Crime in Omaha, Nebraska - Racial Tension

Racial Tension

Long the location of racial tension, Omaha recently re-emerged in headlines when a local grocery store was firebombed by racists. On February 18, 2007 unknown assailants robbed, firebombed, and spray painted a racial slur on the side of Bob's Market in East Omaha. A long-time community institution, Bob's has been owned by an Ethiopian immigrant for several years. There are reports that this is not the first time the store has been targeted by terrorism. The store owner escaped bound and gagged before the building exploded and was uninjured; the blast and following fire destroyed the building. Police are investigating.

Omaha's history of racial tension extends at least to 1891, when a large white mob lynched an African American named George Smith for "leering at a white woman." This event was reinforced by the psychological effect of a second lynching of Willy Brown, a black man, in 1919, which, after the intervention of the National Guard, ensured the normalcy of informal racial segregation throughout the city.

In the first part of the 20th century, after a police office caught an older Greek man being intimate with an older teenage "American" girl in February 1904, the police officer attempted to take the Greek man into custody. During the apprehension, the Greek man shot and killed the police officer. News of the incident caused an anti-Greek mob to descend upon "Greek Town", an enclave of South Omaha. After beating, looting and rioting through the community the mob forced the entire population of hundreds of Greek immigrants to leave the city within one day. The Greek population of Omaha has never recovered, and currently stands at around 1000.

This racial tension parallels the 1960s race riots in North Omaha, activities leading to the Rice/Poindexter Case and ongoing gang violence affecting the entire city from the 1980s to present.