AFRICAN AMERICANS

AFRICAN AMERICANS. In 1840 seventy-two African Americans lived in Dubuque giving the city Iowa's largest black population. Years affected this ranking. By 1980 Dubuque ranked eighth in the United States in the category "smallest metropolitan black population." In April 1983, Dubuque's population was 99.7 percent white with African Americans making up .25 percent of the population.

African American history has involved Dubuque since the city's earliest days. In 1839 the case of RALPH was the second issue argued before the Iowa Supreme Court. The positive resolution of the case was clouded less than a year later when Nathaniel Morgan, a local resident, was beaten to death by a mob of whites that accused him of stealing a trunk of clothes. The mob members were acquitted of murder. The court ruled they had not intended to kill Morgan.

In 1844 Edward LANGWORTHY, at the state constitutional convention, asked the other delegates to pass his proposal that the legislature prevent black and mulatto settlement in the state. The measure was adopted but removed at a later meeting. Dubuque residents were the only Iowans to admit to census takers that they owned slaves. George Wallace JONES claimed to be Dubuque's largest slaveholder by owning one male and three females.

Iowa counties along the MISSISSIPPI RIVER, except Dubuque, experienced growth in their African American population from decade to decade. The population of African Americans in Dubuque by 1850 dropped to 9 percent. Contributing to this decline were the tirades of Dennis MAHONY, editor of the Dubuque Herald and a strong southern advocate. Mahony often wrote editorials supporting the right of southern states to secede and urging freed slaves to return to Africa.

The Dubuque Herald on April 23, 1861 carried the following editorial:

         Free Blacks Coming North. The boats from St. Louis last Saturday 
         had several hundred free Negroes aboard, seeking homes in the 
         "Land of the Free." A public notice was given last week that all
         free blacks must leave that city and State in five days. This 
         caused a very dark colored stampede. We are glad that only a very 
         few stopped at Dubuque. 

The following editorial appeared first in the LaCrosse Democrat but was reprinted in the Dubuque Herald Mar. 16, 1862. [Note: An inflammatory word has been removed so that the editorial can appear here].

         All for the {Word Removed}  We have figured out the 
         cost of the present war in cash to date, and find that 
         the Government has already expended enough money to
         purchase every {word removed} in the United States 
         and to furnish each one with a flannel shirt, a copy 
         of the New York Tribune, and a quill tooth pick. 
         Nothing like meddling with that which is none of our 
         business.

This local advertisement was found inside the front cover of an 1879 edition of McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader.

In their first recorded march in Dubuque, African Americans and their supporters paraded through Dubuque on April 22, 1870, celebrating passage of the 15th Amendment giving former slaves rights of citizenship. In 1877 a group of black parents petitioned the Board of Education in Dubuque to send their children to public schools. The board voted against the parents, but the district court overturned the ruling. The all-black school was closed, and some of the local schools became integrated.

In November 1893, an all-black play, "Among the Breakers," was performed by members of the African American community in Dubuque. A drama critic of the Dubuque Herald commented that the play moved along smoothly and that Joe Norris, as a light housekeeper, did very well. The critic went on to say, however, that he would have "preferred to see Norris in swallow tail coat and white tie receiving visitors in one of Dubuque's finest homes."

The black population in Dubuque by 1920 had dropped to 75. The MINING and shipping industries may have played only a small part in the movement of blacks out of the area. The first cross burnings of the KU KLUX KLAN began in 1923. A huge gathering of Klan members was held off Peru Road in 1925. In 1926 the Klan marched through Dubuque and held another huge Konklave, a mass meeting of their membership, off Peru Road.

WORLD WAR II did not bring racial equality although there were improvements thanks to the efforts of Eleanor Roosevelt. The Double V logo was designed by Wilbert L. Holloway, a Pittsburgh Courier staff artist in 1942. The logo, playing upon the V for victory campaign during the war was aimed at promoting victory in the war ... and racial equality at home. African American newspapers across the United States quickly endorsed the campaign and it became a nationwide phenomenon. Lapel pins, stickers, songs and posters promoting the Double V became popular emblems of support.

Logo

By the summer of 1942, more than 200,000 individuals paid a nickel each to join Double V clubs. The clubs held rallies and marches to promote the contributions of African Americans in military service and draw attention to discrimination. The Pittsburgh Courier management saw the paper's circulation soar from 200,000 weekly readers to over 2 million by the end of the war.

Even as the movement gained public support, the federal government had a different reaction to the campaign's success. African American newspapers were banned from the libraries of the U. S. Military and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) sought to try American publishers for treason.

