A LOOK BACK INTO BUFFALO’S HISTORY

BUFFALO’S ETHNIC CITY — Like many other cities of similar size during the late 1800s and early 1900s, the city of Buffalo saw significant growth in terms of new residents due to immigration from Europe and a large migration of blacks from the post-civil war south. Due to Buffalo’s reputation as an industrial center during the early Twentieth Century which provided several jobs for an unskilled labor force, many poor black families migrated to the city in search of greater opportunities and a better life. Buffalo’s black population during the early part of the Twentieth Century was centered in the lower east side section of the city, near Michigan Avenue, South Division, and Broadway. As the black population began to grow, both in size as well as in prosperity, families began moving into other sections of the city which had been abandoned by other ethnic groups.

When the Great Depression hit the United States in the late 1920s, Buffalo was dealt a harsh blow when it came to manufacturing and industrial job loss. By 1930, unemployment in many of these industries was well over 20 percent. With the signing of the New Deal by President Roosevelt in 1933, the nation and Buffalo would finally see some relief in the form of public works programs. These programs and projects put many Americans to work, building infrastructure, roads, sports stadiums, and airports to name a few. Buffalo’s War Memorial Auditorium, the former home of the Buffalo Sabres, which was in the last few years demolished to make way for a dreamed Bass Pro Sports store was one of these public works projects. Along with the building of sports stadiums, many public works projects were centered on public housing. Because residents of the city were still feeling the effects of low employment due to the Depression, public housing was seen as a welcomed and needed addition to the city.

The public housing projects would become the home of many African American families; however, these families would have a hard time moving out and into better living situations due to the trend towards segregation happening in the city during the 1930s. The lack of political representation of the African American community is perhaps the primary reason for this unfortunate happening. In the book Race, Neighborhoods, and Community Power: Buffalo Politics, 1934-1997, Albany: State University of New York, 2000, author Neil Kraus looks at the lack of political representation as a key ingredient to the segregated city being created in Buffalo. Kraus wrote:

Buffalo’s residential patterns have played a significant role in the local political process, both contributing to policymaking as well as being a product of local policy choices. In terms of policymaking, segregation has been important because the black community was tightly concentrated from the 1930s through the 1950s, yet had little if any, representation during this period. Consequently, sections of the lower east side were, in effect, simply left out of the policy-making progress. And that very same process from which the black community was excluded segregated African Americans even more, particularly with the introduction of public housing in the 1930s.

The building of public housing would go on to create a negative identity with the communities which housed these new projects. Not only were black families pushed to live in segregated sections of the city, but the absence of representation also created a gap when it came to political power which was beneficial to helping the black community make progress. The politics of today were planted in the past and those seeds created a difficult world for the African American community to better themselves, like the Irish, German, Polish and Italian immigrants who came before them. However, due to racial prejudice, Buffalo’s African American community has had a difficult time breaking out of the mold created by segregation so many years ago.