By Leo Adam Biga

Often, discussion of African Americans in Nebraska defaults to North Omaha. After all, for generations, it’s where the vast majority of this demographic has resided. But a sizable contingent, a fraction of North Omaha’s, has called South Omaha home for more than a century.

African Americans are among the diverse heritages making up that mosaic of a working-class community, contributing their own archive of achievement and distinction, protest and progress, labor and culture.

This population whose collective and individual stories often get lost in historical accounts of South “O” and of the metro’s minority experience will now be represented in a Black American mural on the former LaFern Williams South Omaha YMCA. The building’s now home to the Simple Foundation, a new generation nonprofit serving families. The lead artist, Barber, is an Omaha transplant whose mural design is informed by community listening sessions and research. The project, Barber said, fulfills his artist’s mission “to bring light or give voice to a conversation that’s not often heard.”

A South Omaha State of Mind

Months ago, Black elders with South O roots were asked to share their memories. Cousins Ardythe Sayers and Willa Holmon were among those who contributed. Sayers said she was happy to “help bring some light on people that were outstanding in the community and helped us when we were growing up.”

Just as he hopes it will be for viewers, Barber said the project has been educational for him. Until working on it, he assumed the local Black narrative was confined to North Omaha. But just as Blacks followed industrial jobs in his hometown of Detroit, many did the same in South Omaha.

“It made sense there was a thriving Black community there,” he said.

He learned, too, South O “was vastly different” than North O, “mainly because of the packing houses and how Black American culture thrived alongside Polish, Czech, Irish, Italian culture to make good of the opportunities the packing houses provided.”

Kastrick believes that during the peak of the packing industry, South Omaha’s Black population reached about 2,000.

Artist known as Barber. Photo credit: Rebecca Harrison

Just as redlining practices prevented Blacks from living outside a designated area on the north side, the same strictures applied on the south side, where, Holmon confirmed, Blacks were confined “to a certain districted area.” This, combined with a smaller housing stock in South O and the eventual closure of the major packing plants in the late ‘60s, resulted in South O’s Black population dwindling.

“That’s why a lot of people moved to North Omaha,” Holmon said. “They didn’t want to leave South Omaha, but that’s where (North O) they could find a decent home.”

With red lining curtailed in subsequent decades, Kastrick said, Black blue collar and professional workers could live where they wanted and started moving back to South O in the 1970s and 1980s.. The area’s affordable housing no doubt proved attractive. Some likely settled there to be close to their job or to their children’s school. Church affiliations may have drawn others. Thus, what was once a small affinity-workplace enclave limited to a few employers and neighborhoods, expanded. Indeed, David Drozd, research coordinator at the UNO Center for Public Affairs Research (CPAR), said that quadrant’s Black population has steadily risen in the last few decades. The 2020 census showed some 4,200 Black Americans living there.

Concurrent with this trend was the arrival of South Sudanese refugees to the area. Just as South O became a landing spot for European immigrants and African American migrants the first half of the 20th century, it became so for Black Africans in the 1980s-1990s. Today, the Sudanese population makes up a small segment on the south side.

Kastrick said just as other groups called it home, “African Americans profoundly identified as South Omahans.” “Regardless of ethnicity or race,” he said, “there was an overriding South Omaha mentality and pride that people of different cultures shared from the hard, harsh work they did.” That context is key, he said, to understanding the Black experience in South Omaha.

Even after Sayers, 85, moved to North O, she continued attending the South O house of worship she was raised in, Union Methodist Church. “That was my home church,” she said. Growing up, she said, her family was among a group of African American homeowners living in close proximity to other ethnicities and races. “It was very diverse. We were neighbors,” she said. Despite attempts by the powers that be to segregate people, she said Blacks, whites, and Latinos commingled. “We all still went in and out of each other’s homes, we socialized together, we ate together, we went to school together.” In many cases, they worked together, too.

The same was true of residents of the South Side Terrace projects, where Willa Holman grew up.

Sayers doubts today’s neighbors enjoy the same “camaraderie” as her generation did. She’s grateful for experiencing the mix of people she grew up with. “I felt like that has helped me throughout the years. I’ve never had a problem meeting people of other persuasions like maybe some people do who grow up in all-white or all-Black neighborhoods.

