1919 - Photograph showing the body of Will Brown after being burned by a white crowd. The Omaha Race Riot occurred in Omaha, Nebraska, on September 28 29, 1919. The race riot resulted in the brutal lynching of Will Brown, a black worker; the death of two white men; the attempted hanging of the mayor Edward Parsons Smith; and a public rampage by thousands of whites who set fire to the Douglas County Courthouse in downtown Omaha. It followed more than 20 race riots that occurred in major industrial cities of the United States during the Red Summer of 1919.