War on the Streets of Omaha The 1919 Riot

Summer 1919 It’s a hot a humid summer in Omaha Crime is at an all time high for the City of Omaha More and more Black men are taking the blame for violent crimes in the city Dennison’s men are blackening their faces w/ shoe polish to appear as Black men, then commit crimes The Omaha Bee exaggerates the stories Omaha’s Black paper the Omaha Monitor is outraged

Milton and Agnes go on a date Friday 26 Sept 1919 19 yr old Agnes Loebeck & her boyfriend Milton Hoffman go out for ice cream one night As they neared Agnes’s house, a man jumped out from behind a tree threw Milton to the ground Next, he threw Agnes over his shoulder and dashed off w/ her and sexually assaulted her. Milton finds Agnes and takes her home Her father wants blood! Agnes gives a description as a large “black man”

Black men are rounded up Police begin to arrest and question every Black man they can find. Not one man has a “prior”, they had to go to Council Bluffs to find a guy w/ a prior Sunday, 28 Sept 1919 Will Brown is arrested and taken to Agnes’ house so she can ID him When he walks in the room in cuffs she screams “That’s him!” and faints Will Brown is taken to the Douglas Co Courthouse

A Mob Begins to Form Will brown is locked up and mob of high school students and adults gather numbering 5K The mob demands Brown, the guards try to hide him in the building, then on the roof The Mob storms the building and finds Brown. They take to the street On the way out of the building he is knocked out

The Courthouse today

Vigilantly Justice The Mob drags Brown outside to the street He is hanged and shot while he was hanging He was cut down, dragged behind a car, then burned Mayor Ed Smith tried to reason w/ the Mob and was hanged along w/ Brown 2 Central High School Baseball players rushed through the crowd and cut down the Mayor and rushed him to the hospital – he lived

The Riot moves North The rioters head north along 24th Street looking for any Black people to go after Black Businesses are trashed Soldiers from Fort Omaha are sent in to take the city streets back Buildings & cars are set on fire, etc. 1600 armed soldiers arrive Machine gun nests are set up on nearly every corner A huge rain storm moves in putting out all the fires and quieting the riot.

The Grand Jury Investigation In the end, Police Commissioner Roy Towl is convinced that Dennison is involved 8 Deaths Dennison was in Los Angeles during the riot Dennison owned the cab company that was giving free service downtown that night Alcohol was provided to passengers It was said that Dennison paid off cops to “call in sick” that day Nothing stuck…..

The findings afterwards Will brown was handicapped, he had arthritis in his arms and hands He was fired from the meat packing plant because he could not work There was no way that he could have picked up Agnes Milton Hoffman disappeared to Denver to sit out the riot (it was said that he planned it) He worked for Dennison’s friend there Milton ended up marrying Agnes who died in the 1970’s

Through the gate & up & to the left

Will Brown