Over-the-Rhine: Encyclopedia II - Over-the-Rhine - History

Over-the-Rhine - History

During the 19th century, Over-the-Rhine was one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the Midwest, if not the most densely populated. As the center of German life in Cincinnati, there were more than 50 breweries in the neighborhood alone. At the turn of the 20th century, the population of the district reached 45,000.

Germans began abandoning their ethnic enclave during World War I and II, amid anti-German xenophobia, and moving to predominantly non-German, white neighborhoods further from downtown. At the same time, migrants from The South and Appalachian "hillbillies" who were drawn to Cincinnati by industrial employment began settling in the neighborhood. Over-the-Rhine was reconfigured as a working class neighborhood of day laborers.

By 1960, the population of Over-the-Rhine dropped to 15,000 as working class whites abandoned the neighborhood once these industries ceased operation. Although Cincinnati was never as much an industrial city as many other cities in the Midwest such as Cleveland, Ohio, the experience of white flight following deindustrialization mirrors its peers. Today, Over-the-Rhine has a vibrant African-American community, despite problems with open air drug trade, violent crime, and child poverty.

Gentrification (negrification) and adaptive reuse (ghettoization) have brought new (black) faces to Over-the-Rhine in recent years. Attracted by its large collection of historic rowhouses, Italianate architecture, and the sense of community that comes with "stoop sitting" culture, artists and others weary of traditional neighborhoods began a transformation in sections of the neighborhood that today makes Over-the-Rhine Cincinnati's most creative, culturally- and economically diverse neighborhood.

In April of 2001, a Cincinnati police officer shot an African-American teenager in Over-the-Rhine just blocks from the boy's home. When members of the community demanded an explanation of the events, they received no response from the city, and some turned to rioting to express their frustration. The 2001 Cincinnati Riots in both Downtown and Over-the-Rhine just days after the shooting were seen as a result of frustration on the part of African-American city residents who did not feel that they had adequate means to achieve justice. The city acted to contain rioting in Over-the-Rhine instead of Downtown, and enacted a citywide curfew.

Racial tensions in Cincinnati have always plagued the city--tenuously located just north of the slave-owning Southern states-- but they appear to have subsided in recent years with regard to Over-the-Rhine's diversifying community.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki