Native Americans of various nations lived in the Omaha territory for centuries before European arrival, and some stayed in the area.
In From Sea to Sea - Letters of Travel, published in 1899, Rudyard Kipling wrote of Omaha, "the city to casual investigation seemed to be populated entirely by Germans, Poles, Slavs, Hungarians, Croats, Magyars, and all the scum of the Eastern European States..."[1] In the 1920s Omaha "reached the zenith of its ethnic diversity", when more than 50 percent of the city's population were new immigrants or the children of immigrants.
[3] After the founding of Omaha in 1854 many European immigrants came seeking employment in the city's burgeoning railroads, stockyards, and meatpacking industry.
[citation needed] There was a large community of Russian Jews who had come to the US to escape religious persecution and, like other immigrants, to Omaha for jobs.
In 1907 the Dillingham Commission of the U.S. Senate examined the meatpacking industry in Omaha and the high percentage of immigrant workers in the occupations at the plants.
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the Omaha nation were the most powerful Indians along the Missouri River north of the Platte, they moved on to the western edge of present-day Bellevue, Nebraska.
[8] The presence of several black people, probably enslaved, was recorded in the area comprising North Omaha today when Major Stephen H. Long's expedition arrived at Fort Lisa in September 1819.
Edward Rosewater and John Rosicky, early Omaha newspaper editors originally from Bohemia, encouraged countrymen to come by extolling promises of free land in frontier Nebraska.
Czechs had a strong political and cultural voice in Omaha,[18] and were involved in a variety of trades and businesses, including banks, wholesale houses, and funeral homes.
Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied toured the Missouri River in 1832, and recorded a stay at Cabanne's Trading Post in present-day North Omaha.
At church and in their businesses, including grocery stores and farm supply shops, they conducted daily life in the German language for years.
[23] The German community was largely responsible for founding the city's once-thriving beer brewing industry,[24] including the Metz, Krug and the Storz breweries.
[26] The Omaha Bee used the slogan "Germania our Mother, Columbia our Bride" to describe the kind of "dual-sentimentality" many Germans in America felt towards their country of origin.
[29] During World War I strong anti-German sentiment swept the country, and by 1919 open discrimination against Germans throughout Omaha was taking hold.
After they originally moved to the city following work with the railroads, the community quickly grew and founded a substantial neighborhood in South Omaha that was colloquially referred to as "Greek Town."
Jews helped build the once-strong North 24th Street commercial area, which today is the center of Omaha's African American community.
Serbian immigrants established the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Omaha in 1917, which remains today and caters to the local community.
Asian people categorized as Chinese comprised enough of a notable population to warrant a booklet by the Depression-era Federal Writers Project, as did the city's Russians, Japanese, and Syrian communities.
Creighton was the first college in Nebraska to offer a Native American Studies major, and the program has increased enrollment by 500 percent since 1995.
Six thousand Sudanese are estimated to have immigrated to Omaha since 1995 because of warfare in their nation, with ten different tribes represented, including the Nuer, Dinka, Equatorians, Maubans and Nubians.
[49] Other Africans live in Omaha as well, with one-third coming from Nigeria, and significant populations from Kenya, Togo, Cameroon and Ghana.
The racial makeup of the metro area in 2005 follows, with comparison date for the entirety of the United States: The complexity of population and rapid rate of change has caused social tensions to erupt periodically in violence.
The accused man was captured, and shortly thereafter a mob of 3,000 men and boys gathered outside the South Omaha jail where he was being held.
This followed Red Summer, when other major industrial cities such as Chicago were also inflamed by severe race riots, arising from social, job and housing tensions after World War I.
Although the U.S. Army arrived to restore order, many observers believed torrential rains contributed more to dampening emotions and sparing the city more damage.
African Americans gained some progress, but restructuring of railroads and the meatpacking industry cost Omaha tens of thousands of jobs in mid-century, slowing the economy drastically.
On July 4, 1966 a crowd of African Americans gathered at the intersection of North 24th and Lake Streets refused to disband and reacted violently against the local police.
[59] Two years later, on March 4, 1968, a crowd of high school and university students were gathered at the Omaha Civic Auditorium to protest the presidential campaign of George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama.
[60] The following day a local barber named Ernie Chambers helped calm a disturbance and prevent a riot by students at Horace Mann Junior High School.
After finishing his law degree, Chambers was elected to the Nebraska State Legislature, and served a total of 38 years, longer than any of his predecessors.