The Most Segregated City

[yortsed snacilbuper]

To many, Omaha Nebraska is where you could buy insurance from the company that sponsored the Wild Kingdom TV show. Henry Fonda and Johny Carson were from Omaha. The liberal billionaire, “Oracle” Warren Buffet, lives in Omaha.

Yet for 50 years, Omaha also became the most segregated city in the US, or anywhere. The civic racists drew the line on a map between white and black neighborhoods with a straight edge ruler, as shown above. Black folks could literally live on the north side of Cuming Street, but not the south side (bottom of illustration).

When the Federal Department of Justice eventually won court orders to enforce bussing to desegregate schools, Omaha complied. But the sanctions were lifted, and now Omaha is re-segregating again.

link

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Omaha also has a public school district separate from the city school district that incorporated

itself so as not to integrate. (District 66.)

[mapol]

2. This kind of red-lining is the vilest kind of thing to do to other people.

It has ghettoized other human beings just because of who they are and what they look like, and has resulted in much tougher policies for integrating school systems than would be taken otherwise, which, in many places, has resulted in increased racial polarization and tensions.

This kind of red-lining has not just happened in Omana, NE, either. It happened in Boston, Philly, New York, and a great many other cities in the country.

[lunasun]

3. Rec -I saw this on kos - very good read

[BlueWI]

4. My home town.

We lived on 30th and Lake for years. Got to experience the court mandated integration plan in the 70s.

The challenges continue - but the article is a striking reminder of how deep the virulent racism went. Even when I grew up in the 70s, the differences in safety were obvious when you went through white neighborhoods.

It was definitely an education I will never forget about the collusion of so-called polite society - banks, retail stores, city government, and real estate - with the crimes against humanity perpetrated against black people.

[Amishman]

5. Good history article but zero insight into how and why it is re-segregating

There are no explicit policies to cause this change, so it must be social or economic forces driving it. I'd love to know more about what is happening now, the article was a bit of a disappointment