From the collections – News from the Archives

Apr 29 2022

Enterprising Women: Three Profiles from the Fellows Family papers

Posted on April 29, 2022April 28, 2022 by Anna Holland

Graduation portrait of Clara Conrad, 1903

The following post was written by IWA Student Specialist, Avery Porter.

Clara Conrad entered the Graham Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1902. She was the first student to enroll in the new program and the only person in her class. A full graduation ceremony was held in her honor a year later proclaiming her as one of the first graduates from a professional nursing program in Iowa. Her daughter, Frances Hogle, and granddaughters, Ann Fellows and Carol Fellows, would also go on to have momentous adventures of their own.

Frances Hogle, the daughter of Clara Conrad Hogle, earned both a Bachelor and Master of Arts from the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa). She used her degrees to teach in rural Iowa for years before moving to Texas with her husband Kenneth Fellows. While there she worked as a pianist for the local Methodist Church and was the society editor for her husband’s paper, the Alice Echo. In 1999, she wrote an autobiography describing her life and the adventures she had while exploring the world. She and her husband spent much of their time traveling, especially after retirement. They traveled around the United States regularly and often took cruises everywhere from Alaska to Russia.

From left to right: Ann Christenson, Kate Dale, baby Maggie Dale, and Frances Hogle, 2000.

Ann Fellows, the eldest child of Frances Fellows, had the same interest in exploring the world as her parents. After returning to her mother’s alma mater to get a degree in Political Science in 1958, she moved to New York City and worked at Time Magazine as a clerk. In the summer of 1960, she participated in Operation Crossroads Africa to improve roads in Sierra Leone. Then she returned to the Midwest to work at the Lake County Public Library in Indiana. A few years later the travel bug hit again, and Fellows moved to Australia to work overseas. When she returned from that trip, she married John Christenson and lived in Rockledge, Florida. The couple moved to Minnesota, which they called home for many years, and eventually settled in Iowa City, Iowa to be closer to their adult children. There Ann Fellows Christenson joined 100 Grannies, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to green energy and has their records housed at the Iowa Women’s Archives.

Carol Fellows in Kalamath Falls, Oregon at the Merle West Cancer Treatment Center, 1997.

Carol Fellows, the second daughter of Frances Fellows, made strides into the medical field like her great grandmother Clara. In 1972, she graduated with a MD from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She excelled in the jobs she took, even getting Intern of the Year at her position at the Rose Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. She moved to Capser, Wyoming where she became the first radiation oncologist in the state. While there she co-founded the Central Wyoming Cancer Center and Hospice Program. She served as the center’s first director for almost ten years. A career change came when Fellows decided to leave the medical field and become the chief of Staff to Mike Sullivan, the then Governor of Wyoming, in 1987. Two years later the call of the medical field returned, and she moved to Kalamath Falls, Oregon to found the Merle West Cancer Medical Center (now Sky Lakes). Even after retirement in 2005, she rose to leadership in her local Rotary Club and worked on volunteer projects relentlessly.

These are just a few of the adventures found of the Fellows Family papers. The papers cover the lives of these four wonderful women and their extended family as they live through major world events and everyday achievements. From the American Civil War to running an award-winning paper, this collection is full of adventure.

Apr 25 2022

Women Safe After Dark? The Beginnings of Take Back the Night at the University of Iowa

Posted on April 25, 2022April 22, 2022 by Anna Holland

On September 12, 1979, an advertisement for a rally appeared in the campus newspaper, the Daily Iowan. The outline of a woman with bows and arrows, shooting into the night sky was accompanied with the promise, “Friday evening at 8 p.m., the women of Iowa City will have a chance to support each other in a move to reclaim the freedom that comes from being unafraid.” September 14^th, 1979 would be Iowa City’s first major Take Back the Night Rally. The rally inspired hundreds of women to attend, spawned weeks of angry debate in the Daily Iowan, and started a tradition of rallies against sexual violence in Iowa City that continues over forty years later.

Flyer for the first Take Back the Night event in Iowa City, summer of 1979

The term Take Back the Night had been coined just two years earlier in 1977 when activist Anne Pride used it as the title of a memorial at an anti-violence rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The phrase became a rallying cry for women sick of being afraid to walk alone at night and tired of rapists getting away with their crimes. The movement spread quickly, and by the summer of 1979, Iowa City had already had one small rally protesting a local spike in violence against women. After this, Iowa City women formed a committee, supported by the University’s Women’s Resource and Action Center, to plan a larger rally “for women to assert their right to safety on the streets and in their homes.”

The rally took place from 8:00 to 10:00 pm at College Green Park, near the downtown, which had become a hot spot for rape, attempted rape, and sexual harassment. The Rape Victim Advocacy Program provided maps of the area to attendees marking over 100 reported incidences of sexual violence from January 1978 to March 1979.

