When I moved to Iowa City 25 years ago, one of the first things I did to familiarize myself with my new surroundings was visit the African American Museum of Iowa (AAMI) in Cedar Rapids. I only had two pieces of Black Iowa history under my belt: Lametta Wynn was the first Black mayor of […]
Racial justice
Posted inCommunity/News
Rob Howe: What we overlook when we celebrate Kirk Ferentz’s wins
Beth Goetz stepped to the Kinnick Stadium podium Saturday night with an announcement for Hawkeye Nation. “I gotta take the opportunity on behalf of the athletic department, the University of Iowa and all Hawkeyes to congratulate Coach on this monumental achievement.” Iowa’s athletic director was speaking for a whole lot of people, curious for someone […]
Posted inCommunity/News
This Juneteenth comes at a critical moment for freedom, truth and civil rights protections in Iowa
“All Quad Citizens Come Celebrate Freedom,” the posters said, inviting people to a two-day celebration of Juneteenth in Davenport in 1989. The street-fest that year on Saturday, June 17 and the history-themed event on Sunday, June 18 made up the first community celebration in Iowa of Juneteenth to grow into an annual event. Thirty-five years […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Drake University expands diversity, equity, inclusion and justice programs as public universities shrink theirs
As colleges and universities across Iowa are being encouraged, or even required, to restructure or eliminate diversity, equity, inclusion and justice programs, Drake University is expanding and promoting its efforts. Drake officials say the university is continuing its decade-long work of expanding DEI efforts on campus with a new initiative to foster a greater sense […]
Posted inStatewide
Report: Black Iowans are incarcerated at nine times the rate of white residents
Iowa has one of the country’s worst rates of racial disparities in prison and jail populations, according to a new study from a think tank focused on criminal justice issues. The analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), a nonpartisan Massachusetts-based nonprofit, found Iowa in a four-way tie as one of the states with the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Four historic sites illuminate Iowa’s role in the Underground Railroad
For the enslaved people in Missouri and Kansas before the Civil War, the path to freedom often ran through Iowa. The crisis of 1820 over how far slavery should be allowed to expand in the territories of the United States acquired in the Louisiana Purchase had set the northern limit for slavery at the border […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Before I-235, Des Moines’ Center Street district was a bastion of Black commerce and culture
By the time its final section opened to traffic in late 1968, I-235 was already part of the fabric of Des Moines. Cutting across the city and running just north of downtown, it’s the most traveled roadway in Iowa. But like many stretches of highway built through cities, the construction of I-235 did damage that […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘We are under spiritual attack’: How Iowa’s anti-mask parents became a GOP force — and why they’re leveraging their power to ban books
This month, central Iowa parents seeking to have books they deem “pornographic” removed from school libraries prepared to kick things up a notch. A few of the parents crafted a letter to send to Polk County Attorney John Sarcone, asking for a criminal investigation of the West Des Moines Community School District. “On a continuous […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Johnson County’s Juneteenth balanced past and present, education and celebration
Best of the CRANDIC 2021 winner of Best Cultural Event Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers sailed into Galveston, Texas, and read aloud the order freeing the state’s quarter-million slaves. The occasion has long been commemorated by Black Southerners, and the first local Juneteenth festival was organized by LaTasha DeLoach in 2011. Iowa […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Freedom School aims to empower the next generation of Black leaders in Waterloo
Nikole Hannah-Jones describes herself as “just a girl from Waterloo.” But her career suggests so much more. Hannah-Jones was the recipient of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for her introductory essay to The New York Times’ The 1619 Project, which discussed slavery as foundational in American history and its legacy seen today in U.S. […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Great Plains Action Society unites Indigenous Midwesterners to seek justice for state violence, past and present
Sikowis Nobiss has two kids at home, both in elementary school. She has a full-time job and volunteers on Iowa City’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “Ugh, trying to deal with COVID and just keep the house clean? That’s my day today,” she said. Nobiss is the founder of Great Plains Action Society (GPAS), a nonprofit […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City Bike Library focuses summer rides on racial justice, ‘the power of the bicycle’
In early July 2021, the Iowa City Bike Library is releasing the first in a series of four bike rides touring the Iowa City area intended to create awareness of calls to action in the community. The Raise It Up Rides are audio-guided routes visiting points of interest relating to racial inequities, identifying systems of […]
