The first of a series on the historic urban geography of the Dayton black community.

 

Notes on Sources

 

Some of the sources for this are (primarily) the excellent multi-volume genealogical history compiled by Charles Mosley Austin (particularly the church history section),  the Pictorial History Dayton’s African American Heritage, by Margaret Peters, the draft history by Marjorie Loycarno at the Dayton Dialogue on Race Relations web page, the Dayton Urban League files at the WSU archives, old newspaper microfilms, the Sanborn maps, etc.

 

Since I don’t have access to census data I will use the location of churches and schools to draw some inference as to the location of African-American neighborhoods, and how they developed.  This method is based on the first chapter of “Race Relations in the Urban South”, by Howard Rabinowitz.  That chapter provides the geographic setting for the rest of Rabinowitzes’ book, and, together with the footnotes, provides a methodology for locating 19th century black communities.

 

Black Dayton  in the  early-mid 19th Century

 

Given Dayton’s proximity to the slave-holding three western counties of Virginia, later to become Kentucky,  African-Americans were bound to be among the early settlers.  In Dayton they came as indentured servants, which is one way Kentucky and Virginia settlers brought their slaves to the new states of the free Northwest Territory. 

 

There were some early free black settlers, too, as old histories mention two blacks, one a barber, as partners in running an early stage line to Cincinnati. 

 

 

Black population expands with the arrival of the canal, dips due to a race riot, then expands slowly, then faster after the Civil War and Emancipation

 

 

Africa, Dayton’s lost Canal Workers Settlement

 

The first identifiably black neighborhood was on the edge of town.  Know as  “Africa”, the settlement was along Seelys Ditch, east of the Oregon, the area later known as the Haymarket.  The blacks here came to dig and build the canal (perhaps they also worked on Seelys Ditch?).  The first black church was organized in this settlement, an African Methodist Episcopal (AME for short) congregation.  Austin’s table of congregations locates the AME church at the corner of McCain & Plum.

 

 

 

This settlement brings to mind the famous Chicago neighborhood of Bridgeport, which was also a settlement of canal workers on the outskirts of town.  Unlike Bridgeport it did not survive to our time.

 

Africa settlement was the victim of the first racial disturbance recorded in Dayton.  There are two accounts.  This is from Michael Ohmers’ memoir

 

”The Negro Settlement was along Seeley's Ditch about that time. One night it was reported that they held a white woman there against her will. A lot of men went to take her away with the result that a white man, McLarey, was stabbed to death, the following night the Negro town was reduced to ashes, the murderer was captured and sent to the Pen for life. It was a pitiful sight the morning of the fire to see the Negroes carrying their belongings. The men and women had bundles and the children had chickens. They left the country. For a while negroes were scarce in Dayton”

 

The other from the  Dayton Dialogue on Race Relations history, based on the Edgar memoir

 

”In 1841 Dayton experienced its first race

riot. According to some accounts, the

violence began after a light -skinned black

woman, believed to be white, moved to a

black resort known as the Paul Pry. A white,

pro-slavery mob stormed the area in late

January, and the owner of one cabin stabbed

and killed the leader of the mob, Nat

McCleary. A week later, in the sub -zero

temperatures of early February, whites

retaliated by driving black people out of their

homes and burning several cabins. A number

of black residents died from exposure, and

many left town”.

 

 

Later in history, in the South, the fear of miscegenation was often a spark that set off white lynch mobs, but they usually didn’t burn out entire black neighborhoods (there are examples of that, though) .

 

The end of “Africa” also was the end of the AME congregation;  the AME denomination didn’t return until after the Civil War.

 

Today, nothing s left of the Haymarket as urban renewal there removed the old streets, except for one ghost street, so one cant really find the location of the old church.

 

“Africa” was not the only places African Americans lived in Dayton.  Apparently blacks were attending the abolitionist Union Church on Main Street, and formed the Wesleyan Church around 1841 in the neighborhood between South Ludlow and Perry Streets.

