THE MAGIC
CITY

The creation of South Omaha was in many ways a perfect storm. As American’s need for packaged meat exploded after the Civil War, the area south of Omaha offered the food, water, and space necessary for the development of a meatpacking center. 

 

In 1882 capital, entrepreneurship, and labor poured into the area. Which created a settlement christened the ‘Magic City’ due to its almost miraculous growth. By 1892 the city of South Omaha prospered with a stockyard and packinghouses. Immigrants from around the world crowded into South Omaha and formed the majority of its labor force.

 

Nationality, ethnic identity, and customs flourished in a compact area as groups celebrated their successful journey and economic gain. Each neighborhood had their stores, taverns, and churches; but the identity of South Omaha was created around the areas of the packinghouses and the stockyards. The groups interacted depending upon each other to accomplish the strenuous work requested in a meatpacking center.

 

This interaction reached its zenith in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, when labor unions were integrated and the need for labor was at an all-time high. Omaha became the world’s largest meat packing center in 1955. Ethnic music, food, similar folklore, customs, and working-class heroes all bended into the circumstance known as South Omaha. Festivals, galas, and wedding became celebrations, not of individual groups, but of South Omaha in general, as the different people bonded with the pride of their hard work and endurance. 

 

One would hear Spanish, Polish, Irish, and German music at the same event and would dine on recipes from Lithuania, Croatia, and the south, (courtesy of African Americans.)
             

 

There is an old saying in South Omaha that goes like this,” the manure storms are so bad down here that the yellow dust covers everything including the people so we don’t know where they came from or what they look like and by the time it rained we liked them too much to care.” Group’s strived to keep their ethnic identity alive while cohabitating with others and this created a unique and dynamic place. Growing up there I later would come to see South Omaha as a Federico Fellini film stepping out from under the cruelty and danger of the meat packing industry and into a circus of ethnic fete with each group contributing to the festivity and each enjoying the uniqueness that was created. As Albert Camus stated, “throughout my life I have tirelessly sought to connect with the Spanish in me, which seems to me to be the true me.” One could substitute Spanish with the words South Omaha and the same would be true.