By Chris Koester

Dayton’s Arcade and the city’s African American community have been intertwined since the complex’s opening in 1904. The lives of the people of color played a central role throughout the history of the Arcade. The Arcade served as a safe haven for people of color for decades and became a beloved landmark to them. With the splendor of its rising dome and apartments, and sprawling five building layout, the Dayton Arcade was the sort of spectacle that many African Americans who moved to Dayton during the first Great Migration had probably never seen before. It was a sprawling five building layout, contained apartments, and caped by a spectacular glass dome. It also stood in the heart of the cities center where many may have liked to live. But Dayton’s African American population was largely restricted to West Dayton by discriminatory housing practices. Located between the factories on the Eastern side of the city and black neighborhoods in West Dayton, the Arcade became a largely welcoming place as they passed through an otherwise hostile city. Over time the patronage of the African American community also became increasingly important to the Arcade. 

The African American experience of the Arcade was riven with contradictions. Dayton has had, and continues to have, a long, notorious history as a city of racial discrimination. Certain establishments within the Arcade practiced segregation. African Americans were not allowed to sit, take the elevator, or try on clothes. By the 1960s, however, while other businesses in downtown Dayton continued to carrying out de facto segregation, the Arcade became viewed by African Americans as a welcoming place to shop. Indeed, the Arcade largely remained free of the protests surrounding the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

In the 1970s, the decline of the Arcade mirrored the misfortune of the Dayton city center and the African American community. The Arcade suffered as “white flight” stripped the city of population and money in the 1960s and 1970s. Urban revitalization efforts intending to help reinvigorate the downtown, instead, hurt the Arcade. These efforts walled the African Americans on the Westside off from the downtown. As in other cities, such measures isolated the African American community in Dayton and accelerated the Arcade in the process of falling into disarray.

African Americans and the Early Arcade

The opening of the Arcade in 1904 coincided with the Great Migration, a national movement of around six million black Southerners to North and Midwestern cities between 1916 to 1970 in search for economic opportunity. Dayton was one of the leading destinations for both Southern African Americans and Southern whites. Dayton was a city on the rise when the Arcade opened. Its industries, innovation, and constant need for jobs attracted migrants. The population of African Americans in Dayton grew 500% to 9,052 between 1910 and 1920.[i] In Dayton and around the country, more African Americans moved to the Northern urban areas in search of work and work was hard to find. People arriving during the Great Migration, explained one historian, were already “precariously clinging to the bottom rung of the economic ladder” due to their poor agricultural roots.[ii] 

An advertisement in the Dayton Daily News specifying in the need for an African American worker.

Following the FHA guidelines, banks created a color coded grid system for home mortgage applications. Districts that contained African Americans were color coded red and red shaded neighborhoods would be denied loans or face higher interest rates. The entirety of Westside Dayton was redlined.

Nonetheless the beginning of the twentieth century, The Westside had a booming commercial center all to its own. Black entrepreneurs saw the swelling population as a good business opportunity. They built theaters, community centers, and restaurants.[iv] But redlining also prevented neighborhoods access to food resources from the rest of Dayton. African Americans depended on the food markets downtowns. The closest and most welcoming of the downtown markets was the Arcade. There were an estimated 5,000 African American workers in Dayton by 1920, and the main food source was at the Arcade. Many of them would retrieve food daily on their way home from work.[v] Through most of its history, it appears that the owners and vendors of the Arcade welcomed African Americans. People of color would rather choose the Arcade because of its splendor, variety, goods, and hospitality. Entering through the Flemish façade on Third Street, they would pass through the arcade, or covered glass street, and arrive at the rotunda looming overhead. Many of these rural Southern immigrants would have been astonished by the sight.

The Great Depression worsened the economic situation for most Americans but especially African Americans. The appeal of Northern industrial centers grew during the thirties. Migration had accelerated rapidly during World War I and continued over the next two decades. At the same time, by World War II, the Arcade had become a central aspect to Dayton’s commercial downtown. The war fostered its prosperity. The flow of African Americans increased as their labor was needed to keep Dayton’s many factories working at full capacity to deliver the materials needed to win the war. As a result, during wartime, well-paying jobs in Dayton were plentiful.[vii] Once again, additional people of color fled the Deep South for the North and Midwest in search for economic opportunities.  The beginning of the war marked a new phase of migration out of the South. Sometimes called the Second Great Migration, it lasted until the the 1970s.

