By: Rene Childress

As we continue on our journey through this maelstrom of racial animus we find ourselves in the small far flung hamlet of North Platte, Nebraska. It is probably a hot muggy day. North Platte is where the North Platte river and the South Platte river converge and become the Platte river. 

The summers are always muggy due to the moisture arising from this confluence of the two rivers. This Township was founded in 1866. It was initially the western end of the Union Pacific Railway. 

It became cattle country and later an agricultural community.  It also became a magnet for former slaves fleeing the horrible conditions of the oppressive southern regime of “Jim Crow”. By 1929 there were several hundred African-Americans residing in North Platte. Estimates from newspaper clippings at the time put the number between two and three hundred. 

What cascades down on these poor wretched descendants of former slaves who are only looking for a safe haven to raise their families is simply unfathomable. Yet is just one more incident in  a constant march toward incivility and brigandage. 

 It is July 13,1929. There has been a shooting.One Louis “Slim” Seeman has an altercation with two sheriff’s deputies. The altercation arises from an earlier date when Deputy Ed Green declares that Mr. Seeman is a public nuisance and must stay away from North Platte or be arrested. 

Mr. Seeman didn’t stay away. He was confronted by two deputies. A gun fight ensued and deputy Green was shot. 

Word went out and white mobs began to form all over town.  One such group was able to corner Seeman at his chicken coop. It was shellacked with gasoline and set ablaze. 

The record is sketchy he was either torched inside the coop or he was lynched. The good people of North Platte decided that all the African-Americans should pay for Seeman’s transgression. The mobs began beating and accosting any black person they came upon. 

They began driving the African-American populace out of “Their Town”.  The sheriff only half heartedly tried to quell the growing racial storm. Homes were broken into and ransacked. People were told they had to be out of town by 3:00 P.M. 

Seeing that there was not going to be any relief or succor from law enforcement Black citizens began fleeing for their lives taking only what they could carry. They left by train. They left by automobiles and trucks. They left by horse and buggy. Many left on foot following the train tracks toward Omaha. Associated Press reported 

“The first act of near violence was reported when four men captured a negro Saturday night ‘took him for a ride’ to the city limits and then ran him out of town, firing revolvers at his heel.”  By sunrise July 14,1929 North Platte became an all White Town. 

It is still to this day a virtually all White Town. The governor of Nebraska at that time Arthur Weaver tried to get local officials to allow blacks into North Platte. He found no takers. The local law enforcement refused to offer protection for anyone wanting to return. 

There were only four arrests for unlawful assembly. Three were acquitted. One was never tried. We again see the state and local authorities are once again found wanton or unenthusiastic about pursuing justice for aggrieved African -Amnercains. 

They lost everything. They had to start all over again. Generational foundations were continually being stripped from these people where they tried to start a new life. The State of Nebraska has not seen fit to address this or other grievances perpetrated in their fine state. We must keep these stories fresh. Let Us Not Forget