June 24, 2021 – Johnson County, Iowa “officially” changes the county’s eponym (namesake), placing Iowa’s very own Lulu Merle Johnson (1907-1995) into that lofty position.

On June 24, 2021, Johnson County, Iowa did something counties rarely do. Originally named for the ninth Vice President of the United States, Richard M. Johnson (1837-1841), the Johnson County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to change our county’s eponym, placing Lulu Merle Johnson into that position. Johnson was a BA and MA graduate of The University of Iowa (1930), the second African-American woman in the U.S. to earn a Ph.D. in History, and the first to receive a Doctorate of any kind in Iowa!

READ MORE HERE…

This Day In History 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. Subscribe to this FREE blog and you’ll get a new email from us daily. Click to learn more.

Click here to go on to the next date…