 

This congregation continues today as First Wesleyan  probably the oldest in the city.  The Short Wilkinson church was the place where the Emancipation Proclamation was first read in Dayton.

 

Austin’s table of congregations mentions other congregations.  One that predated the Civil War was the United Brethren Colored Mission, which met at various places, starting in 1858 in the Oregon, but settled in at the intersection of  Court & Ludlow, near the old Union Station.    The U.B.s had a second mission, which eventually relocated to the west side. 

 

There were other denominations and institution, like the Colored Methodist Episcopal CME) and the Episcopalians St Margaret Mission, and the various locations of the “colored school” (segregated education ended in the 1880s, by statute, though it might have continued informally)

 

 

 

South of Downtown

 

A close up of the neighborhoods south of downtown, showing some key locations in early black history, based on an 1875 map.  Austin’s table of congregations notes that the Wesleyan Church started on Washington Street (probably in a home) but then moved to Short Wilkinson.  Note that when this church was established this was on the edge of town, a fairly new plat.

 

 

Wesleyan built a brick church in the 1850s, similar in style to the old German Baptist church on St Anne’s Hill, or the old brick church in Liberty (Jefferson Twp).

 

Blacks were prohibited from the schools until 1840s when laws changed to permit their attendance.  The first black public school in First Wesleyan, but then moved nearby to a building on Ziegler Street. 

 

The black YMCA also got its start here, as one of the very early institutions in the black community, as a women’s club at the Eaker Street Church

 

The AME denomination returned after the Civil War, starting at Court & Ludlow and meeting in halls. One was McLausland’s Hall on Wayne Avenue ( which also hosted a black Baptist congregation), which makes one wonder if there was a connection between the Dunbar’s and their relatives, first living in the vicinity of Wayne.  The congregation eventually built on Eaker Streeet, across from the Union Station railroad yards

 

 

…and was eventually renamed Wayman Chapel.  One of the ministers from the 1920s was DeSoto Bass, a community leader, and namesake of the housing project.

 

A brief look at Court Street.  The corner building at Court and Ludlow appears as the home for three black congregations at different times, so perhaps this street was an early black neighborhood. The areas directly north of  Union Station and the Joint Tracks, Mead, Fifth, and maybe Maple, might have  had a small black community as the school relocated to Fifth, Dunbar’s’ father lived on Mead briefly, and the Episcopal mission was on Fifth.

 

 

 

Early Black Neighborhoods East of the River

 

One can infer due to the location of the congregations and school that where the early black communities where.  One can see how they clustered around the railroad yards and station, as port of entry neighborhoods, and also reminiscent of Chicago’s early Black Belt on Federal Street, next the railroad lines coming into the city. 

 

 

(The black stars show the locations of the Dunbar’s, both Paul and Matilda, but also Joshua, who appears in the city directory at some of these locations)

 

One can assume a bit of a port-of-entry function to these early neighborhoods around the tracks, as black migrants would be arriving by train, and there is evidence of two black hotels on Ludlow Street right at the tracks.  Eventually the one to the south, between Ludlow and the River, would be nicknamed “Hells Half Acre” around 1910.

 

None of these old 19th century close-in neighborhoods survive, torn down by commercial expansion, freeway construction, and urban renewal.  About the only institution left in this part of Dayton with a connection to this early black community is the congregation on Buckeye Street, at Pulaski, which was the home to two of the UB Colored Missions..

.

 

…this is probably not the original building for the UB Buckeye Street congregation, but it marks the site as still having a religious use.

 

.

1870s

 

The black population increases to around 1000 in the 1870s, which is the decade we see the first black institutions on the west side.

 

 

West Dayton was still sparsely settled in 1869, with quite a bit of open country and undeveloped plats.  This map would be interesting to talk about just for the how the area was developing, but the point is that one year later, in 1870, the first black congregation, of the Baptist denomination, was formed in a private residence on Baxter Street.  This would probably be the block of Baxter between 3rd & 5th, as the Baxter south of 5th was called Vantoyl Street at the time. 