An Urban Oasis: Dayton’s Segregation Struggle, 1940-1970

Population growth made African Americans an increasingly important customer base for businesses in the downtown.

Despite their importance, African Americans did face discriminatory practices in Dayton’s downtown through the 1950s and 1960s. Grady Cross, one of the many Southerners that moved to Dayton in the 1940s, explained “Downtown Dayton was off-limits… you can’t get no jobs. Half the restaurants downtown didn’t want us in there. The only restaurant that didn’t give a dang, who didn’t treat you like dirt, was Frisch’s”.[viii] The other establishment was the Dayton Arcade.

Grady Cross, one of the many Southerners that moved to Dayton in the 1940s, explained “Downtown Dayton was off-limits… you can’t get no jobs. Half the restaurants downtown didn’t want us in there. The only restaurant that didn’t give a dang, who didn’t treat you like dirt, was Frisch’s”.[viii] The other establishment was the Dayton Arcade. Despite its early history of discrimination, by the postwar era the Dayton Arcade was known to be one of the more accepting businesses in downtown. Mr. Cross, for example, explained that one of his favorite Dayton restaurants was Culp’s Café in the Arcade. African Americans regularly visited the Arcade, he explained, during the period partly as a result of the wider discrimination they faced. Cross explains “First we only went in there because that was the biggest establishment downtown that we could eat. Sit down and eat”.[ix] There were plenty of stores at the Arcade that would accept people of color as well, including the shoe store and the pool, Cross added. In fact, as Cross points out, there were just as many shops with majority African American patrons as Caucasian patrons.[x]

Another African American interviewed for this study, George Sherer-Jose, said that the meat market did not allow for African Americans to sit down. They were allowed to stand at the counter and get their orders to go. As this example illustrates, some Arcade establishments followed discriminatory restrictions not uncommon during the 1940s and 1950s. At the Arcade African Americans were restricted from riding elevators. Many of the restrictions were de facto rather than de jure. Mr. Sherer explained that it was not the employees that would enforce this rule as much as the customers. 

Some customers, they would say something to you if you were caught sitting on one of those stools when they delivered a milkshake or something, the customers would remind you. Yep. They would remind you real quick… [Employees] let the customers do it, they didn’t. I can’t remember ever having somebody on that side of the counter say anything.[xi]

There seemed to be workplace discrimination in the Arcade as well. No records exist of minorities occupying customer service or managerial positions. In fact, it seems as if African Americans were only hired to do menial and janitorial work.[xii] Despite the de facto discrimination, by the 1950s African Americans saw the Arcade as one of the more accepting spaces in the city. As George Sherer explained, the downtown could be dangerous for African Americans, “As you look back on it, you just see something that makes you feel bad […] You had to be able to fight or run fast on Third Street”.[xiii]

Another African American, Cynthia Rand, remembers loving her visits to the Arcade. Her first memory of the Arcade revolved around the desire to live in its upstairs apartments. She liked the idea of living in Dayton’s vibrant downtown. Both she and Grady Cross were more than impressed of the glass dome, remembering it in great detail.[xiv] These positive memories were no doubt so vivid in the past because the Arcade was a place where African Americans felt free to eat and window shop. Teenagers would congregate there and it served as an essential market for all of West Dayton. As Grady Cross lamented, “Caucasians, they got better everything. They got groceries. They got the drugstore. They got the cleaners. They got the bars and grills and restaurants”.[xv] But as Cross explained in his interview, black Daytonians did have the Arcade. People of color saw it as one of the few places of refuge where they would be treated as a normal customer even though there was discriminatory tactics used in some of the establishments.

The Arcade and Civil Rights

During the 1960s the African American community in Dayton, enlarged by the Second Great Migration, began to demand social and economic equality. Many business owners continued to practice de facto segregation. African Americans continued to be limited to menial labor or service jobs. According to one study, in 1961, not a single African American was employed as a secretary or stenographer in the entire city.[xvi] At the Arcade, as elsewhere in the downtown, positions in direct customer service were usually barred to people of color as well.

