ANDERSON, RUTH BLUFORD (1921-2013)
Professor Emeritus of Social Work at the University of Northern Iowa, Black Hawk County Supervisor, and author of From Mother's Aid Child to University Professor.
ATKINSON, EDITH REED (1919-2000)
Singer and radio-script editor from Cedar Rapids. Performed in a song-and-dance act with brothers Wallace and Cecil Reed 1935-1944.
BERRY, JEAN (1938- )
Des Moines-based artist whose work focused primarily on depicting African Americans.
BERRY, VENISE T. (1956- )
Novelist and associate professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Iowa.
BURLESON, JANE (1928- )
Teacher’s aide, packinghouse worker, and union activist who was the first woman and first African American elected to the Fort Dodge City Council.
CALDERON, BARBARA M. (1915- )
Nursing administrator who was also the first African American public health nurse in Iowa.
COOPER, CECILE (1900-1997)
Civil rights worker in Davenport.
COTHORN, MARGUERITE (1909-1998)
The first African American to graduate from Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. Social worker and political activist, who served on the Iowa Civil Rights Commission 1983-1984.
DAVIS, ALDEEN (1916-2001)
Muscatine, Iowa, newspaper columnist active in arts, civic, educational, and religious organizations.
DICKENS, MARY (1925-2014)
Community activist, volunteer, and poet in Waterloo, Iowa.
DOMOND, NADINE (1975- )
Hawkeye women’s basketball star, WNBA player and entrepreneur.
EICHACKER, LOIS H. (1932- )
Fort Madison civic leader and former president of The University of Iowa Alumni Association Board.
FELTON, GERALDENE (1926- )
Professor and former dean of the University of Iowa College of Nursing.
FOWLER, GWENDOLYN WILSON (1907-1997)
The first African American woman pharmacist licensed in Iowa and a presidential appointee to the United States Foreign Service in the 1950s.
FURGERSON, BETTY JEAN (1927- )
Teacher, social worker, human rights commission director, and university regent from Waterloo.
GREENE, ARCHIE L. (1945- )
Writer and volunteer who earned a PhD in English from the University of Iowa while living with spinocerebellar degeneration.
GRIFFIN, EDNA (1909-2000)
Civil rights activist, later known as the “Rosa Parks of Iowa.”
HARPER, VIRGINIA (1929-1997)
One of five African American women who integrated Currier Hall at the University of Iowa in 1946. Former president of the Fort Madison Chapter of the NAACP.
HARPER-BARDACH, PHYLLIS (1928- )
Educator of hearing-impaired children and retired professor of education at the University of Iowa.
HARRIS, LILEAH (1931-2014)
Professional volunteer active in several arts, civic, educational, and religious organizations in Cedar Rapids.
HAWKINS, E. MARIE (1931- )
Teacher and administrator in Iowa City elementary schools.
HAWTHORNE, FRANCES (1929- )
Des Moines educator and author whose materials include You Can’t Go Back to Buxton and African Americans in Iowa: a Chronicle of Contributions, 1830-1992. Research materials include oral history interviews.
JOHNSON, LULU MERLE (1907-1995)
Historian and college instructor who became the first African American woman in Iowa to earn a doctorate in 1941.
JONES, GRACE MORRIS ALLEN (1876-1928)
Burlington-born educator whose family settled in Iowa in the 1850s after gaining freedom from slavery. Helped to found the Piney Woods Country Life School in Piney Woods, Mississippi with her husband, Dr. Laurence C. Jones.
JONES, LEAH A. (1965- )
Chicago native and 1987 graduate of the University of Iowa. Papers include a memoir of her experiences in Iowa.
Traces the family history of Helen Lemme (1905-1968), an Iowa City community leader, who was named the city’s first Woman of the Year in 1955.
LLOYD, BILLIE D. (1940-1991)
Social worker, community activist, and civic administrator who founded the Quad Cities Conference on Black Families, Inc.
MACKAY, DORA E. (1915- )
Singer and beauty shop owner in Des Moines; co-founder of the Mary Church Terrell Club #2.
MARSH, MARJORIE (1913- )
Fort Madison, Iowa, native, and active club member and volunteer.
MAYS, A. LOUISE (1914- )
Social worker and University of Iowa professor.
MITCHELL, AZALIA (1898-1986)
Pharmacist who owned and operated the Community Pharmacy in Des Moines for 25 years.
MORRIS, ARLENE ROBERTS (1926- )
Clinical psychologist and University of Iowa alumna; member from 1960 to 1967 of the Des Moines Know Your Neighbor panel, a multiracial group of women organized to promote tolerance.
MUHANJI, CHERRY (1939- )
Writer, lesbian activist, and University of Iowa alumna.
NASH, MARTHA ANN (1925-2000)
Civil rights activist and community leader. Executive director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Education and Vocational Training in Waterloo 1981-1995 and an active member of the Dubuque Archdiocese Council for Catholic Women.
PAGE, BETTY MAE (1929- )
Waterloo resident who served as a member of Governor Ray’s Commission on the Status of Women during the early 1970s.
PHILLIPS, SARILDA (1877-1971)
Mississippi schoolteacher who was forced into retirement in 1956 following desegregation.
REED, OLABELLE (1935- )
Teacher, community activist, and co-founder of Club Les Dames, an African American women’s club in Waterloo.
SCALES, LILLIAN MOORE (1901-1991)
Estherville, Iowa-born homemaker and teacher who was active in literary, political, and religious groups in Des Moines.
SCOTT, JACQUELINE (19xx- )
Elementary school teacher in Keokuk, Iowa.
SHOOTS, JEAN (1926- )
Writer, performer, volunteer, and nurse in Iowa City.
SOUTHALL, GENEVA HANDY (1925-2004)
Professor Emeritus of Afro-American Studies and Music at the University of Minnesota; University of Iowa alumna.
TATE, ELIZABETH (BETTYE) CRAWFORD (1906-1999)
Owner and operator of Tate Arms, a boarding house for African American male students at the University of Iowa during the 1940s and 1950s.
WALLS, ESTHER J. (1926- )
Mason City, Iowa native and New York-based librarian and administrator. The first African American female student at the University of Iowa elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
WHITE, MAUDE ESTHER (1913-2003)
Founder of the Des Moines Tutoring Center, which she operated out of her home 1980-1991 and Iowa’s first Affirmative Action Administrator 1973-1978.
Former seamstress and long-time resident of Fort Madison, Iowa.
WILLIAMS, CATHERINE GAYLE (1914- )
Professional dancer and deputy commissioner of the Iowa Department of Social Services.
WILLIAMS, VERDA L. (1944- )
Communication specialist at Iowa State University who produced the documentary Black Des Moines: Voices Seldom Heard.
WINSTON, IVORY (1911-1996)
Concert vocalist and Ottumwa housewife.
WOMMACK, BARBARA (1918- )
Clubwoman and member of the Semper Fidelis Club in Davenport, Iowa.
WOOD, MARY ELIZABETH (1902-1998)
Social worker and administrator who became the first African American woman in the United States to be named executive director of a greater metropolitan YWCA in 1957.