George Washington to New Hampshire, 29 December 1777 (Detail, GLC03706) The Great Plains; America's Crossroads American Literature; African-American migration to the Great Plains by Michael Pekarek Centerville High School, Centerville, Ohio 45459 http://memory.loc.gov/ (search for "Arthur Goodlett") African-Americans joined the migration to the plains for largely the same reasons as white immigrants--economic opportunity. This account, compiled by the Writers Project of the Great Depression tells the story of the meat packers in Omaha actively recruiting African-Americans from the deep South in 1917. American participation in World War I gave minorities opportunity. Packing jobs were tough "enry level"employment that more affluent Americans rejected. Indeed, this pattern persists today in Nebraska where Hispanic and Asian immigrants take packing house jobs in the now decentralized packing plants in smaller Nebraska towns like Lexington and Crete. NAME OF WORKER Fred D. Dixon ADDRESS 2889 Ohio St. DATE November 18, 1938 SUBJECT Negro History NAME AND ADDRESS OF INFORMANT Arthur Goodlett, 2815 Binney St. I was born in Brewton Alabama in 1889. I am the seventh child of a family of ten. At an early age I was forced to leave school, while yet in the sixth grade, to help earn a living for the family. My father earned a meager living working in the saw-mill, which was the chief industry of this city of 4,000. I was married in 1912 and as my wife was a school teacher we were forced to leave Brewton as she was appointed in a nearby small town, Century Alabama. It was while living in this town that I read of Omaha, Nebraska and the opportunities for Negroes in the packing industry. This information about Omaha was in the Florida Sentinel, a Negro paper that I was taking at the time. The Sentinel said that further information could be obtained by writing the Monitor, a Negro paper that was edited by Father John Albert Williams, and George Well Parker, in Omaha. I wrote for copies of the paper and corresponded with them regarding employment in the packing industry for Negroes. They wrote me that the packing company was anxious to have more Negroes come to Omaha and enter this branch of industry, I discussed this with several of the Negroes living in Brewton, and decided to leave there and try my luck in Omaha. One other person decided to come with me. His name is William Bradley. He has since left Omaha and is living in Brewton at this time. Page 2 { page image } We left Brewton on March 10th, 1917, and arrived in Omaha on March 13th. We went directly to Father Williams' parish and he with George Parker talked with us for several hours, discussing Omaha and the possibilities that it offered for employment to a group of Negroes. We had decided that if Omaha did not seem the right spot to stop we would continue to Sioux City, Iowa, as there were several packing companies there also. They talked us out of this thought, and we spent the night with Mr. Parker. The next day we contacted the employment managers of the various packing companies and everything seemed fine. We went to work on the 15th of March in 1917 and haven't missed drawing check every pay-day since being in their employ. We wrote back that the packing companies were in need of additional workers and was willing to send for many more if they were willing to come to Omaha. The lacking company was so willing to have more men come to Omaha that they gave me the privilege of sending them their fare to Omaha and they payed me back. They were very short on help due to so many men being drafted for the war. During the summer several parties of about 25 men and women came to Omaha. The largest parties came in the fall after the crops had been reaped. These parties asked for special rates and received a reduction of $5.00 on each adult ticket, when the groups contained 25 or more persons. When I started to work at Cudahy's packing co. there were only six Negroes employed in the entire plant. This was due largely to the great number that had been taken out of the packing industry, by the war. Before the end of 1917 there were several hundred employed in the various departments of Cudahy alone. The packing company rewarded me, and also Page 3 { page image } due to my fine record with them by making me Supervisor of Sanitation over the entire plant. It is estimated that over 300 came to Omaha from Brewton during the year 1917, and the majority entered the packing industry. Between the years 1917 and 1921 it is safe to say that over 1,000 Negroes came to Omaha from Brewton and surrounding territory. The majority of these Negroes came here seeking educational opportunity as well as industrial, and decided to stay here as they were quite satisfied by both. Most of them started to buy homes and began to spread out into various districts in north Omaha. In 1929 before the depression, the Negroes of Omaha had the largest per capita home owning or home buying population in the United States. Before the Brewton group arrived in Omaha Negroes had never thought much of buying homes, but they likewise started buying and this helped to swell the per capita. To show that this group was in earnest about education, and that they have made every effort to obtain at least a high school education, it is safe to say that 60% of all of the Brewton groups children finished grade school and high school and that 50% finished or attended University or College. These figures are my own as I have often thought of this little group that came here during this time. These figures might not be accurate but as the number of children that came during this time was so small it is easy to see that not very many would have to finish. However the number of Omaha born children of Brewton parentage has swelled the figures both for those that finished and those that quit. However I feel that every one that came here due to my word that Omaha was much better than Brewton has prospered in some manner 1. Find and record facts about the speaker's background that indicate his economic and educational status. Then describe how the speaker did or did not change that status in Omaha. 2. What was the speaker's family's "backup plan"? Did the family have to resort to the backup? Explain your answer. 3. What was the Omaha African-American community's economic standing in comparison to African-Americans elsewhere? To what do you attribute this situation? Explain your answer. 4. In light of the passage, what values did the Omaha African-American community seem to ascribe to? Were they able to attain their goals without compromising these values? Explain your answer. 5. What risks did the Alabama family run in moving to Omaha? Describe the general racial climate in Omaha and other plains cities like Kansas City at the time?