King Lincoln District
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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 eastside 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" in Chicago and was borrowed by African-Americans in 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.
Visit the King Lincoln Bronzeville Association for more information.