New Book Explores Nebraska’s Untold Racial History

“Roots of Justice, A History of Race and Racism in Nebraska,” which tells stories of Nebraskans that have not always been told, is now available for free as an online book at UNL Digital Commons. On-demand print copies can be ordered for a fee.

This project tells a shared history of the state in focusing on NativeAmericans, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Nebraskans, and refugees who arrived after the Vietnam War.

“These fact-based accounts are the work of nearly five years of research and writing by five teams of writers,” said Dewayne Mays, president of the NAACP Lincoln Branch. “The book tells stories of everyday Nebraskans who struggled and triumphed as they sought to make their lives across the state, from Nebraska City to Alliance, Omaha to Scottsbluff, Lincoln to North Platte and many communities in between.”

The book tells of Black homesteaders creating a community in Cherry County, the Ku Klux Klan driving laundryman Sin Goon out of North Platte, vibrant refugee communities organizing to help new arrivals, mistreatment of Lakota farm laborers in western Nebraska, the Sundown Town of Havelock, and much more. Read about the desegregation of Lincoln’s Municipal Pool, Mildred Brown’s fight for civil rights in Omaha, the demographics of majority Latino towns and other towns that are nearly so.

“We hope this history will become more broadly known and that Nebraskans will respond with open heartsand minds,” Mays said. “Our intent is that local communities, organizations and policymakers will be inspired to actions which foster a greater sense of belonging for all peoples across our home state. We all belong here.”

The Lincoln Branch of the NAACP and Nebraskans for Peace first developed and planned this work. The target audience is any and every Nebraskan who is curious about the good, the bad and the ugly of our history, Mays said.

Paul Olson, emeritus professor English at UNL, is one of the guiding lights for the project who co-wrote the introduction with Mays. “Take the burden of history and try to set it right,” he urged.

The book was edited by Kevin Abourezk, a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe and managing editor of Indian Country Today. He co-wrote the chapter on Native Americans. Other authors are Gabriel Bruguier, Preston Love Jr., Ness Sandoval, Heather Fryer, Sharon Ishi-Jordan, Emira Ibrahimpašić and Julia Reilly. A preliminary bibliography, also available on UNL Digital Commons, was researched by Veronica Duran, Kathleen Johnson and Crystal Dunning. Most of the authors have lived this history, or are part of families that are rooted in it.

To learn more about the project and order copies of the book, visit: rootsofjusticene.org.

To order an on-demand print copy:https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/170/