In response to this reality, Take Back the Night’s schedule had strong themes of education, self-expression, and self-defense. The planning committee included other organizations like a local chapter of NOW and the Rape Victim Advocacy Program and the University of Iowa’s Taekwondo Club to provide self-defense tactics to women in attendance. Local artists also inspired attendees with songs like “Fight Back” by Holly Near with powerful lyrics:

“Some have an easy answer

Buy a lock and live in a cage

But my fear is turning to anger

And my anger is turning to rage

And I won’t live my life in a cage – no!”

A map of Iowa City shows reported incidences of sexual violence over 14 months from 1978 – 1979.

In an event full of rage, perhaps the most infuriating part was a play: “Rape on Trial.” The scene was set as a courtroom with judge, lawyers, and jury. The victim took the stand, detailing a truly awful crime in which a rapist broke into her home and force himself upon her. The characters framed her as an unreliable witness, criticizing her actions like wearing a nightgown and sleeping with the window open on a hot day, while the rapist was valorized for his civic engagement, career, and status as a father. The audience was then privy to the jury’s deliberations during which the jurors say “I think she’s lying,” and “I don’t think that we should ruin this poor man’s life or his whole career for that matter.” The jury found him not guilty. For the women watching, it must have been an emotional, angering experience.

The first major Take Back the Night rally in Iowa City was a success with an attendance of about 500 women, over 300 of which stayed to march after the rally. However, the coverage after the event hinged on something else entirely: the committee’s decision to make Take Back the Night a women’s-only event. Men who approached College Green Park on the night of September 14^th were approached by groups of women and given cards stating: “Given the nature of rape and sexual abuse, the presence of men here will make some women uncomfortable. Men sensitive to this issue will demonstrate their concern by not attending this rally which has been organized by women for women. Thank you for your cooperation.” The Rape Crisis Line sponsored an alternate event for men who supported Take Back the Night at the Wesley House downtown.

Cards were given to men who approached the rally, asking them to keep the space for women only.

The women handing out cards were described by some as “guards” and by others as “para-military.” One person even complained to the police. On September 17^th the Daily Iowan published an editorial by Michael Humes title “Taking Back Everyone’s Night.” Humes recognized that the rally did let men stay after receiving the card, but then complained about the “exclusionary intent” and accused Take Back the Night of “identifying all men with rapists.” Over the next two weeks, Take Back the Night’s supporters, the Humes camp, and many others in the middle consumed the Daily Iowan’s editorial page with a debate over whether the rally’s planners had been unfair to men. As Jane Vanderbosch insightfully said her letter to the editor, “It is somewhat ironic to realize that Humes’ ‘rage’ was not ‘denied.’ It covered a good portion of the editorial page, as did his ‘possible resentment.’ Neither the rage nor resentment of the 500 women who attended the rally was given much coverage.”

But their rage would continue to be heard in Take Back the Night rallies, and will be again this week on April 26^th, 2022 when a Take Back the Night rally will take place on the Pentacrest starting at 6pm. All are encouraged to attend.

Mar 16 2022

Kittredge Cherry and Audrey Lockwood: A Love Story

Posted on March 16, 2022March 2, 2022 by Anna Holland

This post was written by IWA Student Specialist, Abbie Steuhm.

The LGBTQ+ community has grown in incredible size and visibility in the last decade. The legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.S. in 2015 was a colossal milestone for LGBTQ+ rights, and it has arguably helped in the normalization and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people nationwide. However, one may wonder about the lives of queer couples before this milestone. What did they do when they wanted to take their relationship to the next level? Did they just live together? Did they even believe in the concept of marriage? Kittredge Cherry and Audrey Lockwood’s forty-seven years together as a married lesbian couple helps answer these questions.

Cherry and Lockwood met as students at the University of Iowa.

Reverend Kittredge “Kitt” Lynne Cherry and Audrey Ellen Lockwood were both born in 1957, with Cherry living in Iowa and Lockwood living in Wisconsin. The two graduated from the University of Iowa together in 1979 with Bachelor of Arts degrees. The couple then lived together in Japan, with Cherry on a studying-abroad scholarship and Lockwood beginning her career in business, before returning to the U.S. and settling in San Francisco, California. It was in San Francisco that Cherry and Lockwood became involved in the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), one of the few Christian churches that welcomed the LGBTQ+ community. The two are now living together in Los Angeles, where Cherry continues her work on LGBTQ+ and spirituality via her blog Q Spirit.

It was in 1975 during their freshman year that Audrey Lockwood and Kittredge Cherry locked eyes with one another for the first time—and certainly not the last—while attending the University of Iowa. Lockwood reminisces on their meeting in her short article “My Summer of Love,” noting how her and Cherry “managed to get ourselves out of Burge Dorm and into the Stanley all girls’ dorm sophomore year, where we fell madly in love, as we watched beautiful sunsets from our room on the 10th floor overlooking the Iowa River.”

