Browse Items (71 total)

Four black and white photographs (daguerreotypes) in their original boxes. Each box has red fabric (possibly velvet or velveteen), a gold-colored frame (possibly real gold or gold gilt), with decoration on the outside of the box, and each has a small…

Kearney State Normal College Administration Building, apparently taken at Midnight

This is a photo of the Jazz band, The Dixie Ramblers. The jazz scene in Omaha was vibrant from the 1920s through the 1960s. The Omaha Night Owls are sometimes credited as the first jazz band in the city. In 1923, musician and band-leader, Frank…

This is a newspaper feature of Phyllis D. Wilson, a competitor in the Miss Black America Pageant. The Miss Black Nebraska competition was an annual event, first held in 1970 with the winner going on to participate in the Miss Black America pageant. …

Organ player Michael Andre Lewis was born in Omaha in 1948 and grew up in a musical family. Lewis’s father played saxophone with Count Basie, served as bandleader to Fats Domino and Etta James, and also played locally with Preston Love’s orchestra. …

During the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century a small number of African Americans came to Nebraska as homesteaders, seeking new opportunities for independence and self-sufficiency working the land. The largest black homesteading settlement…

In 1969, Harry and Daryl Eure created the Afro Academy of Dramatic Arts in Omaha to provide black artists the opportunity to showcase their work. In addition, the Afro Academy of Dramatic Arts provided classes in music, dance, art, theater and…

Prior to the civil rights era, throughout the urban North, most white-owned hotels refused to allow black patrons to stay in their rooms. Black-owned hotels in segregated African American neighborhoods, like the Patton Hotel in Omaha, provided…

North Omaha has been home to a number of black newspapers dating back to the 1890s. African American newspapers have historically provided an important alternative to mainstream newspapers, which rarely covered events in black communities, seldom…

North Omaha has been home to dozens of African American churches over the years, making religious institutions one of the most consistently vibrant aspects of the community. This undated photograph shows members of Mt. Calvary Church.