Here at Our Iowa Heritage, we want to do our part as well. That’s why, as we write posts about the history of our state, our county, and our community, we not only want to share the powerful stories of those names most everybody knows, but we also want to strive to bring you those uplifting stories of men and women who, for no other reason than racial or sexual prejudice, have been overlooked in our history.
As our series Rich Stories of Diversity grows, we hope this timeline will help you see that here in Iowa, we do have a very rich heritage of those who have gone before us – lighting the way
- pre-1673. Native American tribes make Iowa their home. (2), (3), (4)
- 1673. With the coming of the white man, Iowa’s pre-historic age ends, starting what archaeologists call Iowa’s historic age (1673-1885). (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7)
- 1700. Descendants of the Oneota Culture, the Ioway (Báxoje) Tribe have become the primary inhabitants of eastern Iowa – including today’s Johnson County. (2)
- 1701. The Meskwaki (Fox) tribe fights against the French in what is now called the Fox Wars (1712-1735). (2), (3), (4)
- 1735. Sauk and Meskwaki (Fox) tribes flee to Illinois/Iowa Mississippi River Valley, forced from Wisconsin by the French. (2), (3), (4)
- 1767. Sauk Chief Black Hawk is born in Saukenuk – near today’s Rock Island.
- 1787. Meskwaki Chief Poweshiek is born in Rock River Valley of Illinois. (2), (3)
- 1800. Governor Robert Lucas’ Quaker family moves from Virginia to southern Ohio, freeing their slaves, and becoming a part of the anti-slavery movement.
- 1804. Treaty forces Meskwaki (Fox) & Sauk tribes out of Illinois – relocate on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River. (2), (3), (4)
- 1832. The Black Hawk War ends – Sauk and Fox (Meskwaki) Tribes are forced to relocate to areas west of the Black Hawk Purchase. (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)
- 1832. Meskwaki Chiefs Poweshiek, Wapashashiek, and Totokonock relocate camps to Iowa River Valley – Johnson County. (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7)
- 1833. The Black Hawk Purchase is opened to white settlers. (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7)
- 1833. Alexander Levi arrives in Dubuque – Iowa’s first Jewish settler.
- 1834. Missouri slave, Ralph Montgomery, comes to Dubuque lead mines to work for his freedom.
- 1836. Chief Keokuk agrees to sell the Keokuk Reserve in a treaty at Ft. Armstrong, Illinois. (2), (3)
- 1837. The Second Black Hawk Purchase is negotiated, which will force the Sauk and Fox tribes further west of Johnson County. (2), (3)
- 1837. Frenchman Alexander Levi, living in Dubuque, becomes the first foreigner to be naturalized (U.S. citizenship) in Iowa.
- 1838. In January, seven pioneers gather at Gilbert’s Trading Post to plan out the future of Johnson County. Five white men, one black man (Mogawk), and one Native American woman (Jennie), working alongside three Meskwaki chiefs, make for extraordinary diversity. (2), (3)
- 1838. In Napoleon, John Gilbert, the small group of citizens of Johnson County, and the Meskwaki tribes join together for a festive July 4th celebration. It’s here, Chief Poweshiek offers his final blessing.
- 1838. Chief Poweshiek, his Meskwaki tribe, and others are forced to leave their camps in Johnson County. (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7)
- 1838. Iowa becomes part of the U.S. Territory of Iowa, which includes all of present-day Iowa, Minnesota, and parts of the Dakotas. (2), (3), (4)
- 1839. In their first court hearing, the newly-formed Iowa Supreme Court makes a landmark decision by granting Dubuque miner, Ralph Montgomery, freedom from his Missouri-based slave owner. (2), (3), (4)
- 1839. Abner Kneeland, a pantheist, arrives in Iowa after being arrested in Massachusetts for his religious beliefs. He and his followers seek to practice their religion freely.
- 1840. The first Mass in Iowa City was celebrated by the frontier missionary, Father Samuel C. Mazzuchelli, who became the founding pastor of St. Mary’s. (2)
- 1843. An east-central Iowa county, where many of the Meskwaki people settled after being moved out of Johnson County, is recognized, calling it Poweshiek County, in the chief’s honor. (2)
- 1845. The Sauk and Fox Tribes are forced to leave Iowa for reservations in Kansas. (2), (3)
- 1846. Iowa attains U.S. statehood as the 29th state in the Union, with the capital at Iowa City. (2), (3), (4), (5), (6)
- 1849. As Asa Whitney stumps for a transcontinental railroad, it turns out that his driving passion is to bring diverse people together, providing jobs and opportunities for the under-served across America.