That love continued to flourish even as the couple traveled to Japan and then to Los Angeles, California, where Cherry was ordained as a minister for the MCC. Together, the couple advocated for LGBTQ+ rights, particularly LGBTQ+ rights within the Christian church. Cherry has written many books and articles about LGBTQ+ people’s spirituality and sexuality within the Christian church, from Hide and Speak: A Coming Out Guide (2006) to The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision (2014). One of the earliest articles Cherry was involved in was the 1989 Los Angeles Times article, “Marriage Between Homosexuals is Nothing New for Some in S.F.,” where Cherry gives the proud statement that she still lives by to this day:

“I don’t think we need the state to tell us our marriage is real. I think our marriage is just as real now as if it were legally recognized.”

Despite legal marriage equality being decades away, they were married by the Metropolitan Community Church in 1987.

Same-sex marriage at this time was illegal, and most churches refused to even marry same-sex couples in spirit, but Cherry and Lockwood found a wonderfully willing ministry through the MCC. In 1987, Lockwood and Cherry were married, and they lived together happily as one of the few lesbian couples who were proudly “out” during the time. Despite not being legally married, Lockwood and Cherry nevertheless vowed their commitment to one another under their own beliefs and religion. They lived together for the next forty years until their marriage was legalized after the Obergefell vs. Hodges decision in 2015. They continue living happily ever after in Los Angeles to this very day.

It was no doubt a long road that Cherry and Lockwood traveled to get to where they are now along with the rest of the LGBTQ+ community. Cherry and Lockwood’s photobooks gives wonderful detail and insight into the history of the LGBTQ+ community, from every cat adopted and protest marched in the fight for same-sex marriage. Such a long, winding history, and yet Lockwood still remembers her time in the University of Iowa dorms. In the last lines of her article “My Summer of Love,” Lockwood says:

“To this day I can still see the view from 10th floor Stanley, as we listened to the Brandenburg concertos, Chopin nocturnes, and David Bowie singing ‘Oh You Pretty Things.’”

Feb 25 2022

Civil Rights Trailblazer June Davis Donates Papers to IWA

Posted on February 25, 2022March 15, 2022 by Heather Cooper

This post is by Archives Assistant Heather Cooper.

The Iowa Women’s Archives recently received the first installment of a new collection of personal papers from Norma June Wilson Davis. Davis, who later became an administrator at the University of Iowa, was at the forefront of the student civil rights movement in Atlanta, Georgia, in the early 1960s. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1940, Davis recalled that she realized she was different at a young age and resisted expectations that she sit at the back of the bus or drink at the water fountains marked for African Americans’ use when she went into town with her mother. Primarily known as “Norma” prior to her marriage, Wilson moved to Atlanta in 1957 to attend Spelman College and was part of a community of students from several Black colleges and universities who were inspired to organize their own protest movement after the first student sit-ins took place in Greensboro, North Carolina. Wilson was a central figure in what became known as the Atlanta Student Movement (ASM). Announcing their presence on the civil rights stage, representatives took out full-page advertisements in several newspapers, outlining their grievances and objectives. In “An Appeal for Human Rights,” Atlanta students declared that “Today’s youth will not sit by submissively, while being denied all of the rights, privileges, and joys of life. … [W]e plan to use every legal and non-violent means at our disposal to secure full citizenship rights as members of this great Democracy of ours.” As chair of the ASM’s Action Committee, Wilson played a major role in organizing the rallies, picket lines, economic boycotts, and sit-ins that swept Atlanta and the region from 1960 to 1961. The IWA is honored to preserve the papers of N. June Davis in our repository.

From “An Appeal for Human Rights,” March 9, 1960

Macon News, December 7, 1960. Norma Wilson center.

Although her name is far less known than some other civil rights activists, Wilson was a trailblazer in the student movement. Readers are likely familiar with the “Freedom Rides” organized by James Farmer and the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) in 1961 – a campaign to challenge segregation in interstate travel and accommodations. Six months before Farmer organized the first so-called “Freedom Rides,” Norma Wilson and other members of the ASM led their own effort to challenge segregation in facilities for interstate travelers. In 1960, Wilson and two other students boarded a Greyhound bus on the Atlanta-to-Jacksonville route. When the bus stopped at a station in Macon, Georgia, they tried to dine in the all-white cafeteria and were subsequently taken into police custody. Davis recalled, “So, we went to the police station and the police chief and I talked and I said, ‘You know we haven’t broken any laws.’ And he said, ‘We don’t serve you.’ And I said, ‘The Supreme Court just said you will.’ So, he left the office and went out, conversed with some people, and found out I was right.” One newspaper noted that it was “the first such integration attempt reported in Macon.” Davis remembered that, after reading about the bus station confrontation in the newspaper, James Farmer called ASM leader Lonnie King and said, “’I like the idea of the rides that you took. I think I’m going to call them Freedom Rides.'” “And that,” Davis said, “is how the Freedom Rides were born.”