In addition to Black homeowners, there were Black business owners. At least two Black-owned grocery stores served the community at various times. Willa Holmon’s family owned several business interests. Her uncle Harold Franklin owned the Relay Club. Her uncle LeRoy Franklin owned Franklin Laundry, a trucking company and apartment buildings.

Several Black women operated beauty parlors out of their homes, Sayers said.

Kastrick said South O’s resident African American population grew during the height of the Great Migration (1910-1950), when the Big Four packing plants (Swift, Armour, Cudahy, Wilson) and the railroads (Union Pacific and Burlington) advertised for workers in the Deep South. The good-paying jobs attracted many folks, among them the parents of Ardythe Sayers, who grew up Ardythe Agee. “My father and my mother’s brothers worked at Cudahy,” she said. Willa Holmon’s mother worked at Swift and an uncle worked at Armour.

Not only did most Black families living in South Omaha have at least one member working in the packing houses, but many Black families in North Omaha, did, too. Hundreds of North O’s Black residents commuted daily to the south side, said Holmon “to work great (well-paying) jobs” in its packing, manufacturing and other industrial jobs. That influx of Black labor added to South O’s commerce through the spending by workers and employers.

People, Places and Things

The mural prominently depicts touchstone places for the Black community. The packing industry is represented in the form of an Armour Meat Packing facade. Kastrick said Black laborers made up a healthy percentage of the workforce at the packing houses, and that Cudahy employed the largest percentage of Blacks workers.

The Southside Terrace projects were an affordable housing option for many Black families who later became homeowners, said Sayers. The public housing project began as a white-only residential complex before designated units for Blacks were opened. As Sayers pointed out, “The government tried to segregate us, not the people.”

The Woodson Center at 3009 R Street, now home to Victory Boxing Club, was brought up by many participants. Nostalgia for it runs deep. “We learned a lot of life lessons through the Woodson Center,” Sayers said. It began as the Colored Cultural Center, which a group of African American women formed in response to racism Blacks experienced at the Social Settlement, which, Sayers recalled, “was a half block from my house, but Blacks weren’t welcomed there.” Unlike it, she said the Woodson Center welcomed anyone.

Kastrick said Black women also formed a political action group, Southside Club, that worked with elected officials to pressure restaurants and other businesses in South Omaha to desegregate.

The building the mural adorns at 30th and R Street and the woman for whom it’s named, LaFern Williams, also sparked many memories. Williams is depicted in the mural, next to Alyce Wilson, engaging families in front of neighborhood residences,. The African American activist was a tenant in the neighborhood’s South Side public housing projects. She advocated for a community resource hub, The center that opened in 1977 and that later took her name, fit the bill. Operated by the Omaha Housing Authority until the YMCA acquired it, the facility always provided recreational, educational, community and social agency services and programs. It was also home to two Afro-centric stage companies, the Center Stage Theatre in the 1980s, and the John Beasley Theatre & Workshop in the 2000s.

The mural gives a visual or symbolic nod to other resonant landmarks, including Allen Chapel AME Church, Parkvale Bakery, Cadillac Square, the South 24th Street Business District, South High and area parks.

In more than a century of faithful service, Allen Chapel at 2842 Monroe Street has always drawn members from both the South and North Omaha communities. The same is true of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church at 5318 South 30th Street, a 120-year-old congregation whose members back in the day once exceeded a thousand, a number that only the largest Black churches in North Omaha then or today can rival.

Though mostly focused “on creating a sense of place,” Barber said, “we have some key figures represented – the largest of them is Alyce Wilson,” a social worker at the Woodson Center. A portrait of her overlooks the neighborhood scene rendered in the mural. “I really gravitated to Alyce Wilson based on what I learned about her,” he said. “She wasn’t about the limelight, she was just about the work. That’s important to me.” Her successor at the center, Mosel Barnes, is also portrayed.

