Black Print with a White Carnation by Amy Helene Forss

Author:Amy Helene Forss [Amy Helene Forss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography-Autobiography
ISBN: 9780803246904
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 2013-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

Mayor James Dworak refused to believe Chambers, and he did not recognize the leaders of the 4CL organization as representatives of the black community. Brown rallied her Star readers to the situation when she quoted Dworak, stating, “The 4CL apparently are a group of self-appointed citizens. . . . I am going to take the leadership in this matter. We’ll see this thing [racial discrimination] evaporates very quickly.” Brown publicized the 4CL’s answer to the mayor and council’s assessment of the black community: a pray-in at city hall the following week. Resident Warren Taylor remembered watching the 4CL’s nonviolent demonstration a few days later in downtown Omaha. He wished to join the assembled group, but as one of the first black secondary teachers hired in 1963 he knew participation could be grounds for losing his job at Omaha Public Schools. He had good reason to be worried.14

At the peaceful pray-in, Reverend Jones informed a Star reporter that the 4CL would continue holding protests until the mayor and council took proper notice: “We will “sit-in; kneel-in; pray-in; lay-in; wade-in; any of the other ‘ins’ because we want ‘in’ the full citizenship.” Forty-nine participants were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace and holding an assembly. The charges against youths under eighteen were dismissed, and the adults were fined court costs and one dollar each. An agitated Reverend Jones stated that “Nebraska was now the Mississippi of the North.” Speaking for the black community, he added, “In housing we want open occupancy, with no reservations and no unwritten covenants. We want guarantees for displaced minorities before any urban renewal is accepted.” Brown, who did not attend the demonstration, met with members of the 4CL at Omaha’s Mount Moriah Baptist Church to plan their next strategy. The organization decided to picket the offices of the Omaha World-Herald. As much as Brown’s Star was unifying the black community against restrictive covenants, the mainstream newspaper’s articles were solidifying Omaha’s white community to keep the racist clauses.15

The 4CL held their Omaha World-Herald demonstration in front of the daily’s offices. Picket signs pointed out the daily newspaper’s responsibility to the entire Omaha community and demanded published appraisals of minority viewpoints. Although Brown stayed far away from the marching lines, she printed every word of Father Markoe’s opposition to the white newspaper’s rebuttal editorial, which cautioned against an open occupancy ordinance in the city of Omaha. Markoe, never one to speak subtly, told a small gathered crowd that the reason integrated housing appeared dangerous to the local population was because it might allow something scarier, namely, interracial marriage. Several people passing by heard Markoe explain that African American state senator Danner was in the process of compiling Legislative Bill 179. If passed it would declare interracial marriage legal in Nebraska. The aging priest finished his monologue by informing listeners that in reality, lighter-skinned children, in this white dominated society of ours, fared better and had more places to go than darker-skinned children. There was nothing wrong with miscegenation. What was wrong was the fake social attitude toward it.

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