Being Black in Lincoln: The series
More than 150 years after America’s slaves were freed and Nebraska gave birth to its capital, a UNL journalism class posed the question: What’s it like to be Black in Lincoln?
Students spent 15 weeks digging deep into the lives of a dozen residents representing a cross-section of Lincoln’s Black community: former basketball stars, BLM leaders, preachers, teachers, cops, convicts, businessmen, chefs, electricians and youth leaders. They discovered many had faced racial profiling, housing discrimination and police harassment, while others received ugly death threats, verbal abuse and hate-filled letters. The students also found that these Black citizens think Lincoln’s racial climate has improved overall but still has a ways to go. And most believed that it will get there.
The semester-long depth-reporting project was overseen by professors Joe Starita and Jennifer Sheppard and instructor Roger Holmes.
Other stories will be featured this summer at .
(11) updates to this series since Updated
After a rough childhood in Omaha, Terry Rupert moved to Lincoln and has survived by grit and guts. Denied a promotion at Kawasaki, he went out on his own as a fledgling businessman.
Retirement hasn’t dulled Thomas Christie’s engagement with his community. Last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests heartened him in the way that students, Black and white, stepped forward.
Even as a Husker athlete and police officer, Albert Maxey knew being Black in Lincoln required careful navigation to make it to the end safely -- all because of the color of his skin.
Following the 2020 summer of civil unrest and returning to a predominantly white Doane campus was particularly unsettling for some of Farr’s Black students.
As he grew older, Shepard realized he had to stop getting in trouble. “It’s hard sometimes. ... You say things that end up getting you in trouble, or you do things that land you in trouble. So, as I’ve gotten older, it’s more trying to be calmer.”
In the Omaha projects where he grew up, Geno Johnson was always ready to fight. But over time those rough edges were sanded down, and he now helps at the People's City Mission and enjoys being a grandparent.
Born in Washington, D.C., Liu-Sang arrived in Friend, a small town like so many in Nebraska, and headed off to UNL with a growing commitment to push for change.
Ishma Valenti is a man of many interests and talents: entrepreneur, filmmaker, music producer, rapper, community servant, mover and shaker. To his family, and most importantly to himself, he is a father and husband.
“They were a gift to the ministry for me in a lot of ways,” Cooper said. “I was able to be extremely involved in the community ... and so it was nice to know that this historical congregation saw themselves immersed in the community as well.”
The two-time girls state champ at Northeast, Husker basketball star and Lincoln High girls coach offers a heartbreaking view of what it’s like to be the parent of a 4-year-old Black boy in today’s America.
“Coming to Lincoln has given me the opportunity to finally step into the world and to truly be happy with my passion of cooking," Wahadi Allen said.
Despite calls by opponents of UNL's diversity plan for Nebraskans to make their voices heard at Friday's board meeting, the topic did not come up during public comment.
A UNL spring 2021 Depth Reporting class won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book and Journalism Award on Tuesday for its "Being Black in Lincoln" series.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln celebrates MLK with a weeklong series of events, including a moderated conversation with journalist Lisa Ling.