In the mid-1950s, the Civil Rights Movement began to gain momentum. Dayton became a center for racial clashes, both civilly and violent. This was a national struggle by African Americans to end racial segregation and discrimination was led by reformers such as Martin Luther King Jr. famously advocated nonviolent civil disobedience to force change. Activist William Sumpter (W.S.) McIntosh led the demonstrations in Dayton during the ‘60s. McIntosh, an African American who started as a factory worker, became nationally recognized for challenging segregation in Dayton. In 1941 he led a protest over the segregated seating at his factories cafeteria which he argued made African Americans “second-class” citizens.[xvii]

McIntosh approved of Martin Luther King Jr’s stance of nonviolence and he continued to protest prejudice throughout the city. Protestors in Dayton utilized non-violent protests the most. The most well-known peaceful Civil Rights actions in Dayton during the 1960s was the Rike Department Store demonstration in 1963. The Rike’s Department Store protests began due to hiring discrimination. It was evident that the store hired whites in customer service, so McIntosh and other protested outside for weeks to call attention to these practices. Their actions were successful and Rike’s was forced to give all races equal consideration in the hiring process.

W. S. McIntosh holding a sign during the Rike’s Department Store demonstration.[xviii]

Moore’s comments also reflect the growing white backlash against Civil Rights demands of African Americans to be treated as equals. His fears that African Americans were seeking to “take over” emanated from white concern that they were losing white supremacy. 

Within three days a demonstration was arranged to peacefully protest the barbershop. McIntosh talked to the members of the shop leading to a mutual solution before the protest began. One week after the complaint, eleven African American males went into the barbershop asking for haircuts, and all were served. The conflict was resolved following one last conversation between Moore and McIntosh.[xxi]

Prior to the incident, president of the Arcade Market Co., Robert A. Shapiro, were aware of the barbershop discriminatory practices. He refused to take action. In the press, he denied fault saying the barbershop resided in a building but was not owned by the Arcade.[xxii] In a practice not atypical business owners and civic leaders used technicalities to avoid blame.

Despite this example of discrimination, the Arcade remained one of the only safe options to African Americans in the downtown and many visited it without incident. Cynthia Rand adamantly explained that she did not face any discrimination at the Arcade.[xxiv] By the later 1960s, when she would go there, it appears that de facto restrictions prohibiting African Americans to visiting some of the establishments were no longer in practice. People of color were welcome to all parts of the sprawling marketplace.

Despite the relative acceptance of African Americans at the Arcade, other racial conflicts in the city had a negative impact on the Arcade. Racial tensions in the city grew during the 1960s as black demands for equal treatment grew and whites like Moore were willing to use force to stop change. There were many racial clashes in Dayton in the 1960s. Racial discrimination has been occurring throughout Dayton for decades. Police harassment and abuse was rampant in West Dayton. In one example, Sherer-Jose described an incident when he and his sister were followed by the police to their house for no reason. He was arrested on his front porch and nearly sentenced to juvenile detention.

This constant discrimination towards the minority population created a pressure in the city that exploded on September 1, 1966. On that day, Lester Mitchell, an African American in West Dayton was shot and killed while sweeping his front porch by what was reported to be a car full of white men. Whether a random act of violence or a racially motivated murder, it that sparked the worst race riots in the city’s history.[xxvi] The riots lasted for weeks and resulted in harsh police crackdown. Unfortunately, there was not a resolution to the situation. Instead, the city decided that fierce police interference and continued increased presence in West Dayton in the subsequent months was an adequate way of dispelling the riots.[xxvii] The aftershocks of the riots has created deep racial divisions within the city. 

Racial Discrimination and Decline of the Arcade

These events, because it celebrated the “white flight” to the suburbs, hurt the Arcade immensely. The first shopping center developed in the suburbs occurred in 1947, but it became commonplace by the 1960s.[xxviii] The access to automobiles was important in this

development, and the promise of free and easy parking was a devastating strategy to the Arcade. No longer was there a need for a central marketplace when the customer base no longer lived in the city and services were provided to them in their new communities outside the city. White Americans used these developments to segregate themselves from African Americans. Denied mortgages that would allow African Americans to move to the suburbs urban centers like Dayton became increasingly black.

