The Long School neighborhood was established in 1868 and is bounded by Lake Street on the north, Hamilton Street on the south, North 24th Street on the east, and North 30th Street on the west. The neighborhood is named after Eben Knapp Long of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Omaha Public School board because of his involvement with city operations. In addition to having a neighborhood named in his honor, an elementary school called the Long School was named after him. Built at 2520 Franklin Street in 1893, the school attracted a variety of working-class ethnic groups to join the neighborhood, including Scandinavians, Jews, and African-Americans. After the influx of residents moving to the neighborhood, many small businesses, often Jewish owned, began to line up along 24th Street, providing everyday amenities for residents. These businesses were all in close proximity to one another, ensuring that residents did not have to travel far to meet their needs. This also ensured that money and resources stayed within the community and kept the area vibrant and thriving. Residents could board the Omaha streetcar at 24th and Franklin and ride to Lake Street to visit a variety of clubs for entertainment or walk to meet their shopping and practical needs; they had access to everything they needed.
At the turn of the 20th century, however, the neighborhood began to decline due to a pattern of white flight and red-lining. Real estate agents would tell white residents that their neighborhood was going to be taken over and run down by African-Americans, and then encourage them to sell their houses for cheap and flee the area. White residents fled not only their homes, but their businesses. In addition to businesses and home-owners leaving the area, black residents were being prevented from leaving North Omaha because of the insurance discrimination they would face if they tried to move outside of the lines drawn up by the city. Black residents essentially found themselves trapped into a community that the city lost interest in. Furthermore, Long School, along with the rest of North Omaha, was troubled by several different events of racial unrest. Riots incited by multiple cases of police brutality and lynchings led to several buildings being burned by protesters, many of which were left as empty lots or vacant buildings. These riots accelerated the process of neighborhood decline initiated by red-lining and discrimination. Without accessibility to amenities, more residents fled along with businesses, leaving behind economic and social distress in the neighborhood.