Wilson and her colleagues were not actually arrested in Macon, but arrest was a regular occurrence for students and others who participated in sit-ins and other public demonstrations. The President of Spelman College actually sent letters to parents to inform them that students’ participation in demonstrations “on the desegregation front” could lead to arrest and time in jail. Wilson was sentenced to time in a number of different facilities, including two weeks in a work camp where male prisoners worked on a chain gang and female prisoners picked crops and worked in the kitchen or laundry. Davis recalled, it was “not a safe situation … for the women.” Following one of Wilson’s arrests, the Dean of Women at Spelman telegrammed Wilson’s mother: “REGRET DAUGHTER IN JAIL. REFUSES BAIL.” Wilson and others often refused bail and organized a “jail without bail” campaign in order to pack the jails and “hopefully strain the financial resources of the county.” It was another attempt to use economic pressure to force change. Two years before Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Wilson and other participants in the “jail without bail” program issued a public statement from the Atlanta city jail: “[T]he only way we can achieve our freedom is by being willing to endure and suffer the hardships that are encountered in the achievement of freedom. I only wish that each of you were here to share the darkness of this room, this hard bunk, the smell of the place, and the filth, but yet the light of freedom is slowly slipping in.”

This blog highlights just a few moments in June Davis’s story. This first installment in our new collection of Davis’s personal papers includes fascinating material from her years in Atlanta, including correspondence and a journal from her time in jail, original newspapers and movement publications, and the transcript of an oral history about her work in the ASM. We look forward to receiving and exploring more material that sheds light on Davis’s life and work in Iowa. After moving here with her family in 1968, Davis continued to be a community activist, serving, for example, on an advisory committee that investigated racism in the Iowa City school system. Davis also had a long career at the University of Iowa, where she worked in Residence Services, Finance and University Services, and the Office of Affirmative Action.

Nov 25 2021

Six-on-Six Basketball: Gone but Not Forgotten

Posted on November 25, 2021November 23, 2021 by Anna Holland

The following post was written by IWA Graduate Assistant, Emma Barton-Norris.

Six-on-six girls’ basketball was extremely important in Iowa, to both those who played the game and to those who made the trek to attend the annual Iowa State Championship every year. In the newly processed collection, Six-on-Six Girls Basketball in Iowa ephemera, the stories of individuals who experienced the “joy and zest” of the sport are put on display.

IWA graduate assistant, Emma Barton-Norris, processed several of IWA’s Six-on-Six Basketball collections this fall. Pictured here with Title IX 40th anniversary commemorative basketball, Christine Grant papers

The Six-on-Six Girls Basketball in Iowa ephemera is a continuation of a long-standing project at the Iowa Women’s Archives (IWA). Finding unique and inspiring stories in the past of Iowa’s girls’ and women’s sports, the IWA created the physical and digital exhibit 6-on-6 Basketball and the Legacy of Girls’ and Women’s Sport in Iowa back in 2018. During the traveling exhibit, IWA Curator Kären Mason and University of Iowa lecturer Jennifer Sterling collected stories from Iowans about their personal histories with one of Iowa’s favorite pastimes: girls’ six-on-six basketball.

What is six-on-six basketball, and just what made it different and exciting for players, coaches, and fans alike? According to the 2008 Iowa Public Television documentary “More Than a Game: 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa,” the six-on-six version of basketball that became known and loved by Iowans was established by 1920. Girls played a two-court, six-on-six game that required three forwards from one team and three guards from the other on each side of the center line – and no one was allowed to cross it. This meant that if a team had one high scorer, they couldn’t be beat. In addition, players were only allowed two dribbles at a time and a referee was needed to inbound the ball after every basket. But why was this new version of the traditional five-player basketball game (that had been invented and played for nearly half a century before) necessary? It’s simple: sexism. Girls were seen as the “weaker sex” and the full-court, five-on-five version would be too strenuous for their weak disposition.

This did not stop the rise to fame that girls’ basketball experienced in small town Iowa. In fact, the game was uniquely made to help small-town Iowan schools thrive because of a team’s ability to rely on one high scorer. Towns like Newhall and Van Horne became the heart and soul of six-on-six.

Highlighted within the new ephemera collection are notable names in women’s Iowa basketball, such as 1968 State Championship star Janet Scharnberg and 1995 University of Iowa women’s basketball coach Angie Lee. Numerous newspaper clippings showcasing the excitement rural Iowans had for their “Iowa girls” are also heavily featured. One such newspaper article exemplifies how the passion of six-on-six fans encouraged the longevity of the game in Iowa. Newhall and Van Horne won the Iowa State Championship in both 1927 and 1962. Within Jean Kubu’s folder of Six-on-Six Girls Basketball in Iowa ephemera, a copy of the March 9, 1972, South Benton Star-Press cover story features this girls’ basketball team in 1927 and 1962 – two state champion teams, side by side.

As told by “The Bobcat” in 1972:

“…we take you back to the year 1927… It was a hectic journey to the number one spot, as it so often is, even for the best of team, which Newhall was, as evidenced by their outscoring of combined opponents, 703-147. […] By the final round of the [State Championship] tournament, Newhall had three starters on the bench, but kept battling, narrowing it to 37-36, favor of their opponents Sioux Center. With just 30 seconds remaining in the game, Newhall’s Luella Gardemann fired in the winning basket for a thrilling 38-37 victory and the state crown.

