Bertha Calloway: Preserving History, Building Legacy
Bertha Calloway
Legacy Maker | North Omaha, Nebraska
Story by Aniya Porter
Bertha Calloway devoted her life to preserving and sharing the rich history of African Americans in Nebraska. She was born in Denver, Colo., and moved to Omaha in 1946 at the age of 21. Her early experiences shaped a lifelong passion for community activism, historical research, and education.
As a young woman, Calloway was an alumna of Colorado’s Camp Nizhoni, an institution that served African American families across the Midwest for more than 50 years, offering outdoor recreation and community building. She later attended Langston University in Oklahoma, Creighton University in the late 1940s, Howard University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Nebraska at Omaha later in life.
Although she did not formally graduate from these institutions, she received multiple honorary degrees in recognition of her work. Calloway often spoke about the absence of African American history in traditional curricula and pursued her own self-directed study of Black history, particularly the history of African Americans in the West, including Black cowboys, homesteaders, and soldiers whose stories were largely omitted from textbooks of that era.
During her time in Omaha, she was involved with the DePorres Club at Creighton University, a pioneering civil rights group working for racial equality. She was also active in the NAACP for many years and later ensured that the organization’s local history was preserved through exhibits and archival work connected to the museum she founded.
In 1965, Calloway founded the Negro History Society. She later established the Great Plains Black History Museum as a resource for the community, dedicated to preserving and presenting the history of African American in Nebraska and the Great Plains region. The museum reflects her long-stated belief that Black history has been withheld from mainstream narratives.
Her contributions were formally recognized over time. In 1999, the Nebraska State Historical Society honored Calloway with the Addison E. Sheldon Memorial Award for her work in preserving and interpreting Nebraska history. She also received the Carter G. Woodson Award from the National Education Association for her leadership in promoting Black history and culture. In 2016, a portion of Lake Street in North Omaha was renamed Bertha Calloway Street, a lasting symbol of her impact on the city she loved.
Bertha Calloway’s legacy reminds us that history is more than dates and events, it is the stories we preserve and pass on. Through her vision and dedication, the African American experience in Nebraska remains alive, honored, and accessible for generations to come.
Know a Black community leader whose story should be told? Nominate them by emailing office@lozafina.com.