The reaction of the federal government to American publishers mirrored their reaction to African American sailors who went on strike at Port Chicago in southern San Francisco Bay. African Americans who volunteered for the Navy were given jobs loading ammunition aboard ships without being trained in the loading equipment. Increasing the danger was the fact that two ships were docked side by side while sailors were forced to race to see which ship could be loaded quicker. On July 17, 1944, an explosion rocked San Francisco Bay after an accident occurred at the naval yard. The disaster killed 320 sailors and civilians. One month later, fifty African American sailors on strike protesting the lack of any new safety procedures were found guilty of treason and sentenced to up to eighteen years in prison. News of the conviction and the government's campaign against the Double V program would have necessarily made its way to Dubuque through African American publications printed in the state.

Only a few black families lived in Dubuque during the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s only two blacks attended WAHLERT HIGH SCHOOL.

In March 1969, Black Student Union members charged LORAS COLLEGE with institutional racism. Among their demands were the removal of the basketball coach and the introduction of African American studies. In May 1969, a Holy Day Mass was disrupted by protesters in support of the Black Student Union. Demands escalated into threats to begin an anti-recruitment drive to convince African Americans not to attend the college.

In November, with an off-campus African American cultural center a primary demand, angry students barricaded themselves inside Henion Hall. When students involved in the protest were expelled, an estimated one hundred protesters from across the Midwest converged on Dubuque. Seven hours of negotiations led to the students being readmitted to the college under probation. On November 18, 1969, the student body voted "no confidence" in the administration.

Efforts to calm the tense racial atmosphere in Dubuque led the Iowa Civil Rights Commission on December 28,1969, to investigate charges that African American students had been beaten and were carrying weapons in self-defense. In 1970 Dwight BACHMAN became Dubuque's first civil rights director.

African American students attending the UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE in 1973 were angered by the suspension of A. J. Stovall, a student accused of assaulting a university official during an argument over a check. African American students demonstrated by blocking the passage to some classes. Stovall was reinstated after a hearing board determined that the administration had violated his due process.

In December 1982, an estimated two hundred fifty protesters marched through Dubuque demanding that city officials work harder to guarantee equal rights. The protest was a response to several incidents. A cross was burned into the lawn of an African American family and alleged discrimination occurred at the DUBUQUE PACKING COMPANY against Asians, older workers and African Americans.

In 1983 Pierre BANDA, a citizen of Malawi, was elected president of the Loras College senate. The same year tensions rose over the appointment of Clarence W. "Rainbow" DUFFY, associated with the LITTLE DUBLIN NEWS, to the Human Rights Commission.

An announcement was made in December 1989 of plans to establish the 2,00lst chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Dubuque. Ralph Watkins, University of Dubuque minority counselor, was the interim president. As one of its first activities, the group sponsored a Martin Luther King essay contest in the area schools. The group found support and guidance from many local residents including Ruby SUTTON, Hazel O'NEAL, Gail WEITZ, and Brian BEEKIE.

On October 23, 1989 Raymond and Cynthia Sanders found a charred cross in their garage. An inscription read, "KKK lives." The Sanders had been involved in establishing the local chapter of the NAACP. Mayor James BRADY stated that this was caused by a lack of racial diversity.

On May 4, 1990, the Dubuque Human Rights Commission asked a group of community citizens to develop a plan and timetable for bringing one hundred minority families to Dubuque by 1995. The city was assist the families with rent and mortgage payments until they were established. In October 1991, a Constructive Integration Task Force was officially incorporated to implement the integration plan.

Reaction to the task force was strong. Despite the fact that the city modified the proposal, known as Constructive Integration, so that no public monies were required, the issue of encouraging minority population growth in Dubuque led to violence. Cross-burnings occurred. Appearances on national television by Dubuque residents on both sides of the issue brought outside organizations and individuals to the city. An ecumenical Thanksgiving service was attended by Governor Terry Branstad and many local elected officials. L. Douglas Wilder, governor of Virginia, came to local church services with a victim of vandalism. Active Students Against Prejudice staged a march opposing racial incidents on November 23, 1991. When Rev. Thomas Robb, national director of the Ku Klux Klan, arrived in Dubuque on November 30, 1991 and staged a demonstration in front of the DUBUQUE CITY HALL, a counter-demonstration in Washington Park was arranged by the NAACP. Tom Churchill and Rita Daniels-Churchill organized a group called Dubuque Citizens United for Respect and Equality. Members of the Guardian Angels arrived in Dubuque from New York City. They spoke to students at HOOVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL and supported civil rights efforts underway in the community.

Efforts to improve racial harmony continued. In 1994 the Dubuque Community Advisory Panel was established to deal with the review of discrimination or civil rights complaints against the Dubuque Police Department. The Panel, headed by Terry HARRMANN, was formed in response to complaints of the local chapter of the NAACP that police officers were harassing black men. The Dubuque Council for Diversity was created to draw up plans for education, mediation services, and partnerships with national diversity organizations. There was also to be training and the establishment of a data bank for employers seeking minority employees. The DUBUQUE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT developed its own multicultural and non-sexist plan administered by Thomas DETERMAN. See: Category--African American