“For the girls from Newhall wearing bloomers, it was a great time and one the people who lived in Newhall in 1927 will never forget. The tears, smiles, hard work and teamwork all paid off for those Newhall girls and their coach…”

From ten minutes away, and thirty-five years apart, the Van Horne girls’ basketball teams of 1962 would accomplish the same feat.

“The Bobcat” continues:

1927 team photograph, South Benton Star-Press article, 1972, Six-on-Six Basketball in Iowa ephemera, Box 1, Iowa Women’s Archives

“The year was 1962. Van Horne went to the state finals at Waterloo with much going for them. […] During the week of the state tournament, Van Horne, and the surrounding areas had a bad snowstorm, but the fans came to Waterloo anyway. The team had not even practiced because of bad weather, and they didn’t check into their hotel until they had already played their first game.

“Tension was tight during the game and the score was close, but the team won 62-59 to win the coveted state championship. […] As they left Waterloo, they were on the television and at the Garrison corner a caravan of about three miles in length followed them to Van Horne […] to present the trophy to the team and coach.”

1962 team photograph, South Benton Star-Press article, 1972, Six-on-Six Basketball in Iowa ephemera, Box 1, Iowa Women’s Archives

“The Bobcat” concludes: “It was a great experience for the basketball team… It was a week that coach, the team, and fans will never forget.”

The Iowa Women’s Archives is proud to now have these Iowans’ stories available for all to enjoy. Materials include memorabilia, photographs, newspapers, tournament programs, and film of actual State Championship games. With the help of basketball players, old and new, the IWA has been able to save the legacy and history of girls’ and women’s sport in Iowa.

The progress six-on-six basketball made for young women carries on in every girl’s high school basketball game. Those who attended the crowded six-on-six championship games can never forget the energy on the court and in the stands. Iowa’s high school and collegiate players who now participate in five-on-five basketball should never forget that their great-great-grandmothers also played the game they loved. Six-on-six may be gone from high school athletics, but it will never be forgotten.

Citations:

More Than a Game: 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa, directed by Laurel Burgmaier (2008; Johnston, Iowa: Iowa Public Television, 2008), DVD.

Six on Six Girls’ Basketball in Iowa ephemera, Iowa Women’s Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.

Oct 15 2021

Community Collaboration brings Latinx History from the Archives to the Classroom

Posted on October 15, 2021October 19, 2021 by Anna Holland

This fall, Yamila Transtenvot, an instructor in Spanish at Cornell College, has been working with IWA, The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council 10, and the Davenport Community School District (DCSD) to bring primary sources about Latino/a/x history to Iowa schools. I sat down with Transtenvot this Latinx Heritage Month to discuss this exciting collaboration.

Yamila Transtenvot, who created three lesson plans using IWA resources for elementary school classrooms

Transtenvot, originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, has a background in education. She trained as a high school literature teacher and spent time working for the government of Argentina in an after-school program aimed at getting disadvantaged youth excited about reading and writing. Eventually, the University of Iowa’s Master of Fine Arts in Spanish Creative Writing pulled her to the United States. While completing her MFA, she taught Spanish at UIowa. When members of LULAC Council 10 approached her about writing lesson plans with IWA’s Latina collections, it seemed like a natural fit.

Davenport schools introduce migration as a topic to students in elementary school, but the current curriculum lacks stories about Mexican migration, which began in the 19^th century and accelerated in the 1910s during the Mexican Revolution. DCSD and LULAC Council 10 wanted to introduce new stories and more primary sources into migration lessons. IWA houses dozens of collections and over one hundred oral histories documenting the lives of Latinas in Iowa. Transtenvot used Migration is Beautiful, a website about these collections, and advice from IWA’s staff to choose just a few items and oral histories to highlight.

This image of Tilly Gomez from the Otilia Savala papers in IWA is just one of the primary sources students will analyze.

Transtenvot concentrated on the stories of young people. In one the three lessons that she’s created, students will use the memoir of Martina Morado, who immigrated to Iowa as a teenager in the 1910s, to learn about migration. In another, a childhood photograph of Otilia “Tilly” Gomez in Cook’s Point, a Mexican settlement in Davenport, Iowa, will help students think about cultural heritage and what life was like for immigrants in Iowa during the first half of the 20^th century. The way Transtenvot has planned the lessons offers several ways to engage with the topic including class discussion, a Kahoot quiz, and a migratory Monarch butterfly for them to color.

Above all, Transtenvot wants students to learn how to reflect on primary sources and form their own thoughts about them. The lessons are filled with questions that allow students to think and wonder. For example, after seeing a photograph of Angela and Martina Morado from 1913, classes will be invited to speculate in writing on the relationship between the women, how old the photograph is, and whether it reminds them of any old photographs they’ve seen of their own families. Transtenvot has also striven to center the voices of Latinas by using excerpts from oral histories by Rosa Mendoza and Otilia Gomez, and a memoir by Martina Morado. She says that the charm of primary sources is that they give a glimpse of people’s personal experiences. By making space for these voices and for reflection on what they say, Transtenvot hopes her lessons will help students build empathy.

