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The Omaha race riot occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, September 28–29, 1919. The race riot resulted in the brutal lynching of Will Brown, a black worker; the death of two white men; the attempted hanging of Mayor Edward Parsons Smith; and a public rampage by thousands of whites who set fire to the Douglas County Courthouse in downtown Omaha. It followed more than 20 race riots that occurred in major industrial cities of the United States during the Red Summer of 1919. ==Background== Three weeks before the riot, federal investigators had noted that "a clash was imminent owing to ill-feeling between white and black workers in the stockyards."〔("For action on race riot peril" ), ''The New York Times'', 5 Oct 1919, Retrieved 5/26/08〕 The number of blacks in Omaha doubled during the decade 1910–1920, as they were recruited to work in the meatpacking industry, and competing workers noticed. In 1910, Omaha had the third largest black population among the new western cities that had become destinations following Reconstruction. By 1920, the black population more than doubled to over 10,000, second only to Los Angeles with nearly 16,000. It was ahead of San Francisco, Oakland, Topeka, and Denver.〔( Quintard Taylor, ''In Search Of The Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West, 1528-1990'' ), New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1998, pp.193 and 205, accessed 14 Aug 208〕〔(Quintard Taylor, ''The Forging of a Black Community'' ), Seattle: U of Washington Press, 1994, p. 56,- Google Book Search, accessed 20 Aug 2008〕 The major meatpacking plants hired blacks as strikebreakers in 1917. Hostility against them was high among working class whites in the city, who were mostly Catholic immigrants of southern and eastern Europe, or descendants of immigrants, who lived chiefly in South Omaha. Ethnic Irish were among the largest and earliest group of immigrants and they established their own power base in the city by this time. Several years earlier following the death of an Irish policeman, ethnic Irish led a mob in an attack on Greektown, driving the Greek community from Omaha.〔(n.d.) ("African American Migration" ), NebraskaStudies.Org〕 With the moralistic administration of first-term reform mayor Edward Parsons Smith, the city's criminal establishment led by Tom Dennison created a formidable challenge in cahoots with the Omaha Business Men's Association. Smith trudged through his reform agenda with little support from the Omaha City Council or the city's labor unions. Along with several strikes throughout the previous year, on September 11 two detectives with the Omaha Police Department's "morals squad" shot and killed an African American bellhop.〔 The violence associated with the lynching of Will Brown was triggered by reports in local media that sensationalized the alleged rape of 19-year-old Agnes Loebeck on September 25, 1919. The following day the police arrested 41-year-old Will Brown as a suspect.〔〔 Loebeck identified Brown as her rapist, although later reports by the Omaha Police Department and the United States Army stated that she had not made a positive identification. There was an unsuccessful attempt to lynch Brown on the day of his arrest.〔 The ''Omaha Bee'' publicized the incident as one of a series of alleged attacks on white women by black men. The newspaper had carried a series of sensational articles alleging many incidents of black outrages.〔(n.d.) ("African American Migration," ) NebraskaStudies.Org〕 The ''Bee'' was controlled by a political machine opposed to the newly elected reform administration of Mayor Edward Smith. It highlighted alleged incidents of "black criminality" to embarrass the new administration. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Omaha race riot of 1919」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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