Black History Cincinnati |
Today we move forward, setting another trend in history.
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Cincinnati was a border town in a free state, across from Kentucky, a slave state. Some residents of Cincinnati played a major role in abolitionism. Many fugitive slaves used the
Ohio River at Cincinnati to escape to the North. Cincinnati had numerous stations on the Underground Railroad, but there were also slave catchers active in the city to recapture
slaves.
There were several reasons free Blacks settled in Cincinnati. For most of the 1800’s Cincinnati was the sixth largest city in the nation, larger than Chicago. With such a large city population, consisting of 5,000 Blacks (per 1820 US Census), free persons of color hoped to blend in better. Blacks were denied entry into public schools because Ohio enacted Black Codes restricting movement and advancement. Recognizing the importance of education, Wilberforce University was established in 1856 to train Black teachers, it was the first institution of higher learning for Blacks in the United States, named on behalf of Abolitionist William Wilberforce. The Cincinnati Riots of 1829 were triggered by competition between Irish immigrants and Blacks for jobs, but also were related to white fears given the rapid increases of free and fugitive Blacks in the city. Merchants complained about the poor neighborhoods along the river as having ill effects on their waterfront shops. Artisans excluded Blacks from apprenticeships and jobs in the skilled trades. In June 1829 overseers of the poor announced that Blacks were required to post bonds of surety, in an enforcement of the 1807 Black Law, intended to discourage black settlement in the state. Anti-abolitionists attacked Blacks in Cincinnati in a wave of destruction that resulted in 1,200 Blacks leaving the city and the country; they resettled in Canada. The riot and its refugees were a topic of discussion throughout the nation, and Blacks organized the first Negro Convention in 1830 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to discuss these events. White riots against Blacks took place again in Cincinnati in 1836 and 1842. In 1836, a mob of 700 pro-slavery men attacked Black neighborhoods. Tensions increased after congressional passage in 1850 of the Fugitive Slave Act, which required cooperation by citizens in free states and increased penalties for failing to try to recapture escaped slaves. The bitter and constant reminders of racial discrimination bolstered NAACP membership and later the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which at one point had 8000 members in the city. Another job boom for Blacks occurred during World War II. Job growth attracted more Black immigrants, who mostly settled in the West End district where cramped and inferior housing was the norm. By the early 21st century, the city was 40 percent Black. Predominantly white, working-class families who had filled the urban core during the European immigration boom in the 19th and early 20th centuries, moved to newly constructed suburbs before and after World War II. Blacks, fleeing the oppression of the Jim Crow South in hopes of better socioeconomic opportunity, filled older neighborhoods in their Great Migration to the industrial North. The downturn in industry in the late 20th century caused a loss of many jobs, leaving many people stuck in poverty. In 1968, passage of national civil rights legislation raised hopes for positive change, but the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. resulted in despair and riots in Cincinnati; black riots took place in nearly every major U.S. city after King's murder. |