On January 30th, GenNext had a volunteer event in the King-Lincoln/Bronzeville neighborhood. GenNext volunteers braved the cold photo journaling the neighborhood, alleys and buildings to assist with the neighborhood revitalization. Willis Brown and Dana Messinger, President and Chair, respectively, King-Lincoln/Bronzeville Association gave a brief presentation on the history of Bronzeville.

The King-Lincoln Bronzeville neighborhood is a historically African American neighborhood in Columbus and the site of considerable revitalization and renovation projects on behalf of the city, including the historic Lincoln Theatre. There are currently 16,000 residents in the one square mile of Bronzeville which encompasses Jefferson to Taylor and Broad to 670.

Since this is my neighborhood, I wanted to learn more.

I started my search at the Bronzeville Neighborhood Association's blog. I had no success finding anything about the neighborhood's  history, just their current information and updates on the neighborhood's renovation. I emailed them asking for assistance with information and suggested maybe a history timeline be put under the "About" tab. This is what I have found elsewhere and I wanted to share it.

 

From the website  THINK URBAN: COLUMBUS

Everyone knows that the Martin Luther King Junior Arts Complex anchors the Northwest Border of our Neighborhood Association and that the Lincoln Theater sits squarely in the Southwest, but what, exactly, is Bronzeville?

Around the turn of the century, the east side of Columbus was, essentially, a segregated African-American community within the state capital.

Its original residents were descendants of runaway slaves and free blacks who found their way to Franklin County before the Civil War.

At the turn of the twentieth century, because of racism, southern crop failure, and the lure of jobs, a second wave of African-Americans traveled north to cities like Columbus.

The northern migration continued for most of the twentieth century. In the early 1900s, African-Americans established a business district on East Long Street. They built churches, homes, and theaters in the surrounding areas. Children from the region were not encouraged to integrate into the Columbus Public Schools. The name "Bronzeville" began in Chicago and was borrowed by African-Americans in Milwaukee and Columbus.

In 1909, Columbus developed the first of five completely segregated schools in Bronzeville neighborhoods. These schools were taught and attended by African-Americans only. By 1950, all residents within the Bronzeville boundaries were African-Americans. With the I-71 highway project, the neighborhood was cut in half. In the late 1990s, Reverend William-Amanze M. Pinckney revived the name and started a neighborhood association which has since turned into the King-Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association.

Today the neighborhood is made up of an exciting and eclectic community well aware of the rich history of our community. Today Bronzeville is black, white, straight, gay, rich and poor. These aren't polar opposites here, they are one face on a diverse community that is primed to reclaim our prized urban legacy.

King-Lincoln District, Mt. Vernon Avenue, circa 1940

To read more from columbusneighborhoods.org: CLICK HERE

Recommended links:

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The story of Morris Wade and the 4 Pharaohs begins during a unique time in Columbus music history when the east side of the city, known at the time as ‘Bronzeville’, was exploding with musical talent and energy. Bronzeville in many ways was Columbus’s Harlem, an area just east of the downtown core that was the center of the city’s African-American culture, alive with clubs, restaurants, shops, theaters and, most of all, music. The club scene in Bronzeville during the mid-1950’s to the early 1960’s was teeming with the best jazz, vocal harmony and R&B artists on the planet. Morris Wade & The Four Pharaohs ColumbusMusicHistory.com