Black Memories of the Dayton Arcade: Race and the Ambivalent Legacy of a Beloved Building

Dayton’s Arcade and the city’s African American community have been intertwined since the complex’s opening in 1904. People of color have played a central role throughout the history of the Arcade. The decade before the Great Migration brought thousands of southern African Americans to Dayton. The food markets and retail shops located at the Arcade complex became a vital destination for many because it was located near the West Side neighborhoods, where African Americans were often forced to settle because of housing practices in the city. It was also located between the various places African Americans worked, such as the factories on the eastern side of the city, and the neighborhoods in which they lived. As a result, circumstances led many African Americans to pass through the Arcade on a daily basis. As the decades passed, black patronage became increasingly important to the Arcade because the city’s white population moved in large numbers to the suburbs. Dayton has had, and continues to have, a long, notorious history as a segregated city. Many downtown businesses restricted black employment and discouraged black customers. At the Arcade, black visitors encountered less of the discrimination than they did elsewhere in the city. To be sure, the African American experience of the Arcade was riven with contradictions. Establishments within the Arcade practiced segregation. For a long period, de facto segregation prevented African Americans from sitting, riding the elevator, or trying on clothes at some establishments in the Arcade. However, the Arcade was viewed by many African Americans as more welcoming than other places