Please note that this event has been canceled. Any plans to reschedule will be announced on our website and social media. This Humanities Iowa presentation will connect the the economic, social, and political issues explored in Driven By Hope to the lives of modern migrants to Iowa. Professor Stella Burch Elias of the University of […]
This year marks the 154th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the complete emancipation of U.S. slaves. At emancipation, black men in American had little human capital or personal property, and almost all lived in the relatively poor, agrarian, former states of the Confederacy. And although their position is much improved relative […]
Based off the AAMI’s 2012 temporary exhibit of the same name, “The Only One” explores the experiences of Iowans who were the only African American on a sports team, in a classroom, at work, and in other situations. Learn about Alexander Clark, who integrated Iowa schools in 1868 when his daughter Susan enrolled in Muscatine […]
Discover the proud history of African American service people in the United States military from the Revolutionary War to the present. Topics include African American Iowans in the Civil War, the Buffalo Soldiers, the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II, desegregation of the armed forces, and many more. About the Series: Join us at the […]
Visit Buxton, a bustling mining town at the turn of the last century. This important place in Iowa’s history was referred to as a “utopia” by the majority of the town’s residents, African Americans who were welcomed with little racism and discrimination. Step into the YMCAs, visit the elementary schools, and meet some of Buxton’s […]
In this talk, Professor Simon Balto (University of Iowa) will talk about his recent book on policing and race in Chicago, between 1919 and the early 1970s. His talk will offer better historical context for understanding modern movements like Black Lives Matter, and will also serve as an opportunity to reflect upon the 100-year anniversary […]
Iowa’s athletes have long impacted their teams, communities, and the sports they played, but African Americans did so while facing off against more than just the opposing team. They fought for the right to equal treatment on and off the field. Highlighting people such as Iowan and Olympian Thomas Hill, Drake University athlete Johnny Bright […]
During and after the Civil War, thousands of newly liberated African Americans left the South and migrated to Iowa and other Midwestern places. Many of those migrants had experienced both enslavement and military service with the Union Army. This presentation will share the inspiring personal stories of African American Civil War veterans who settled in […]
This presentation explores African Americans who invented or improved dozens of items we take for granted every day. Many of these men and women are little-known, and few are household names. Some had very little formal education or training, yet others were college-educated or earned doctorates. All made important contributions to our lives through perseverance, […]
Rescheduled from May 23, this event is now taking place on August 8. As countless writers and scholars have chronicled, black migration transformed the culture, politics, and social life of the United States in the mid-twentieth century, when the sons and daughters of Mississippi and Alabama and Georgia and North Carolina set off for new […]
