{"id":48,"date":"2008-02-05T11:57:47","date_gmt":"2008-02-05T17:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/dls\/2008\/02\/05\/queen-of-the-campus\/"},"modified":"2013-12-10T14:39:12","modified_gmt":"2013-12-10T20:39:12","slug":"queen-of-the-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/2008\/02\/05\/queen-of-the-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen of the campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

In honor of African American History Month, DLS will be highlighting the stories of African Americans featured in the\u00a0Iowa Digital Library. First up is\u00a0Digital Librarianship Fellow\u00a0Shawn Averkamp on Dora Martin Berry,\u00a0campus queen of the UI (then State University of Iowa),\u00a01955.<\/em><\/p>\n

Though segregation was never a matter of official policy at The University of Iowa, \"\"<\/a>African American students were routinely shut out from housing, student organizations, hair salons, restaurants, and social activities, and were left to form their own student communities outside of The University.\u00a0As a result, there is little documentation of these African American fraternities<\/a>, sororities<\/a>, literary societies, and other student clubs in University publications, such as yearbooks and newspapers, or within the Libraries’ archives.\u00a0Following the trail left by researchers Richard M. Breaux and Madgetta Thornton Dungy, we gathered artifacts scattered across the\u00a0Libraries and outside repositories to create a digital collection that would highlight the experiences and achievements of African American women students at The University.<\/p>\n

Among the many stories in this digital collection is that of Dora Martin Berry, \"\"<\/a>the first African American woman to win the title of Miss State University of Iowa.\u00a0Berry came to Iowa City from Houston, Texas, in 1955, a \u201cwide-eyed and excited\u201d<\/a> seventeen-year-old.\u00a0Though she was only a freshman, Berry was selected by the women in her dormitory to proceed to the semifinals of the pageant.\u00a0With overwhelming support<\/a> from the African American student community, she earned the majority of votes needed from the male student electorate to win the title of Miss SUI.\u00a0The national news broke the story<\/a> before Berry was even crowned queen, and she immediately was inundated with calls from reporters across the country.\u00a0In the midst of school desegregation<\/a>, the press attention continued for months with many news services heralding Berry\u2019s victory as a testament<\/a> to Northern racial tolerance.\u00a0Back at The University of Iowa, however, Berry found a less than tolerant response to her success.\u00a0The University\u00a0politely denied<\/a> her the duties and appearances traditionally held by the campus queen, and she quickly faded <\/a>back<\/a> into the student body, never \"\"<\/a>officially recognized by University administration.<\/p>\n

In addition to the news clippings, photos, and oral history excerpts that frame the story of Dora Martin Berry, there is a wide variety of artifacts in this collection offering glimpses into the lives of other African American university women.\u00a0Iowa Bystander newspaper articles<\/a> circa 1919 chronicle the activities of the fledgling Iowa City chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.\u00a0Snapshots from the Althea Beatrice Moore Smith scrapbook<\/a> capture student life in the mid-1920s.\u00a0Dance cards<\/a> from the Esther Walls collection at the Iowa Women\u2019s Archives commemorate formal dances attended in the 1940s by one of the first African American women to live in the dorms.<\/p>\n

Please visit the African American Women Students at The University of Iowa Digital Collection<\/a> to learn more about these students who overcame racism and\u00a0discrimination to receive their education at the UI.<\/p>\n

–Shawn Averkamp
\nDigital Librarianship Fellow<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In honor of African American History Month, DLS will be highlighting the stories of African Americans featured in the\u00a0Iowa Digital Library. First up is\u00a0Digital Librarianship Fellow\u00a0Shawn Averkamp on Dora Martin Berry,\u00a0campus queen of the UI (then State University of Iowa),\u00a01955. Though segregation was never a matter of official policy at The University of Iowa, AfricanContinue reading “Queen of the campus”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"syndication":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3963,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/3963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}