 

This congregation eventually met on the east side, in Mclauslands Hall on Wayne for a few years.

 

Sprague Street, which would eventually be the home of the church, was still a small plat, near the lands associated with the Sprague glue works on the river.

 

 

So one can assume, even at this very early date in the history of the neighborhood, when it was still suburban, mostly undeveloped,  black folks were living on the west side,

 

And they continued to move to this area as it was further subdivided and houses built.  City directories show Joshua Dunbar living on Baxter, perhaps on the southern part (which was renamed from Vantoyl to Baxter in the 1870s) in 1874.

 

By 1875 there were enough black folk to petition for a school on the west side, which met at the fire house on Fifth & Baxter.

 

The Baptist congregation returned to the west side and built a wood frame church in 1876

 

These sites are noted on an 1875 map of the growing neighborhood

 

 

This congregation, Third Zion Baptist remained at Sprague Street , and built a larger building in 1908.

 

 

 

The congregation relocated elsewhere when Edwin C Moses Blvd. was built through the neighborhood, but this historic church (first black congregation on the west side) was recently remodeled as a community center.

 

1880s

 

The end of Reconstruction meant that conditions would start to deteriorate for blacks in the South, as white supremacy was enforced via violence and political actions.  Push factors for migration to the north.

 

Dayton’s black population doubles in the 1880s, reaching over 2000.

 

 

Around 1880 a sizable block of property became the Southern Ohio Stockyards.  One wonders if there was a connection between this business and attracting blacks, as its been said one of the occupations at this time for black men was “hostler”, which means animal handler, usually horse in livery stables, but perhaps also working in this stockyards?

 

Or it could be that the property around the stockyards became cheaper (stockyards are sort of a nuisance land use due to the smell and noise), so became a place for a poorer working class population of new immigrants (in this case internal immigrants).

 

The west side also becomes more accessible to Dayton proper during this decade via streetcar lines on 5th and Washington Street.  Coincidentally, these lines pass through the black neighborhoods that were forming east of the river, so perhaps another reason the west side became an option for an growing black population.

 

 

In the 1880s one starts to see new congregations on the west side, in the vicinity of Baxter, Hawthorn and Fitch.  Austin’s congregation table lists a Baptist congregation on Hawthorn in 1887, and then notes that the United Brethren mission on Buckeye Street relocates to the west side in 1889, first on Baxter Street…

 

 

…but then to a permanent church on Hawthorn.  This congregation changes names to McKinley, and affiliates with the Methodists.  This is the second oldest black congregation on the west side, and the oldest at more or less the same location (the original church was not on a corner, but a few doors to the north on Hawthorn)

 

Also note that the black school was closed and the black children reassigned to Garfield school (organized in 1871, and in this building by 1887).

 

 

But one wonders if the firehouse @ Baxter & Hawthorn was still the location of the school in 1887, as this pix shows a frame building behind the big brick school.

 

Lutzenberger’s caption says this was the original school and the brick building was built later (before 1887), but one wonders if this was also the colored school, and was used as such at the time of the photo,  as there are those black kids in front?

 

 

One can speculate that if this school was indeed integrated and the neighborhood attracted more black residents with kids, if there was early white flight from the neighborhood as the African-American population increased.  It also would be interesting to study the school district boundaries for the Garfield district during this era to see if the school board was manipulating attendance districts to make this a de-facto segregated school

 

In any case perhaps the vicinity of Hawthorne, Baxter, and Fitch, perhaps also Mound Street (facing the stockyards) might have been developing as the core of the west side black district, based on the church locations.

 

 

1890s

 

The South begins to implement de jure segregation in earnest via Jim Crow laws at the state and local levels.

 

Dayton’s black population continues to increase at the same rate as the 1880s, approaching 3500 by 1900.

 

 

During the 1890s one sees the black presence on the west side expand as congregations relocated from the old east side neighborhoods, as well as new congregations form.  The area between Germantown and Fifth was apparently developing into a black neighborhood.