The lessons will debut in Davenport, but Transtenvot sees this as a starting point. She’d like to see the project spread to other districts in Iowa and perhaps go further, resulting in lessons about other underrepresented groups in the state. Finally, she intends to have her lesson plans put on the Migration is Beautiful website, where they will become resources and inspiration for teachers across the country.

Aug 10 2021

Student Reflection: Processing the Madgetta Dungy Papers

Posted on August 10, 2021August 10, 2021 by Anna Holland

The following post is written by University of Iowa senior, Jack Kamp.

Senior Jack Kamp spent his summer learning to process archival collections in the IWA.

When I started my internship at the Iowa Women’s Archives (IWA), I knew I was interested in working with Black women’s history. As a student interested in the history of civil rights and social justice, I knew that this collection would give me the chance to gain some archival skills while also being immersed in a field that fascinated me. What I learned in the archives has added a layer of complexity to how I conceptualize historical research. My time at the IWA has allowed me to develop the skills that aid in analysis and organization regarding a wide range of materials in and contexts surrounding archival collections. Originally, I predominantly looked at research from the perspective of a student historian. My main concern was simply finding that certain document or photograph or piece of correspondence that would aid me in my research or simply out of interest. After first-hand experience with processing a set of papers, I can see that there are so many more connections to be made, even within one single set of papers.

Madgetta Dungy, pictured in this article from 2002, was an academic and higher education professional. She earned her PhD at the University of Iowa in the 1990s and later served as an Assistant Dean at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine.

There are many decisions to make regarding the organization of a set of papers. How should I order the folders? Which folders should I make? How will each series fit into the larger collection? Should it be chronological? How should the original organization of the creator be preserved? Each of these decisions has the capacity to impact future researchers looking at those papers and how they are presented to the public through such means as written papers and presentations. My experience at the IWA has led me to pay attention to how materials are grouped and to consider why they may be organized the way that they are within the collection.

During my time as an intern, I processed the personal papers of Madgetta Thornton Dungy, a professional Black woman who found success in education administration at college campuses across the United States. She was the first Black woman to graduate from Cornell College in Iowa and went on to earn a master’s degree and Ph.D. in higher education administration. When I began to process her collection, much of my interest was in the older materials: old family photos from the 1940’s, old church programs from 1955, and a teaching certificate from 1968. As a history student, and a historian interested in the postwar era Black Freedom Struggle, I was most interested in these materials out of the whole collection. However, as I began the processing procedure and began sorting the materials into the established series’, I started to find more interest in the materials I might have passed over had I not been involved in the processing of Dungy’s papers.

This program from the 2007 Iowa African American Women’s Leadership Conference is just one of the examples of Madgetta Dungy’s activism in the regional Black community found in her papers.

Through processing Madgetta Dungy’s personal papers, I began to see how the singular pieces that I was most drawn to were related to the greater collection. As I placed the Dungy family photos next to the materials relating to Dungy’s involvement with The Links, Incorporated, a Black women’s national organization, I began to see the political and personal sides of Dungy come together. As I placed the 1955 church program next to the church program that Dungy produced herself in 1978, I was able to see some of the impact that religion had on Dungy’s life and the way in which she understood and considered her own religion. As I placed her teaching certificate from 1968 next to her CVs and academic transcripts, I saw the hard work and dedication Dungy put in her education and professional life. As I continued placing the materials I had initially found interest in next to other materials, I began to see more dimensions and more complexity within the person whose papers I was processing. Madgetta Dungy became more than a name on a file. She became a dynamic, complicated, and multifaceted person with interests, goals, and relationships.

Dungy’s educational, personal, and professional achievements and experiences play a crucial role in the story of Black Iowa women’s history. As a successful professional, her papers illustrate what it is like to be a Black woman in the professional sphere during the mid to late 20^th century. It is because of this that I hope Madgetta Dungy’s papers are researched and utilized by many historians in a range of areas. Additionally, the experience of processing Dungy’s papers has allowed me to expand my skill set and has exposed me to more ways of viewing and understanding archival collections and papers. My time at the IWA has certainly set me up for success, as it has allowed me to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes in an archives, what archivists have to consider when processing various collections, and allowed me to develop new skills in research and navigating archival spaces as a historian.

I would specifically like to thank Janet Weaver and Anna Holland for their guidance and assistance in the archives. Additionally, I really valued the support I received from Erik and Heather over the course of my internship in the archives and regarding prospective graduate study. I have greatly appreciated my time in the IWA over the summer and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to an archives so crucial to the University and the Iowa City community.

