OmahaNebraska.com here with…
Rodrigo Ramirez Sanchez.
Tell me a little bit about yourself, how you came to work on the project, and your project.
So a little bit about myself: I’m a junior now. I worked on this project about three years ago. In middle school, certain people got chosen to be part of this program going into freshman year, and I was one of the lucky ones to get elected for this. My project was the Walker Hotel. That’s the one I researched about. Being a part of this program made me realize how much history Omaha has. And growing up in North Omaha, knowing all this stuff happened in my neighborhood, and now as a junior taking Omaha history, I see that all this history in Omaha is pretty interesting, more that I live in North Omaha. So I’m really fortunate to be able to be a part of this exhibit.
How did you do the research?
I didn’t really know a lot about the history of Omaha until this program. and we researched it on websites and stuff, and we went on a field trip to visit where the Blackburn is right now, where the Walker Hotel was, and we’ve seen different sites and all this. And after we finished our little project, and then, yeah, that’s pretty much how I finished the whole project.
You mentioned earlier that this changed your life and had an impact. What was that?
It really did, because now I know everything back then, it wasn’t easy for colored people and stuff. And North and South Omaha just have a lot of history, and that’s places I’m always around. So yes, and it made me realize there’s a lot of history in Omaha and there’s still more for me to learn about Omaha.
It’s amazing how much the history is in the city. I’ve been delving into it a little bit. But wow, you just keep going and keep going. What are you thinking of for maybe a future project to work on?
Future project? I would have to see and learn a little bit more about Omaha and maybe write a little something about another project or something.
What takeaway can you give people for the project that you worked on? And what would you like people to know or remember?
The Walker Hotel was one of the most popular in the Green Book traveling guide. It was one of the more popular ones. It was a motel and a restaurant, I believe. Downstairs it was a restaurant and then upstairs was the motel. I hope all this history keeps on going forward for other kids to learn about it and stuff.