 

 

A bit of a closer look.  Austin’s notes on his church table says Allen AME first met on the north side of Fitch.  Perhaps this was in a house or they shared a church building with Bethel Baptist, as there is no church shown on this Sanborn from 1898.

 

But one can get a feel of the urban fabric of this neighborhood…the churches noted in red, and the large block of land for the stockyards (errata: the Episcopal church location is wrong, should be at the corner of Mound and Norwood).

 

 

Taking a closer look at Bethel.  This Sanborn is of the same area, but in 1919.  Bethel has expanded to the west, and the Sanborn has enough detail to ascertain the roof lines

 

 

Going on-site, one does find a church at the same location, corner of Fitch and Baxter (which was renamed Dunbar sometime before 1919), which does have the same characteristics as on the Sanborn.

 

 

Though it’s been heavily altered and no longer a Baptist congregation this is probably the oldest structure still standing associated with the Dayton black community, or built by the community.

 

1900s

 

After the turn of the century the Great Migration ensued, a mass exodus of African Americans from the South to northern cities. This was in part in reaction to increasingly oppressive Jim Crow laws and then to crop failures driving black farm workers off the land. In Dayton the population increase in 1900s was the same as in the 1880s & 1890s, but the Great Migrations appears in the 1910s.

 

 

One began to see accounts of black professionals in the 1890s. This was also the case in the 1900s, with business formation and more black entrepreneurs. One started up an amusement park for blacks at Lakeview and Germantown, Dahomey Park. This was perhaps a reaction to discrimination at the popular west side Lakeside Park.

 

On the west side one sees the relocation of the YWCA from Eaker Street, a playground on 5th street built, and more churches forming, particularly in that little corner near Germantown and Washington.

 

 

Not shown here is the development of a east side black community on the outskirts of the city, off Springfield Street, with a black church forming in 1909 as a mission of Third Zion. This would become Mount Pisgah Baptist..

 

 

1910s

 

The Great Migration begins in earnest in the decade 1910-1920, which was also the decade of the second racial disturbance in Dayton history. After the end of this decade downtown merchants adopt an unofficial Jim Crow policy barring blacks from public accommodations downtown.

 

 

During this decade one sees an increase in churches in the near west area, as well as churches relocating beyond this neighborhood.

 

 

What one doesn’t see is if there are changes in white congregations as the neighborhood changes. Apparently this happened after 1913 to a Catholic church south of Germantown Street, where blacks replaced Germans as parishioners.  I think this remained an active parish until freeway construction tore out the neighborhood.

 

A look at the heart of this neighborhood, Baxter Street between Fifth and Fitch. This was reportedly the first street to “go black” in West Dayton. Using an 1898 Sanborn map and old pix (from “Dayton Comes of Age”, I think). Looking north, one can use the locations of buildings and hydrants to figure out where the pix is.

 

 

The red boxes note the old firehouse on Fifth that was the site of the black school , Bethel, and McKinley churches.

 

A close up of the pix. The West Side as it was...

 

 

 

…and what the same view, more or less, looks today. Most of Baxter, renamed Dunbar, was removed for an industrial development

 

 

Expanding Beyond the Near West Side

 

Next, the expansion of the black community. Note some outliers over in early Westwood (which relocated back into the near west side) and in “Patterson” (AK Browntown, later Edgemont). The Patterson outlier didn’t survive, and this neighborhood remained mostly white as late as 1940..

 

Also the cluster of congregations locating off Western Avenue, perhaps indicating a black settlement developing in this area, near Kuhn’s Foundry (Peters, in Dayton’s African American Heritage, notes that Dayton blacks often worked in the foundry trade)

 

In this decade Allen AME moved from Fitch to a location west, south of 5th, on Euclid Avenue.

 

An additional black church also located in Hells Half Acre. Interestingly, the Mead/Fifth/Maple area didn’t support a church at this time.

 

And a church that started in the Washington/Germantown vicinity moved south to the fringes of Edgemont, on Pontiac Avenue.