May 04 2021

Janice Beran and the Persistence of 6-on-6 Basketball in Iowa

Posted on May 4, 2021 by Anna Holland

This post was written by IWA Graduate Assistant, Erik Henderson

In 1891, James Naismith invented the sport of basketball in Massachusetts at what is now Springfield College. In the early 1900s, the game was adopted for women throughout America especially in small town Iowa. The first Iowa State Championship for girls was played in 1920, the same year women received the right

Women practicing basketball, undated, Janice Beran papers, Box 3, Iowa Women’s Archives.

to vote. In 1934, Iowa transitioned into two-court, six-on-six women’s basketball. However, the introduction of Title IX began to slow the popularity of 6-on-6 women’s basketball. The opportunity to play basketball at the collegiate and state level pushed more women towards 5-on-5. Ultimately, 6-on-6 play began to phase out and was officially discontinued in 1993.

In 1993, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Janice Beran delivered her speech “Why Only in Iowa North [illegible] of Sport History.” It describes some key factors in why 6-on-6 women’s basketball survived in Iowa an era when all other programs were being disbanded. Beran was a professor in the College of Education at Iowa State University until her retirement in 1994. The Janice A. Beran papers primarily consist of published and unpublished articles, and research files concerning her work on women and African Americans in sport. Her research on the history of Iowa girls’ high school basketball culminated in a book published in 1993, From Six-on-Six to Full Court Press: A Century of Iowa Girls’ Basketball. This post will not be a highlight of Beran and her book, rather a dive into why the 6-on-6 basketball lasted in Iowa after other programs around the country were eliminated.

Beran first positions the reader to consider the importance of high school sporting events to small towns. She wrote:

In the rural areas where the tradition is strongest everyone from newborn babe to the oldest great grandma attends this most important event on the week’s calendar. Those great grandmas were once on the court vividly recall the heady excitement, the ups and the downs, the centrality, basketball had in their lives as high school students.

As a former high school and collegiate athlete, I have those same feelings about my athletic journey. The energy athletes receive from the community and from the opposition can fuel someone beyond their known potential. Small town engagement and passion for sporting events in Iowa was the catalyst for the longevity on women’s 6-on-6 basketball.

For this speech and many others, Beran sought advice and information from experts through interviews, some of which are preserved in her papers at IWA. From the information received from interviewees, Beran listed ten possible reasons why 6-on-6 basketball survived in Iowa, while other states disbanded the program. Many of the reasons other programs were ended was often due to preconceived stereotypes placed on young women due to the ideologies of the early 20^th century. She lists the ten reason as well as brief explanation (we list the first few), leaving the reader with possible future concerns.

Male advocacy for girls’ basketball was a principal factor. She mentions four men who “were instrumental in starting the federation and ensuring that girls had a competitive basketball program.”
There was no single dominant female physical educator in Iowa like in surrounding states; “leading female physical educators were against competition between schools and favored providing a broad range of participation opportunities rather than using the limited gym time to training a few girls to play basketball.”
In rural and small-town schools between 1920’s-60s there was less demand on gym space. “In the small towns the girls’ coach was often the boys’ coach so it was simple for him to arrange for equal practice for both teams.”
Basketball was not viewed as too physical[ly] taxing for girls in rural communities. “Descendants of pioneers, rural women were accustomed to heavy farm work.
High schools became the hub of rural community life and “basketball for girls filled an entertainment void in rural communities.”

The list above are just the first five reasons for the durability of Iowa women and girls’ basketball. It details the collaborative effort not just from women athletes but also community members.

After a good run in the NCAA Basketball tournament by the Hawkeyes, and be a D-III athlete, I realize we all cannot we be Caitlin Clark and be the leading scorer for the Iowa women’s basketball team as a freshman and hold two state records for Iowa as a high schooler. Nor can we be Luka Garza, named the best player in Iowa men’s basketball history and named Player of the Year. However, some of us can be and are the people that watch, analyzes, and research the nature of sports, just like Janice Ann Beran. We can be a part of a sector of society that we enjoy without being the focal point. As a beacon of hope for retired collegiate athletes like myself, in 1992 Beran was the first to win the Central District Scholar Award from the Central District Association of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

Feb 25 2021

What Would You Attempt to Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail?

Posted on February 25, 2021 by Anna Holland

This post is by IWA Graduate Assistant Erik Henderson

Taking a risk can be one of the most difficult things you must do. However, how would it feel knowing that you cannot fail no matter what you do? One thing that holds us back in life is our clouded judgment when making a major move. Mary Grefe pushed herself and others to go for things they want and dream big by creating opportunities for young women to branch out into technical and scientific careers.

Mary Arlene Cruikshank Grefe was an educator, social activist, politician, and businesswoman. Grefe grew up on her family’s farm in the Algona area and graduated from Morningside College with a B.A. in English and Speech in January 1943. Grefe had been active in the women’s movement for many years through her involvement with the Educational Foundation of the American Association of University Women (AAUW).

Grefe was the national president of the AAUW from 1979 to 1981 and the AAUW Educational Foundation president. A few years prior, Grefe published articles relating to adult education, leadership techniques, the women’s movement, and a leadership manual with Claire Fulcher titled Techniques for Organizational Effectiveness (1973).

