The Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame
From the 1920s until the present, many top vocalists and musicians across the country have had musical roots planted in Omaha, Nebraska. The Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame has been established to document and honor those whose musical careers began in the metropolitan Omaha area.
Organizers
After years of discussion and research on how to best recognize the city’s talented African American musical heritage, the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame was established in 2005. The nonprofit organization is the brainchild of Vaughn Richard Chatman, a graduate of Omaha Central High School and a former musician who now resides in California. Vaughn admits that “had it not been for music,” he probably would not have finished high school.
Vaughn decided to establish the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame because he knew that the musical accomplishments and histories of a vast number of local vocalist and musicians needed to be remembered in a way that would forever perpetuate their legacies in Omaha music history- if a partnership could be established with the Omaha Public Schools.
While growing up in Omaha, he played guitar with The Impacts and The New Breed Of Soul.
Researchers
Inductees into the Hall of Fame have been determined by extensive research, in part through materials provided by Mike Semrad, Nebraska music historian and musician, author Bart Becker and the Nebraska State Historical Society. Recognition will be in the areas of, but not limited to, rhythm & blues, big band, blues and jazz. Inductees will include Living Legends as well as honorees recognized posthumously.
Partners
Proceeds from the event will fund scholarships for area high school students who have an interest in music and want to further their musical education. Working in partnership with Omaha’s Concerned and Caring Educators (CACE), Hall of Fame scholarships will be awarded at the annual CACE scholarship banquet held in February.
CACE is a non-profit organization of African American administrators and retired teachers. The nonprofit organization was created as a networking tool for black educators after integration began in Omaha in 1975. The original intent was for educators to meet monthly to address problems related to academic achievement, to share ideas on how to retain staff and to affect change in Omaha’s black community.
In 1984, CACE began its scholarship program to honor outstanding black students. Other programs have included collecting gifts for Toys for Tots and establishing Kids That Achieve Beyond All Odds to recognize student achievements despite great odds such as disabilities or major home problems.
Collaborators
The Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame is a cooperative effort with the Dreamland Historical Project, which is preserving the history of Omaha’s African American community. Project Dreamland is an initiative of Heart & Soul of Omaha, a nonprofit organization that offers educational, cultural and artistic programs.
Named after the storied Dreamland Ballroom in the historic Jewell Building on North 24th Street, today’s Project Dreamland highlights the city’s African American community in various fields by “connecting the past to the present . . . to pave the way for the future.”
Sibyl Myers, (deceased), a columnist with the Omaha World-Herald and an Artist-in-Residence with the Nebraska Arts Council, is director of Project Dreamland. She wrote a publication highlighting the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame inductees.
We Must Go Back ~ In Order to Move Forward…..
For quite some time now, I have often wondered just what exactly happened to the wonderful town where I grew up. I have also lamented about the local legends and heroes whose community contributions and positive attitudes influenced me so much as I grew to understand what it really meant to be independent, responsible, yet humbly patient, productive, creative and fiercely respectful of myself and others.
Omaha, Nebraska, more specifically, North Omaha, was once a thriving and diverse community. There were once Black and White owned businesses up and down 24th street, the main thoroughfare that separated North Omaha from South Omaha. Automotive repair shops, doctors, nurses, dentist, lawyers, community based organizations for adults and youth, grocery/ variety stores, night clubs, social clubs, barbershops, beauty salons, bars, record shops, restaurants, theaters, hotels, pharmacies, and wonderful public schools and churches of all denominations, populated the area. Over the years much of what was once an influential, positive and certainly thriving community has given way to apathy, fear and mediocrity.
North Omaha today has become much like the war in Iraq. The senseless youth sectarian –like violence, the failure of the community leaders and City, State and Federal officials to (1) see, (2) recognize (3) address, their issues and needs and/or (4) come to a timely consensus on solutions that fix the problems, all remind me of the same fractional discourse that is part and partial the problem in Iraq today.
That sense of family, that sense of community and that sense of respect are all attributes that appear, somehow, and for some reason, to have given way to selflessness, greed and ambivalence. Although it would be easy for me to continue to state the obvious with regard to the current conditions in North Omaha; I would be remiss in not suggesting a historical solution.
Our Children are Dying for a Reason to Live…..
If we do not teach our children by example, then we only have ourselves to blame for who they become.
The veracity of those individuals, who dare stand before you and state if we just continue to wait everything will be just fine or claim that all is well, when it is not, is simply unfathomable.
Lack of family values, direction and /or community support, inadequate health care, illiteracy, poor high school and grade school test scores, youth violence, and adult/ youth unemployment, alcohol/ substance abuse, youth incarceration and peer pressure are but a few areas that should be of the highest priority among those who seem to do more talking about the problems than implementing solutions.