Rowena Moore owns a conspicuous space on the mural befitting her major presence in South O. Her experience working in the Omaha packinghouses sensitized her to the discrimination Black women faced in that industry, which led her to organize the Defense Women’s Club union. It brought federal pressure on owners to hire more Black women and treat them fairly. She became secretary of the local meat cutters union and of the Omaha Metropolitan Labor Council. Moore spent decades working to establish the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation near his birthsite at 3448 Pinkney Street.

Also portrayed is the late union steward George Davis, another labor leader who fought for better conditions and fairer treatment.

Additional figures, places and events pictured suggest other aspects of Black life. A scene of a Black family enjoying a picnic is a reminder of the large Bryant-Fisher family, which has been convening an annual reunion for more than a century. For most of its history the gathering was held at Mandan Park in South O because the family’s matriarch lived near there.

The many African American public servants produced by South O are symbolized by a galley of figures in police, firefighter and nurse’s uniforms.

People painting the mural. Photo credit: Rebecca Harrison

Sayers said whenever African Americans made their mark professionally, their achievements were celebrated by Black residents. The late Nebraska state Sen. Edward Danner, a teacher and union leader in South O, was among those feted.

“We were pretty proud of our Black policemen, firemen, nurses and teachers because there were very few of them then,” said Sayers, who is the widow of Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Gale Sayers of Omaha. She and her late husband formed the Ardythe and Gale Sayers Center for African American Adoption at the nationally recognized agency, The Cradle in Evanston, Illinois.

Sayers and Holmon attended integrated grade schools but they had all white teachers. Years later, when Holman became a teacher herself, she was assigned to Robbins Elementary and thus became the first Black educator at that school. “When Willa got the job that was something special,” Sayers said. For Holmon, who grew up Willa Johnson, it realized a long-held dream. “I always wanted to be a teacher,” Holmon said. She dreaded going to Robbins, a then all-white school known for being less than racially tolerant, but she said it turned out to be “the best experience of my life except for having my children.” She added, “It was a beautiful experience that I treasure and cherish.” Black American Mural historian Gary Kastrick is the son of the late Leo Kastrick, who was the sanitation engineer at Robbins when Holmon taught there. The Black teacher and white janitor became close friends and Gary learned through his father that “Willa became the favorite teacher at Robbins – students loved her.”

Holmon, 86, retired from full-time service with the Omaha Public Schools as an elementary supervisor. She later supervised student teachers for the UNO College of Education.

Other African Americans from South O became attorneys, judges, military officers, mechanics. entrepreneurs, entertainers, athletes, et cetera. John Clay Smith, the son of a packing house worker and nurse, was elected the first Black student council president at South High and the first Black governor at the Cornhusker Boys’ State leadership training program. He went to Creighton University and then graduated law school at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Smith attained the rank of captain in the Army, where he served as a judge. He joined the Federal Communications Commission in 1974 and was appointed in 1978 to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by President Jimmy Carter. He later became dean of Howard University’s law school. He authored a book on the history of Black lawyers in America. In 1980, he became the first African American elected national president of the Federal Bar Association.

Dana Murray is a nationally and Internationally recognized musician who is also a music educator. He is executive director of the new North Omaha Music and Arts in North Omaha.

South O’s Black Sports Legends

South Omaha became the home base to Texas native Ed “Bearcat” Wright Sr., a journeyman heavyweight prizefighter in the first quarter of the 20th century. He fought some of that era’s biggest names, including Primo Canera, Max Bear, Sam Langford and Mickey Walker. His son Ed “Bearcat” Wright Jr. became the first Black man to hold a world professional wrestling title.

North Omaha schools have produced scores of great Black athletes, but South High has produced its own fair share. At least two of South High’s Black sports stars made history.

After World War II Charles Bryant emerged as a force in football and wrestling and continued his dominance at the University of Nebraska, where he became the first modern Black gridiron player for Big Red. He went on to a long career as a metro area coach, educator and administrator and developed into a painter, sculptor and poet. He’s in the NU Athletic Hall of Fame.

