In a Springfield Haitian Restaurant, Love—and Goat—Conquer Hate

To the west of Columbus, meanwhile, is Springfield. There, a home built in 1850—the Gammon House, after owners George and Sarah Gammon—played a crucial role during the Civil War as a stop on the Underground Railroad. While some runaway slaves continued north, others set down roots in and around the Springfield area, which over the decades has held some important distinctions in the Black community. In 1875, Springfield-based Wittenberg University admitted its first Black student. Less than 20 miles south of the city is Wilberforce University, founded in 1856 as the nation’s first private historically Black university. Near to that school is the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center. And in 1966, Springfield’s City Commission appointed Robert Henry as the first Black mayor in Ohio.

Even so, Springfield has hardly been without racial conflict.

In March 1904, a mob of white residents stormed the jail and seized Richard Dixon, a Black man accused of killing a police officer. The mob killed Dixon, strung up his body from a pole and continued shooting the corpse, then destroyed and burned Black neighborhoods in the city. Two years later, an altercation between a white man and a Black man sparked another riot, with a white mob burning down a significant portion of a Black neighborhood.