 

 

 

The Lakeside Racial Disturbance

 

So one can see a fairly organized community developing, even if they did experience job discrimination (NCR being the most egregious example). Yet one can anticipate some tensions between white and black given the big jump in population, which came to a flash point in the summer of 1919.

 

Newspaper accounts say tension was building all summer, but it came to a flashpoint on the night of July 19th, when racial disturbances broke out at Lakeside Park.

 

Lakeside was one of three early Dayton amusement parks, and though it didn’t ban blacks it did prohibit them from the dance pavilion and had other discriminatory practices.

 

Around 9:00 PM disturbances broke out, with blacks being ordered out of the concessions and park theatre by white park-goers, and fighting ensued. Reports said that the telephone line to the park was cut, and unconfirmed reports of a shooting.

 

The violence apparently extended to the streetcar lines connecting the park to the city, with reports of cars heading back into town being stopped by groups of whites. blacks being taken from the cars and beaten. There were also reports of conductors getting punched and a car driver being beaten with the car controller handle.

 

Later in the week there was retaliatory violence at nearby McCabe’s Park picnic grove with black youth stoning white visitors, but scared off by one of the whites firing a pistol.

 

So Dayton had people going around armed, and it also seems a bit premeditated on the part of the whites, that they apparently knew to stop streetcars coming back into town from the park. (either that or word travels fast). It is surprising there wasn’t serious injury or deaths, considering the racial violence that flared elsewhere in the years just after WWI (like the deadly Chicago race riot).

 

A map of the locations, showing Lakeside, the streetcar lines, and the black park, Dahomey Park, which had closed after 1911

 

 

Segregation became even more widespread after 1919.  Starting in 1920 downtown Dayton businesses instituted an informal Jim Crow policy of banning blacks from most downtown public accommodations (restaurants and movie theatres)

 

 

The Ghetto Forms?

 

Perhaps a ghetto was forming in the near west side by this time, perhaps earlier. But certainly after the African American population explosion that started in the 1910s, the black community, while expanding somewhat beyond, still was confined to certain neighborhoods.

 

This meant increasing density, as one can see on these two enlargements of the Baxter /Dunbar Street blocks. One can see “negro hotels”, “tenements”, and houses locating on alleys and double and triple to a lot, including some small row houses. I’ve boxed the alley houses and side lot houses in red, to show how things grew.

 

 

 

What this doesn’t show is overcrowding in the houses, or if they have been spit up into multiple units.

 

By the 1940s this was a very dense neighborhood.

 

 

Yet, its all gone now.  The near west side today, mainly the historic core black community south of 5th, is almost unrecognizable. Nary a house remains.  (except for a few on Broadway).  Urban renewal has been as total here as in the old Haymarket area on the east side, though the streets still remain to some degree

 

 

Yet if you want to visit, there are the two old churches still standing off Fitch, plus the one on Sprague.

 

So that’s it for development of the black community on the west side, at least the early era. If I had access to census info one could chart the development a bit better. Starting in the 1930s, and especially the 1940 Housing Census, one has actual numbers to work with, so its easier to research the continued growth of the black neighborhoods.  I’ll do that in a later post. 

 

The next posts, though (later this week), will be a quick look at early outlying black communities on the west and east sides.

 

EXCELLENT post.

Fascinating study. I will have to come back and peruse it more.

Jeffrey are you a black history scholar?

Incredible.  I've always appreciated the fact that Dayton seems to have a very strong and unified Black community.

Jeffrey are you a black history scholar?

 

28 years ago, for a semester, I was a post-Civil War Southern history scholar.  And since "race is the central theme of Southern History", being a black history scholar came with that territory.

 

I've always appreciated the fact that Dayton seems to have a very strong and unified Black community.

 

In terms of community development, as in institutional developement, this thread just scratches the surface.  My primary source also has tables of the various organizations prior to 1920...fraternal, mutual aid, social, political, cultural, listed by type, year of formation, and where they met.  It was just too much to put on this one thread. But you can see how the community organized itself through time as numbers grew.