The Color of Murder is Black…..
It has become abundantly clear and painfully obvious to me that the problems in North Omaha are not just unique to North Omaha. These problems exist in predominately Black neighborhoods thru out this country. The reasons for the proliferation of many of these problems lie with you and me.
Local and national crime statistics indicate that the murder of Black people by other Black people is extremely alarming and inexplicably disproportionate when compared to murders within any other non-Black group. If a Black person is murdered by a non-Black person, the Black community will demand immediate redress from those deemed responsible. However, Black on Black murders within the Black community appear to have become so common place, as if to say it is acceptable if we murder one another but you as a non-Black person cannot murder a Black person. Murder IS Murder.
While erecting buildings, naming streets and parks after some of our deceased local community leaders out of respect for their individual accomplishments is great, it is simply not enough.
The legacies of our local legends, heroes and 'sheroes', to be politically correct, have not been emphasized in our homes, local radio and television stations and/or specifically taught in our local public schools, churches or presented prominently in the local public Libraries. Our children are out of balance. They are devoid of the historical facts and knowledge of their forefathers. We need to give them more options to choose from, to correct that existing imbalance and insist these changes be immediately implemented. We have an obligation, if not a duty, to keep our children out of harm’s way.
A Time for Change….
Curriculums will need to change in our local grade and local high schools to include the legacies of positive local heroes/ role models, some of whom are still with us. Those who have passed on, but left a lasting legacy of their historical accomplishments should be constantly and consistently highlighted.
Attitudes will need to change. There was a time when being the good guy was ‘cool’. However, the youth of today are being bombarded with the message “it is cool to be bad.” The anger, confusion and frustration are all evident in the behavior of our children. If you put today’s child in a room by himself or herself an argument will breakout. This would help explain the propensity towards youth violence at most Rap concerts.
The Rap music industry including the local radio, national cable radio, cable television and local television stations do little if anything to balance their programming with realistic messages educating, emphasizing and defining positive local heroes. Although the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) mandates that a dedicated cable access channel be made available in most local communities, demographics suggest those ‘at risk and targeted’ youth do not listen to nor watch cable access channels except to give rise to their own self created, and in most cases, unrealistic and imaginary, Rap music careers. Any positive messages that need to reach the youth should purposely target at risk youth. They should be embedded and delivered thru the more prominent, popular and appropriate local radio and television channels, locally as well as nationally.
Unless and until we, as a community, understand the historical value and significant influence, of the local hero, North Omaha’s most precious commodity, our children, their fate and their future, specifically the young Black men, will remain in the hands of unscrupulous rap music producers/ distributors and City and State law enforcement officials and last but not least, the local Coroner.
Feeding the Content of our Children’s Character….
We must go back, but not as far back as segregation; but far enough to re-establish, re-affirm and re-adjust our own positive value system in our own historical foundation that has been long ignored or torn asunder. We need to remind those who have either honestly forgotten to remember, purposely choose to forget or that never really knew that as a practical matter… ‘Our children will have no idea whose shoulders they stand upon without us informing them about the heritage of their forefathers.’
Were it not for God’s Grace and Mercy, and our intervention, that light at the end of the tunnel, for a great number our children, would appear to be an on-coming train and not that light of hope that signals a brighter tomorrow.
Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame….
In August of 2005 the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame (OBMHOF) was establish to recognize and honor the careers of many great musicians and singers whose musical roots began in Omaha, Nebraska. Some 40 musicians and singers from the 1930’s (some posthumously) were honored at an event held at Harrah’s Casino Council Bluffs, Iowa. A scholarship program has been established in the names of those who were inducted into this inaugural event. This historical event will continue in August, 2007 at the Qwest Center, Omaha but will expand to include Gospel and inspirational community leaders whose contributions to the local community have largely been forgotten or ignored.
It is my belief that our children especially those ‘at risk’ youth can and will relate to those local heroes from their community who look like them. A change will come if we get involved.
Janelle Mullen, Curriculum and Learning Coordinator, for the Omaha Public Schools (OPS) has agreed to support the efforts of the OBMHOF by creating programs in the Omaha Public School system that will recognize and teach about those inducted and agreeing to use the historical facts produced by and for the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame in that process.
Rivkah Sass, Executive Director, for the Omaha Public Library, has also agreed to support our efforts by helping us create programs in the Omaha Public Library system that will recognize and honor those local heroes inducted into the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame.
Your endorsement and support of this project is needed to insure implementation and continued success.
Vaughn R. Chatman, Founder
Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame
Email: vchatman@omahablackmusic.com
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