- 1851. The State of Iowa eliminates a Territorial law banning interracial marriage.
- 1853. Professor Samuel Bacon arrives in Iowa City to become the leader of the newly-formed, state-sponsored Iowa School for the Blind.
- 1854. Newspaper editor Edmund Booth and Superintendent William E. Ijams join forces in Iowa City to start Iowa’s first School for the Deaf.
- 1854. The anti-slavery movement in Iowa takes a big step forward as James W. Grimes is elected Governor of Iowa.
- 1854. Meskwaki Chief Poweshiek dies in Kansas.
- 1855. Classes begin at the State University of Iowa, admitting both men and women on an equal basis. The 1856-57 student body numbered 124 – 93 men, 41 women.
- 1855. Johnson County secures 160 acres west of Iowa City, opening a county Poor Farm which remained open well into the 20th century – attempting to care for those in our community who could not care for themselves.
- 1856. George D. Woodin and others open up the Lane Trail, part of the Underground Railroad across Iowa.
- 1856. The General Assembly of Iowa passes an act permitting Native Americans still living in Iowa to remain here, particularly in Tama County.
- 1856. Alexander Levi, who came to Dubuque in 1833, organizes Iowa’s first Jewish congregation, meeting in a rented hall.
- 1857. The Sauk and Fox Tribes (Meskwaki) return to Iowa, buying 80 acres in Tama County. (2), (3)
- 1857. Iowa’s second state constitution is written, stating at its outset, “All men are, by nature, free and equal…” This phrase was amended to include women in 1998. The 1857 constitution also banned slavery, but limited voting to “Every white male citizen of the United States, of the age of twenty one years…” The word “white” was struck in 1868.
- 1858. In 1848, two old-school Democrats who supported slavery were appointed as Iowa’s first U.S. Senators, but by 1858, both were gone – replaced by two new faces who better represented Iowa’s anti-slavery viewpoint. (2), (3)
- 1859. With the help of Iowa City’s William Penn Clarke, John Brown, the abolitionist, networks through Iowa, via the Underground Railroad, on his way east to Harpers Ferry, Virginia, where his death serves as a catalyst to the Civil War. (2), (3), (4)
- 1859. Following the death of her husband in the 1859 Iowa City Tornado, the Johnson County pioneer – Calista Clarinda Worden Berry – refused to quit, and over the next 30 years became a living testimony to others – overcoming countless family tragedies to finish strong at age 80.
- 1859. The U.S. Hebrew Association of Iowa City was founded for the purpose of establishing a cemetery – Agudas Achim Cemetery – that serves the Jewish population of Johnson County.
- 1861. Governor Kirkwood calls for Iowa citizens to join the Union Army’s effort in the Civil War.
- 1862. The Sisters of Mercy (BVM) open St. Agatha’s Women’s Seminary in Iowa City and over the next fifty years (1862-1911) offer women one of the nation’s finest opportunities in equal education.
- 1863. Sgt. Major Alexander Clark of Muscatine presents troop flag to 1st Colored Regiment of Iowa in St. Louis as they head southward into the Civil War.
- 1863. President Abraham Lincoln issues his Emancipation Proclamation.
- 1864. The 17-year-old child prodigy – Vinnie Ream – begins her amazing sculpting career through a personal invitation from President Abraham Lincoln.
- 1865. On June 19th, the last remaining group of African American slaves – living in Galveston Bay, Texas – were told that the Civil War had ended and that they were now free! Juneteenth, 1865.
- 1865. Photographer Isaac Wetherby takes iconic photo of Old Capitol memorial service for President Abraham Lincoln. (2), (3), (4), (5), (6)
- 1865. As the Civil War ends, more African-Americans settle in Iowa City – building simple homes on Blocks 96-99 on the riverfront. (2)
- 1867. The United States government allows the Meskwaki living in Iowa to receive federal annuity payments for the first time.
- 1868. The Iowa Supreme Court rules in favor of Alexander Clark and his family, when Muscatine school board refuses to allow their daughter, Susan, to attend a public school. (2)
- 1868. The African-American community in Iowa City starts Zion AME Church (later renamed Bethel AME). (2)
- 1869. Quaker activist Joseph A. Dugdale issues a call for a state convention to organize the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association in Mt. Pleasant – 1,200 people attend.
- 1869. Iowa Supreme Court rules that women may not be denied the right to practice law in Iowa and admits Arabella B. Mansfield to the bar – the first woman in the United States to be granted a law license.
