Newspapers | Black Firefighters | Black Policeman | Black Women | Black Legislators | Black Firsts | Social Clubs | Military Service Members | Sports
PIONEER BLACK OMAHA: Black People in Omaha Before 1850 | The First Black Neighborhood | Black Voting in Omaha Before 1870 | Racist Laws Before 1900 |
EVENTS: Stone Soul Picnic | Native Omahans Day | Congress of Black and White Americans | Harlem Renaissance in North Omaha
RELATED: Race and Racism | Civil Rights Movement | Police Brutality | Redlining
NEBRASKA BLACK HISTORY: Enslavement in Nebraska | Underground Railroad in Nebraska | Grand Island |
TIMELINES: Racism | Black Politics | Civil Rights | The Last 25 Years

RESOURCES: Book: #OmahaBlackHistory: African American People, Places and Events from the History of Omaha, Nebraska | Bibliography: Omaha Black History Bibliography | Video: “OmahaBlackHistory 1804 to 1930” | Podcast: “Celebrating Black History in Omaha”