Black Triangle
African American Migration History in the Early 20th Century (1901-1920 | 1921-1930)
A Brief Pictorial History in the Early 20th Century
African American began contributing to the Cedar Valley more than 150 years ago. Between the years 1910 and 1920, the "Great black Migration" brought African American from the South, North and West to industrial and/or urban areas such as New York, Chicago, and Detroit, and Waterloo. By 1915, about four hundred African Americans lived and worked in Waterloo (Iowa Census, 1915). Many came from Holmes County, Mississippi, as strike breakers for the Illinois Central Railroad. Many spent their summer in Waterloo living in Boxcars provided by the Railroad. In those days, all African Americans were required to live in Smokey Row, an area in east Waterloo boarded by the Illinois Central railroad lines on the south and west, Douglas Street on the south, Sumner Street on the north, and Mobile Street on the East (refer to the small red triangle in the following map). According to Waterloo Courier's report (Kinney, 2004), in 1916, the city's Board of Realtors asked the City Council to pass an ordinance prohibiting the sale of houses to blacks in white districts. The council refused, but the real estate agents informally imposed the ban anyway, referring to an example of the RESTRICTIVE COVENANT.
During the 1950s, the government-approved legal contracts restricted where nonwhites could live. the Black triangle was set up to "Newell Street in north and Linden Street in east and the Illinois-Central Railroad line to the southwest", (refer to the second red triangle in the following map) (African American Historical and Cultural Museum, 2000, p.13). This triangle was next to the pool halls, prostitutes and bootleggers. By the end of World War I, 2.3% of Waterloo's population was African American (U.S. Census Bureau, 1920). Today, the Cedar Valley has the state's highest percentage of African Americans at 15.5% (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011).
African American Historical and Cultural Museum. (2000). Our Heritage: An Introduction to 150 years of African American History in the Cedar Valley. Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier.
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