- 1870. The University of Iowa opens a medical school and admits both men and women.
- 1871. Amelia Jenks Bloomer from Council Bluffs becomes the first president of the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association. Over the next 50 years, Bloomer works diligently for a woman’s right to vote and becomes famous for wearing comfortable skirts and pants which bear her name.
- 1873. Judge Joseph M. Beck, Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court rules in favor of Emma Coger, an African American woman who was wrongfully discriminated against on a Mississippi RIver boat in September 1872. (2)
- 1873. The State University of Iowa becomes one of the first colleges in America to award a law degree to a woman – Mary B. Hickey Wilkinson.
- 1875. Emma Haddock of Iowa City becomes the first woman admitted to practice law before the United States federal courts. Three years later, the Iowa Supreme Court appoints Haddock to examine law students for admission to the bar. (2)
- 1876. The Boerner family, immigrants from Prussia, opens Boerner Pharmacy – one of Iowa City’s first drug stores. From its new location on Washington Street (1883), Boerner’s will serve Iowa City for 63 years.
- 1876. Jennie McCowen becomes one of the first women to graduate from the University of Iowa Medical Department. In 1884, she wrote, “In no state has it been more freely conceded that human interests are not one but many, and that the work of the world, broad and varied, must fall not upon one sex, nor upon one class, but that each individual, in return for benefit received, is in honor bound to bear his or her share of the burden.”
- 1879. Alexander Clark, Jr. becomes the first African American graduate of SUI School of Law – his father, Alexander Clark, Sr. follows in his footsteps in 1884. (2)
- 1883. Carrie C. Lane (Catt), age 24, becomes school superintendent of Mason City schools, one of the first women in US to hold such a position.
- 1886: The University’s first bachelor’s thesis, “A Brief Description of Nine Species of Hepaticae Found in the Vicinity of Iowa City,” was written by a woman, Mary F. Linder. One year later, Iowa’s first master’s thesis, “The History of the Common Frog,” was also written by a woman, Rose B. Ankeny Edgar.
- 1888. George Washington Carver relocates to Winterest, Iowa, enrolling at Simpson College in 1890, and becoming the first African-American student and faculty member at ISU (1891-1896).
- 1889. Eva Emery Dye – the American novelist known for writing poetic history – has her Iowa City story published in The Magazine of American History.
- 1891. Meet Paul & Rachel Ward – an older African-American couple living on Iowa City’s riverfront – Block 98.
- 1895. The State University of Iowa becomes one of the first colleges in America to place an African American on a varsity athletic squad – Frank “Kinney” Holbrook in track & football.
- 1895. Business college owner Elizabeth Irish becomes the only woman in the Iowa City Commercial Club – a forerunner to the Chamber of Commerce. (2)
- 1897. The Sisters of Mercy open Mercy Hospital – Iowa City.
- 1900. Carrie Chapman Catt becomes the first president of the National Woman Suffrage Association.
- 1905. At the turn of the 20th century, a set of decorative penny postcards was produced by the Meskwaki Tribe in Tama County, Iowa.
- 1905. George H. Woodson, an attorney from Buxton, Iowa, co-founds the Niagara Movement. It later became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
- 1906. 26-year-old Effie Mae Proffitt starts her music studio in Unity Hall and over the next three years it develops into SUI’s School of Music.
- 1906. Iowa Supreme Court holds in State v. Amana Society that the Society had not violated state corporate law in establishing a system of communistic ownership and management of property based on its religious beliefs.
- 1907. Lulu M. Johnson, Johnson County’s namesake, is born in Gravity, Iowa.
- 1912: The first African American women to graduate from the State University of Iowa were Letta (Cary) Bledsoe and Adah (Hyde) Johnson. Both were from Des Moines and received their degrees from the College of Liberal Arts on July 26.
- 1915. The NAACP organizes an Iowa chapter in Des Moines – S. Joe Brown is the first president.
- 1917. After years of labor, child welfare advocate Cora B. Hillis finally convinces the state legislature to fund the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station (ICWRS) at SUI – becoming the nation’s top research center for childhood development over the next 57 years.
- 1918. Mildred Whitcomb, of Ottumwa, Iowa, is named editor of The Daily Iowan, becoming the newspaper’s first female editor and one of the first women to head an American college daily newspaper.
- 1920. The hard work of Iowa’s own Carrie C. Catt and others culminates in the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote.