De facto discriminant practices in housing kept African Americans from moving to the suburbs in Dayton such as Oakwood, Kettering, and Centerville. Many African Americans also did not own vehicles. At the same time home purchases by blacks drove whites to leave. For example, Sherer-Jose during the 1960s when buying a house was known as a “block buster”, when real estate agents would intentionally sell a house to an African American family so that “white flight” would occur in the neighborhood. White families would leave in droves so the real estate agents could sell more properties.[xxix]

Development of the interstate highway system also played a role. The construction of I-75 split the city in two, separating the African American population in West Dayton from the Arcade downtown. In the process, much of the vibrant business and culture in West Dayton were destroyed due to the new interstate system. Grady Cross explains the insertion of I-75 in West Dayton as, “They came through there and they bought up all the land of the people on [Spragg, Bank, and Sunshine]… tore the whole West Side up… They tore my mother’s damn house down to put that up there”.[xxx] During the construction from 1956 to 1964, the West Side was almost entirely severed from the other side of the river, further dividing the already very segregated city.

The building of the highways were interconnected to other efforts to revitalize Dayton with urban redevelopment programs. They did this by razing African American neighborhoods. The first example at this was Dayton officials proudly declaring they were “successfully changing the face of a slum” and creating Dayton Tower.[xxxi] The Dayton Tower is the tallest building in the Dayton skyline. There was originally going to be identical towers, but funding ran out. Since the first tower had already been built, they decided to keep it. 

Throughout the 1960s the city demolished low-income housing to build convention centers, government buildings, business centers, and hotels. The impact was often contrary to the goal. Rather than revitalizate the downtown it pushed people who lived, worked, and supported business away. This development disproportionately impacted African Americans. As many homes downtown and in West Dayton were demolished, business sectors dependent on people who lived in them became stagnant. Building the highways cut off from the rest of the city by I-75. These developments had significant impacts on the Arcade. Because of the highway, it was increasingly difficult for African Americans to go to the Arcade. These developments suffocated downtown Dayton and the Arcade with it. Without customers, there was no longer a need for its food marketplace. 

The developments in Dayton were taking place as a part of a general decline across the U.S. during the late 1970s. Unemployment in Dayton rose to 7% in 1978 and peaked at 11% in 1982. Some cities ley business began to shrink and this economic decline affected the downtown the most. To counteract these developments, the Arcade management decided to pump in a lot of money to revitalize its future through remodeling efforts. They lowered the floor under the rotunda and created a food court.

This was a poor time to pour money into the Arcade with little customer base to support it. Since unemployment was high, there was a scramble by contractors to receive orders to work on the sprawlina g complex. Once again, the racial foundation of many of these troubles itself. African American contractors were not fairly included. Black contractors filed a suit in 1978 stating that no minority companies being chosen for contracts displayed discriminatory labor preference.[xxxii] This suit was eventually dismissed, but the African American contractors appealed to the Dayton City Commission for them to allocate 45% of the $7.6 million renovation to minority owned businesses. This appeal failed as well. Instead, the City Commission voted to allow a $73,000 a year tax abatement to the Arcade Square Ltd. instead.[xxxiii] Feeling unheard, the Black Contractors Association then asked for the city to retract the abatement for the white owners of the Arcade. They argued that the failure of the partnership that 45% minority business participation is not only should not be rewarded, but cannot be tolerated. Again, the city denied the request and went forward with the abatement.[xxx] African American contractors tried other methods to become part of the Arcade renovation project. The minority owned construction firm, Madden Inc. attempted to join a white owned firm. Though they advertised their name around the city, they had no offers.[xxxiv] So the renovation project for the Arcade in 1978 had no African American involvement.

Dayton Daily News, July 12, 1978.

The remodel added new attraction to the Arcade. They refurbished over 100,000 square feet of retail space. Along with the created food court, attractions such as the new merchants returning and a state of the art ATM were being added. But the decline of the downtown as a whole guaranteed to undermine efforts to save the complex.

Vagrancy also became a major problem for the Arcade as it was declining. Homeless would congregate around the area of the Arcade and sleep in its alleyways. They did their best to curb these tendencies, including walls to prevent people sleeping, but a stigma around the Arcade persisted with the belief that the area was unsafe.[xxxv] There were rumors of drug use in the alley, attacks, and other forms of crime.[xxxvi] In the end, this along with the failed renovation of 1978 spelled the end of the Arcade as we knew it. Construction made many shop owners leave and many never returned, the area became crime ridden, and patrons were dissuaded by stories of crime.

