Lake School was a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

in the Near North Side neighborhood of

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, United States. The school was one of Omaha's "

black school Black schools, also referred to as "colored" schools, were racially segregated schools in the United States that originated after the American Civil War and Reconstruction era. The phenomenon began in the late 1860s during Reconstruction era w ...

s", and served

grade one Grade 1 may refer to: *First grade, the first school year of primary education. *A Grade 1 Graded stakes race horse race * ''Grade One'' (TV series), a 2014 Chinese TV variety show *Grade 1 listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed b ...

through

grade eight Eighth grade (or grade eight in some regions) is the eighth post-kindergarten year of formal education in the US. The eighth grade is the ninth school year, the second, third, fourth, or final year of middle school, or the second and/or final ye ...

. It closed in the 1970s.

History

Built in 1888, Lake started in an 1879 two-room frame schoolhouse opened in 1879, making it one of the oldest schools in the Omaha School District. It was a two-and-a-half story brick building with a peaked roofline and decorative elements at the peaks. There was a bell tower protruding from the top of one part of the east side of the building. The school's first principal was Emma Whitmore, who locked the names of the first graduates in a metal box, and had them buried beneath a new tree at the school. The key was then attached by ribbon to a pigeon released to an unknown destination. The second building was replaced in 1910. When it was built, the surrounding neighborhood was a predominantly white community with several European immigrant populations, including Russian Jews, Scandinavians, Italians and others, as well as a nascent African American population. In 1919, rioting after the lynching of Will Brown focused on the neighborhood containing Lake School. The

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

intervened and established the city's first official

redlining In the United States, redlining is a discriminatory practice in which services (financial and otherwise) are withheld from potential customers who reside in neighborhoods classified as "hazardous" to investment; these neighborhoods have signif ...

, and ensuing

white flight White flight or white exodus is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the United States. They refer ...

over the next several years resulted in Lake School's student population and surrounding neighborhood becoming more predominantly African American. By 1976, the school population was almost entirely African American. That year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in ''United States of America v. The School District of Omaha'' that

Omaha Public Schools Omaha Public Schools (OPS) is the largest school district in the state of Nebraska, United States. This public school district serves a diverse community of about 52,000 students at over 80 elementary and secondary schools in Omaha. Its district ...

routinely segregated schools, including Lake School. In 1978 the school was closed, and the building became a special services school for developmentally disabled students. The building was closed and sold to the

Seventh-day Adventist The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventism, Adventist Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the Names of the days of the week#Numbered days of the week, seventh day of the ...

church in 1984 and operated as a private school in 1984. After operating for approximately 15 years, it was closed."A History of Lake School,"
Adam Fletcher Sasse, NorthOmahaHistory.com. Retrieved 1/19/23. Today, the third Lake School serves as an apartment complex called Fullwood Square.

References

External links

Historic postcard

1892 Lake School eighth grade class
- Nebraska Memories Elementary schools in Omaha, Nebraska Defunct schools in Omaha, Nebraska Schools in North Omaha, Nebraska Historically segregated African-American schools in Nebraska {{Nebraska-school-stub

History

See also

References

External links