In free Ohio in the early 1800s, Black people are prohibited by law from speaking in courtrooms where a white person is a party. Black property owners pay taxes but their children are not allowed to attend school. Racial tensions run high in southern Ohio, where white workers fear losing their jobs to people escaping enslavement in the South.

On this day in 1836, in Cincinnati, an underground railroad stop across the Ohio River from Kentucky, a mob of white people enters the Little Africa neighborhood, attacks Black people, forces people to leave their homes and burns homes and businesses. An unknown number of Black people are killed. The governor declares martial law to quell the riot. White mobs will riot again in a few months and again in 5 years.