Occasionally I am asked by scholars, journalists, teachers, and students of varying grades to comment on the Elaine Massacre of 1919. While many of the questions are repetitive, from time to time a novel idea or question emerges from the inquiries.
After the overthrow of Reconstruction, the institutionalization of tenant agriculture prompting the Great Migration, Black farmers continued to seek avenues of redress and self-organization against exploitation and oppression African American History Month Series No. 4 “The new industry had a vision not of work but of wealth, not of planned…
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Rioters on the south side of the Douglas County Courthouse in Omaha, NE on Sept 28, 1919. History Nebraska
On September 27, 1919, a mob of at least 10,000 white people stormed the courthouse in Omaha, Nebraska, demanding the sheriff turn over Will Brown, a 40-year-old Black man. They raided the building, scaled walls and smashed windows. When the mob’s initial demands were refused, they set fire to the courthouse, turning it into a seething furnace. Omaha Mayor Ed Smith tried to intervene, but the mob tried to lynch him. Smith escaped badly injured.
Will Brown. Public domain
From inside the courthouse, terrified white inmates threw down a note surrendering to the mob: “THE JUDGE SAYS HE WILL GIVE UP NEGRO. BROWN. HE IS IN THE DUNGEON. THERE ARE TEN WHITE PRISONERS ON THE ROOF. SAVE THEM.”