Grefe’s 1994 speech “What Would You Attempt to Do if You Knew You Could Not Fail?”

Within the Mary Grefe papers, there is a speech titled “What Would You Attempt To Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail?” She gave the speech for Career Conference, “The Road Less Traveled,” on October 13th, 1994, because Iowa State University (where the conference was hosted) wanted to break the stereotype that young women had to get pushed down a path of “gendered work.” She said they could cross over into other fields as well with a little “self-esteem and confidence…a person with self-esteem and confidence is halfway to any goal” The point of the speech for Grefe was to push back against the idea of gendered work while suggesting that young women can build a career in fields like math and science.

Many people, myself included, do not want to take risks because they are worried about what other people will think about them, and they stay in their comfort zone. Grefe stated, “as parents, we have to encourage our children to get out of the comfort zone. When your child fell off the bike the first time, did you say soothingly, it is too hard for you, let’s put the bike away and go back to the same and comforting tricycle? You know that you did not.” Grefe’s example of a young child trying to ride a bike for the first time and falling shows us we need to be consistent in the endeavors we are pursuing. We cannot give up or quit the first time we try something new because it does not go our way. What we should do is “remember that we are role models. Someone is watching to see how we handle crises.” Every day we are faced with temptation and fear. For young women and men coming up, they need a person to look to for motivation when things get tough. Having that role model works as a refresher to know that you can slip, but you will be able to get back up to keep going!

Though Grefe was committed to progressing the women’s movement, she was just as committed to education. In her early career, she taught high school, a junior college, then served twelve years on the Des Moines school board, twice as president. In 1972, President Richard Nixon appointed her as his personal representative to the UNESCO World Conference on Adult Education in Tokyo, Japan. President Gerald Ford appointed her to the National Advisory Council on Adult Education beginning in 1974 and was its chair in 1976. Grefe was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 1980.

Dec 01 2020

Edna Griffin, Civil Rights Activist

Posted on December 1, 2020April 14, 2021 by Anna Holland

This post is the tenth installment in our series highlighting African American history in the collections of the Iowa Women’s Archives. The series ran weekly during Black History Month, and will continue monthly for the remainder of 2020.

This past summer, we have seen a nationwide movement for change. In Iowa City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, and elsewhere, peaceful protests have faced backlash from citizens and the police. People seeking change today might be interested in Edna Griffin, who led a boycott of the Katz Drug Store in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1948 and pushed persistently for what she knew was right, even at personal risk. Born in Kentucky in 1909, Griffin attended Fisk University and moved to Des Moines with her husband in 1947. The Edna Griffin Papers, preserved in the Iowa Women’s Archives, include documents relating to the successful 1948 lawsuit against the Katz Drug Store – State vs. Des Moines – which are richly supplemented by Griffin’s 400-page FBI file that provides insight into an otherwise sparsely documented life of activism. You can view these documents in the Iowa Digital library.

During the 1940s, the United States remained a largely segregated country. Although Iowa had laws against segregation, they were not consistently enforced. Iowa’s first civil rights law was passed in 1884 to outlaw discrimination in “inns, public conveyances, barber shops, theaters, and other places of public amusement,” the law was rarely enforced. In 1892, the law was modified to include “restaurants, chophouses, lunch counters and all other places where refreshments are served.” Still with no practical enforcement mechanism, over the next 30 years, Iowa’s supreme court determined only three cases based on the civil rights law. Due to a strenuous effort by the Des Moines branch of the NAACP, the law was amended again in 1923 so that violations could be heard by a local magistrate rather than a grand jury.

Protestors picketed Katz Drug Store after its proprietor refused to serve Black customers.

On July 7, 1948, Edna Griffin, John Bibbs, Leonard Hudson and Griffin’s infant daughter, Phyllis, entered Katz Drug Store at the intersection of 7th and Locust streets in Des Moines. Hudson needed to make a purchase, so Griffin and Bibbs decided to sit at the lunch counter to order ice cream sundaes. A waitress came over, took their orders, then proceeded to fulfill them. In the process, “a young white man came and whispered a message into her ear” (Lawrence, 2008, p. 298). After this, the party was told that Katz’s lunch counter didn’t serve “colored” customers. The encounter resulted in a criminal case, a prolonged court battle, and a boycott of Katz Drug Store. During it all, Katz and his defenders tried to portray Griffin as disruptive and stirring up trouble rather than as a woman who had been denied her rights under Iowa law. You can read more about the Katz boycott in the article by Noah Lawrence, “Since it is my right, I would like to have it: Edna Griffin and the Katz Drug Store Desegregation Movement” published in the Annals of Iowa.

Edna Griffin’s activism eventually earned her fame and respect, but at the time, she was not universally lauded. Her FBI files, gathered between 1945 and 1967, are a testimony to the skepticism and derision she confronted on a daily basis. Only later was she recognized for her contribution to civil rights in Iowa. She was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Iowa African Americans’ Hall of Fame in 1999. You can also see her featured in Katy Swalwell’s 2018 picture book, Amazing Iowa Women.