Four years after Rosa Parks made her stand and five years before the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 — Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks in the SUI’s Iowa Memorial Union Ballroom, urging the standing-room-only crowd to not fall into complacency on the march toward social justice.
Our Picture of the Week is an Our Iowa Heritage blog series that offers you a little bit of Iowa trivia from a large selection of stories on our website.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen was formed in 1920 from the merger of two popular city newspapers: The Iowa City Daily Press – founded in 1860 and representing the political views of the Democrat Party, and The Iowa City Daily Citizen – founded in 1891 and leaning strongly toward Republican politics. The last editions of The Daily Press and The Daily Citizen were published in October 30, 1920.
Our Picture of the Week is an Our Iowa Heritage blog series that offers you a little bit of Iowa trivia from a large selection of stories on our website.
Meredith Willson would make frequent trips from his home in California to Iowa City to guest conduct The University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band. Here he is with the sousaphone section at the 1958 Homecoming game vs. #8 Northwestern on October 25, 1958. The #2 Hawkeyes won the game 6-0, securing their first-ever #1 UPI ranking after the game. The Hawkeyes went on to a very successful season, winning the 1959 Rose Bowl 38-12 over California.
This 1958 show featured many creative pictures in conjunction with the favorite musical selections from The Music Man: a fancy drill routine set to the popular tune “76 Trombones,” a horse-drawn wagon set to “Wells Fargo Wagon,” and even a rotating barber pole set to an acappella vocal rendition of “Lida Rose.” Meredith guest conducted the band in The Iowa Fight Song as well as his popular “May the Lord Bless You and Keep You” as a sort of benediction to the 1958 football season.
Our Picture of the Week is an Our Iowa Heritage blog series that offers you a little bit of Iowa trivia from a large selection of stories on our website.