Marlin Briscoe starred as a quarterback for South High and earned Little All America honors as a QB for the then-University of Omaha. In 1968 he became the first modern Black NFL signal-caller as a Denver Bronco. When denied a chance to continue as QB, he converted to wide-receiver, earning All-Pro honors as a Buffalo Bill and winning two Super Bowl rings as a Miami Dolphin. This member of the UNO Athletic Hall of Fame is also a College Football Hall of Fame inductee. There’s strong public and media support for him to be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Dwaine Dillard made a name for himself playing hoops in South O and turned heads with his game at Omaha Central. After starring at Eastern Michigan University, he was taken in the NBA draft and wound up making an ABA roster. He also played with the Harlem Globetrotters.

After a long dry spell, Cedric Hunter led a hoops revival at South High, where his talent earned him a scholarship with powerhouse Kansas. He was the Jayhawks’ starting point guard for three years, leading them to a Final Four and ranks among its career leaders in assists. He is in the KU Athletic Hall of Fame. Professionally, he played only briefly in the NBA but extensively in the CBA, including a stint with the Omaha Racers.

More recently, Noah Fant earned all-state honors in football at South before becoming a premier tight end at the University Iowa. He left after his junior year to declare for the NFL draft, becoming a first round pick of the Denver Broncos, for whom he made an immediate impact in 2019 and 2020.

Preservation and Commemoration

Stories like these and many others are imbued in the life of the mural, which celebrates a people and a place. Besides the opportunity to tackle an epic work and add his own Black American take to it, the idea of interpreting these people and this place appealed to Barber.

“That’s exciting,” he said. “I wanted to see how well I would connect to this community and to the culture of South Omaha and to see if I can articulate that artistically and also bring my aesthetic to them and see how they respond to it. It felt like an opportunity to learn a lot about myself and more about the city I’ve been living in for the past three years.”

Most of all, he’s indebted to the people who shared memories and stories he could translate into images for the project.

As one of its memoirists, Ardythe Sayers is counting on the mural being a trove of information that sparks conversation and exploration for her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other youths. “I hope it shows what we did, the churches we went to, the prominent streets and businesses there, the diversification.” Most of all, she wants to commemorate “the people and places who made a difference in our lives.”

Willa Holmon knows what she wants from the mural. “I think it should look like a composite of South Omaha,” meaning reflective of touchstones she grew up with. Asked if South O’s Black experience has been overshadowed by North O, she said, “Absolutely.”

The mural, she feels, can help set things straight. “Are we happy that they’re doing this? Oh, absolutely. We just want it right.”

Barber’s large-scale artwork, covering a wall approximately 20 feet high by 60 feet wide, is part of the South Omaha Mural Project (SOMP). The project’s grant-funded murals celebrate the historical ethnic and racial groups that have endowed South O with a cultural tapestry unlike anywhere else in the city.

The community-based preparation that went into the mural was new to Barber, a studio painter who normally works alone. He found interacting with community members “very exciting and engaging.” A big part of the process involved eliciting public feedback. He said his first and second sketches “changed a lot” due to community input and participants’ expressed desires of what they wanted included or emphasized in the mural.

He said his “contract” with participants was to let them decide what should go in the mural, with him determining what it would look like.

Barber was impressed by how project manager Rebecca Harrison with SOMP has been “really sensitive to subject matter and making sure we get everything right.” He said she was “very involved with interviews, note-taking, doing follow-ups.”

Omaha historian Gary Kastrick contributed historical research to the project.

“This whole process with the mural has been handled with really soft gloves and tender care,” Barber noted. “It’s been really nice to see that.”

He added that the information that doesn’t make it to the mural is archived on the SOMP website.

As for the final design he arrived at, Barber said, “It’s about capturing a mood, a place – both past and future. I hope the community will find themselves in it and feel comfortable enough to insert themselves in it by adding whatever legacy note to the wall – because there will be an opportunity for them to do that. There is a section – visualized by a yellow brick road–- dedicated to people coming in and writing in names or facts or memorializing personal family history. I’m really excited about that part.”

Local artists Zeleski and Jennifer Young have assisted Barber in executing the mural. Contributing artists Jeremiah Neal, Aaryon “Bird” Williams and Pamela Hinson “offered critical input about how to collect information and how to engage creatively with the community,” he said.

The mural has been painted on sheets of Polytab, a light, non-woven, weatherproof fabric that takes the form of the substrate it’s applied to.

Barber said some participants from the community have been invited to help paint sections of sky and grass.