Historic Omaha
An illustrated history of Omaha and the Douglas County area, paired with the histories of companies, families and organizations that make the region great.
An illustrated history of Omaha and the Douglas County area, paired with the histories of companies, families and organizations that make the region great.
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Above: An Armistice Day parade in<br />
downtown <strong>Omaha</strong> in November 1918.<br />
COURTESY OF THE DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL<br />
SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.<br />
Below: On Sunday, September 28, 1919, an<br />
enraged mob of six thousand people<br />
attacked the Douglas County Courthouse<br />
and dragged black prisoner William Brown<br />
from the top floor of the jail, shot, lynched,<br />
and burned him. Brown had been arrested<br />
two days earlier, accused of assaulting a<br />
white girl. The mob ransacked and looted<br />
the courthouse as well. After the riot an<br />
editorial in the World-Herald attacked<br />
“mob spirit” and won a Pulitzer Prize.<br />
COURTESY OF THE DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL<br />
SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.<br />
Opposite, top: Back when talkies were still a<br />
novelty, Olsen & Johnson, vaudeville<br />
headliners, brought their live review to the<br />
Orpheum. For a single ticket price, patrons<br />
saw both a full-length vaudeville show and<br />
a full-length motion picture. Opening night<br />
was in progress when Will Wentworth<br />
captured this view.<br />
COURTESY OF THE DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL<br />
SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.<br />
Opposite, middle: Sebastian Bandiera<br />
“bobs” a girl’s locks in his barbershop at<br />
1507 North Thirty-third Street in 1926<br />
while another girl waits.<br />
COURTESY OF THE DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL<br />
SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.<br />
by declaring, “The businessmen of this city, the<br />
big men who are responsible for the city’s<br />
rapid growth and wonderful progress, are<br />
determined to have a four-square city, a well<br />
regarded and well balanced city, and one whose<br />
political machinery and city govern-ment<br />
would be a true representation of the place in<br />
business and social affairs in this great trade<br />
territory that <strong>Omaha</strong> now holds.”<br />
The ascendancy of the “reform party” was<br />
short-lived. There was in-fighting almost<br />
immediately, and the commissioners soon fell<br />
out over a wide variety of issues. A horrifying<br />
riot in 1919 resulted in a lynching that was<br />
one of the city’s darkest hours.<br />
On the afternoon of Sunday, September<br />
29, a mob later calculated to number six<br />
thousand, gathered outside the Douglas<br />
Opposite, bottom: Albert Cahn at 1322<br />
Farnam was one of six shirtmakers in<br />
<strong>Omaha</strong> in 1915. The employee lunchroom<br />
apparently had both cook and waiter.<br />
COURTESY OF THE DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL<br />
SOCIETY COLLECTIONS.<br />
HISTORIC OMAHA<br />
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