Present Courthouse
John Latenser, a locally important architect, was hired to design a replacement building in 1908. It opened October 1, 1912. Built south of the old courthouse, the new building is six stories tall along Harney Street and five stories along Farnam. While the exterior walls are covered with unembellished Bedford stone, the interior halls have mosaic floors and marble wainscotings. Hardwood covers the interior of most offices, and vaults preserve county records.
There were county offices on the main floor, second and third floors, and courtrooms on the fourth floor. The Douglas County Jail was on the fifth floor.
In September 1919, following Red Summer and racial riots in numerous industrial cities, a mob of thousands of men from South Omaha surrounded and attacked the Courthouse seeking to lynch an African-American worker named Willy Brown (accused of assaulting a white woman). Young men broke windows and climbed the outside of the building. After a few hours, thousands more gathered and they set the courthouse on fire to force the police to hand over the suspect. After lynching Brown and the city's mayor Edwards, who was rescued at the last minute, the mob swarmed toward the city's black quarter. They were stopped by soldiers from Fort Omaha, who had been called in to restore order in the city. The military commander posted troops in South Omaha to prevent other mobs from forming.
In 1948 Rev. John P. Markoe, S.J., led an early civil rights effort with an interracial group of about 30 people from Creighton University to hold the city's first sit-in at old Dixon's Cafe next to the courthouse. When the group arrived, the owner told them that white customers would stop coming into the restaurant if blacks were served. In response, the members stayed until the owner agreed to allow African-American patrons.
Read more about this topic: Douglas County Courthouse (Nebraska)
Famous quotes containing the words present and/or courthouse:
“If we Americans are to survive it will have to be because we choose and elect and defend to be first of all Americans; to present to the world one homogeneous and unbroken front, whether of white Americans or black ones or purple or blue or green.... If we in America have reached that point in our desperate culture when we must murder children, no matter for what reason or what color, we don’t deserve to survive, and probably won’t.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“It is told that some divorcees, elated by their freedom, pause on leaving the courthouse to kiss a front pillar, or even walk to the Truckee to hurl their wedding rings into the river; but boys who recover the rings declare they are of the dime-store variety, and accuse the throwers of fraudulent practices.”
—Administration in the State of Neva, U.S. public relief program. Nevada: A Guide to the Silver State (The WPA Guide to Nevada)