Conclusion

The story of the relationship between the Arcade and Dayton’s African American community is one of reliance. Growing together through the Industrial Boom, two Great Migrations, and World War II, the African American community proved to be a vital consumer base for the Arcade. And for people of color this was a place not only of practicality, but leisure, pleasure, and refuge. Even though faced with segregational discrimination during the first half of the twentieth century, it was minor compared to treatment given at the other stores in downtown. By and large, African Americans were treated equally in the space. People of color, and whites as well, stopped going to the Arcade as urban decay began to take hold. Numerous white families fled the downtown area for the suburbs by the 1970s, department stores there began to fulfill their needs, and African Americans in West Dayton were effectively cut off due to the construction of the interstate highways. Urban revitalization continued the decline because minorities living downtown were moved out in favor of other real estate endeavors. This further dropped the customer base of the Arcade, and it led to disarray. Vagrancy became common, and the stigma of the area being unsafe degraded the marketplace even further. But still, to this day, the Arcade is still looked upon fondly by African Americans who were able to witness its opulence at its height.

Endnotes 

[i] Marjorie Loyacano, The History of Race Relations in Miami Valley, ed. Margaret Peters and Fred Bartenstein (Dayton: unknown publication, 2000), 14-15.

[ii] Townsand Price-Spratlen, “Livin’ for the City: African American Ethnogenesis and Depression Era Migration,” Demography 36, no. 4 (Nov. 1999): 553.

[iii] Unknown Author, “Charge Not Sustained,” Dayton Herald, March 25, 1910, 9.

[iv] Loyacano, The History of Race Relations in Miami Valley, 16.

[v]  Ibid., 14.

[vi] Lewis Wallace, “New ‘Socially Responsible Banking’ Ordinance Pressures Dayton Banks to Reinvest,” WYSO, May 12, 2015.

[vii] Loyacano, The History of Race Relations in Miami Valley, 17.

[viii] Grady Cross, “Dayton Arcade Interview,” interview by J. Todd Uhlman, University of Dayton Arcade Project, 17:30.

[ix] Ibid., 19:10.

[x] Ibid., 20:20.

[xi] George Sherer-Jose, “Dayton Arcade Interview,” interview by Chris Koester and Hannah Kratofil, University of Dayton Arcade Project, 24:10-24:44.

[xii] Ibid.

[xiii] Ibid.

[xiv] Grady Cross and Cynthia Rand, “Dayton Arcade Interview,” interview by J. Todd Uhlman, University of Dayton Arcade Project, 52:00.

[xv] Ibid., 18:00.

[xvi] Loyacano, The History of Race Relations in Miami Valley, 16.

[xvii] Ibid., 15.

[xviii] Unknown Photographer, “W. S. McIntosh at Rike’s Demonstration,” 1962. Courtesy of Wright State University’s Archives and Special Collections.

[xiv] Unknown Author, “Arcade Mart Not Party to Bad Haircut,” Dayton Daily News, April 17, 1964, 33.

[xx] George Gilbert, “Gouged Hair: Barber Figures He Fixed Negro,” Dayton Daily News, April 12, 1964, 10-A.

[xxi] Bill Clements, “11 Negro Haircuts Erase Threat of Demonstration,” Dayton Daily News, April 19, 1964, 11-A.

[xxii] Unknown Author, “Arcade Mart Not Party to Bad Haircut,” Dayton Daily News, April 17, 1964, 33.

[xxiii] Unknown Photographer, “W. S. McIntosh, Arcade Barbershop,” April 18, 1964. Courtesy of Wright State University’s Archives and Special Collections.

[xxiv] Cynthia Rand, “Dayton Arcade Interview,” interview by J. Todd Uhlman, University of Dayton Arcade Project, 52:00.

[xxv] Unknown Photographer, “Dayton Race Riots,” The Dayton Jewish Observer. August 25, 2016.

[xxvi] Josh Sweigart, “Special Report: Lasting Scars,” Dayton Daily News, 2016.

[xxvii] Ibid.

