Photos of Adah Hyde Johnson (1912), Dora Martin Berry (1956), and students in the newly integrated Currier Hall (1946).

Though the University of Iowa was one of the first institutions to open admission to African Americans, these students often had to overcome other barriers to an equal education. Our digital collection on African American Women Students at The University of Iowa 1910-1960 charts the history of those barriers and the incredible women who battled and broke them. Through yearbook photos, articles, and oral histories, this online exhibit captures events like the formation of an off-campus boarding house for African American women in 1919, the integration of the University dormitories in 1946, the election of the first African American Miss University of Iowa in 1955, and much more!