Edward Danner (February 14, 1900 – January 1, 1970) was a butcher and state legislator in Nebraska. A member of the

Nebraska state legislature The Nebraska Legislature (also called the Unicameral) is the legislature of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln. With 49 members, known as "senators", the Nebraska Legislature is the sma ...

from 1963 until his death in 1970, he represented

North Omaha North Omaha is a community area in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States. It is bordered by Cuming and Dodge Streets on the south, Interstate 680 on the north, North 72nd Street on the west and the Missouri River and Carter Lake, Iowa on the ...

in the state senate. The only African American state senator in Nebraska at the time, he advocated for civil rights and equal protection under the law. He was a Democrat.

Personal life

Danner was born in Guthrie,

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

, in 1900. He settled in Omaha.

Career

Danner worked as a butcher in South Omaha for Swift & Co. He was a field representative and a vice president of the United Packinghouse Workers of America, Local 47, which represented laborers in the meat packing industry. Danner was a Nebraska state senator beginning in 1963, representing

. He was the only

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

senator during the civil rights era. Many of the legislative issues Danner worked on included bills decriminalizing interracial marriage and working to create laws to have fair housing enacted in Omaha. In June 1963, Danner spoke at Nebraska's first civil rights march in Lincoln. Danner died in office in 1970. Governor Norbert Tiemann appointed George W. Althouse to serve the remainder of his term.

Personal life

Edward Danner had a child in San Francisco before he married. Danner married Emogene Danner. He had nine children.

References

External links

Interview with Anna Danner
about her brother Senator Edward Danner, Nebraska Black Oral History Project, digitized by Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska at Omaha Libraries; original held by History Nebraska. African-American state legislators in Nebraska Nebraska state senators 1900 births 1970 deaths People from Guthrie, Oklahoma 20th-century members of the Nebraska Legislature 20th-century African-American politicians {{Nebraska-politician-stub