[xxviii] Virginia and Bruce Ronald, The Lands Between the Miamis: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Dayton Area (Dayton: Landfall Press, 1996), 326.

[xxix] George Sherer-Jose, “Dayton Arcade Interview,” interview by Chris Koester and Hannah Kratofil, University of Dayton Arcade Project.

[xxx] Grady Cross, “Dayton Arcade Interview,” interview by J. Todd Uhlman, University of Dayton Arcade Project, 18:00.

[xxxi] Steven Avdakov, Ohio Modern: Preserving Our Recent Past: Dayton and Surrounding Area Survey Report (Dayton: Ohio Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historical Society, 2010), 58.

[xxxii] Josephine Marcotty, “Black Contractors’ Suit Against City on Arcade Work Dismissed,” Dayton Daily News, Jan. 12, 1978, 1.

[xxxiii] Bette Owens, “Black Contractors’ Appeals Fail, Arcade Tax Abatement Gets OK,” Dayton Daily News, Mar. 2, 1978, 1.

[xxxiv] Wes Hills, “Black Contractor Group Asks City to Deny tax Abatement for Arcade,” Dayton Daily News, Nov. 9, 1978, 11.

[xxxv] Unknown Author, “Black Builder Favors Joining White Firm in Arcade Bid,” Dayton Daily News, July 12, 1978, 2.

[xxxvi] Dale Huffman, “’Wino Wall’ Rising,” Dayton Daily News, May 30, 1975, 15.

[xxxvii] Bob Batz, “Arcade Loiterer Unshaken by ‘No Loitering’ Sign,” Dayton Daily News, August 18, 1972, 17.

Bibliography

Avdakov, Steven. Ohio Modern: Preserving Our Recent Past: Dayton and Surrounding Area Survey Report. Dayton: Ohio Historic Preservation Office of the Ohio Historical Society, 2010.

Batz, Bob. “Arcade Loiterer Unshaken by ‘No Loitering’ Sign.” Dayton Daily News, August 18, 1972.

Clements, Bill. “11 Negro Haircuts Erase Threat of Demonstration.” Dayton Daily News, April 19, 1964.

Cross, Grady and Cynthia Rand. “Dayton Arcade Interview.” Interview by J. Todd Uhlman. University of Dayton Arcade Project, unknown date. Audio. https://arcade.daytonhistoryproject.org/oral-interviews/

Gilbert, George. “Gouged Hair: Barber Figures He Fixed Negro.” Dayton Daily News, April 12, 1964.

Hills, Wes. “Black Contractor Group Asks City to Deny tax Abatement for Arcade.” Dayton Daily News, Nov. 9, 1978.

Huffman, Dale. “’Wino Wall’ Rising.” Dayton Daily News, May 30, 1975.

Loyacano, Marjorie. The History of Race Relations in Miami Valley, edited by Margaret Peters and Fred Bartenstein. Dayton: unknown publication, 2000.

Marcotty, Josephine. “Black Contractors’ Suit Against City on Arcade Work Dismissed.” Dayton Daily News, Jan. 12, 1978.

Owens, Bette. “Black Contractors’ Appeals Fail, Arcade Tax Abatement Gets OK.” Dayton  Daily News, Mar. 2, 1978.

Price-Spratlen, Townsand. “Livin’ for the City: African American Ethnogenesis and Depression Era Migration.” Demography 36, no. 4 (Nov. 1999): 553-568.

Ronald, Virginia and Bruce. The Lands Between the Miamis: A Bicentennial Celebration of the Dayton Area. Dayton: Landfall Press, 1996.

Sherer-Jose, George. “Dayton Arcade Interview.” Interview by Chris Koester and Hannah Kratofil. University of Dayton Arcade Project, March 3, 2020. https://arcade.daytonhistoryproject.org/oral-interviews/

Sweigart, Josh. “Special Report: Lasting Scars.” Dayton Daily News, 2016. https://www.daytondailynews.com/data/special-projects/lasting-scars/

Unknown Author. “Arcade Mart Not Party to Bad Haircut.” Dayton Daily News, April 17, 1964.

Unknown Author. “Black Builder Favors Joining White Firm in Arcade Bid.” Dayton Daily  News, July 12, 1978.

Unknown Author. “Charge Not Sustained.” Dayton Herald, March 25, 1910.

 .