- 1920. The last homes and businesses located on Blocks 96-99 on the Iowa River – west of Old Capitol – are scheduled for removal – making way for the new SUI Student Union. (2)
- 1921. H.D. Short and his two sons become Iowa City’s first black businessmen, opening their Shoe Repair business at 18 S. Clinton Street.
- 1921. All-American Duke Slater leads Iowa to a mythical national championship in college football, highlighted by a 10-7 victory over Knute Rockne’s Fighting Irish.
- 1921. Carrie C. Catt becomes the first woman to deliver a commencement address at Iowa State University.
- 1922. Black businessman J.B. Morris buys The Iowa Bystander newspaper. With the help of the NAACP, his wife and his brother, Morris launches the Bystander statewide.
- 1922. Voters elect May Francis as Iowa Superintendent of Public Instruction, and she becomes the first woman elected to a statewide office in Iowa.
- 1922. Emma J. Harvat becomes an international celebrity when she was elected as, not only Iowa City’s first female mayor, but the first woman mayor of a United States municipality with a population exceeding 10,000!
- 1924: Eve Drewelow earned Iowa’s first Master of Arts degree in painting, following the University’s decision two years earlier to accept creative work in lieu of theses for graduate degrees.
- 1925. A group of attorneys, including two Iowans — George H. Woodson and S. Joe Brown — found the National Bar Association. The NBA was the first association of African American legal professionals.
- 1926. Carrie C. Catt is featured on the cover of Time magazine.
- 1928. Carolyn Pendray becomes the first woman elected to the Iowa Legislature. She was elected to the House in 1928 and the Senate in 1932.
- 1931. Allyn and Helen Lemme return to Iowa City – opening their home to African American SUI students who are shut out of dorms due to racial prejudice.
- 1932. Viola (Ola) Babcock Miller becomes the first woman elected Iowa Secretary of State. Miller was an early woman’s suffrage leader in the state. In 1935, she convinces the Legislature that a statewide law enforcement agency is needed, particularly to enforce highway safety laws. The Iowa State Patrol is created in 1935 and placed under Miller’s control.
- 1934. Racial targeting of All-American Ozzie Simmons at Iowa’s Homecoming game raises tension between Iowa and Minnesota. The two governor’s cool things off with a friendly wager in 1935 using a prized hog named Floyd of Rosedale. (2)
- 1934. The first mosque in North America opens in Cedar Rapids, known as “The Mother Mosque.”
- 1936. Fifteen months before her untimely death, America’s aviator – Amelia Earhart – comes to Iowa City – speaking to a sellout crowd at the ISU Memorial Union.
- 1939. Aviator Paul B. Shaw begins CAA Civilian Pilot Training Program at Iowa City Airport – first class includes SUI coed Sally Johnson.
- 1941. Lulu Merle Johnson became the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. from an Iowa institution and among about a dozen black women in the nation to achieve such status at that time.
- 1944. During WWII, journalism student Dorothy “Dottie” Klein becomes the editor of SUI’s Daily Iowan, overseeing the DI’s first all-female staff, including a sports writer who was the first female reporter allowed on SUI’s press row for sporting events.
- 1948. USPS celebrates George Washington Carver, who was educated in Iowa, and made a huge contribution to the world of agriculture and science. A second commemorative is released in 1998 as well.
- 1948. Civil rights activists picket outside Katz Drug Store in downtown Des Moines, where Edna Griffin was refused service at the lunch counter because she was black.
- 1954. The U.S. Supreme Court rules against segregated schools in Brown v. Board of Education, 86 years after the Iowa Supreme Court made the same decision.
- 1958. Rev. Fred L. Penny and his family move to Iowa City to take over leadership of Bethel AME Church. (2), (3)
- 1959. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks to a standing-room-only crowd gathered in the SUI Memorial Union Ballroom.
- 1959. Dottie Ray premieres on KXIC Radio, The Dottie Ray Show, which will successfully run in Iowa City for 55 years.
- 1961. Simon Estes, music student at SUI, meets vocal instructor Charlie Kellis, who opens doors for Estes to become the world-renowned opera singer he is today.
- 1961. Thelma B. Lewis becomes Iowa City’s second woman mayor.
- 1966. National protests, sit-ins and marches, coinciding with the construction of I-235 directly through a bustling black neighborhood, leads to the Good Park Rebellion in Des Moines.
- 1968. After attending a Black Panther Party rally in California, Mary Rhem, 19, returns to Des Moines, starting the first Black Panther branch in Iowa.
- 1969. Lolly Parker Eggers comes in staff at the Iowa City Public Library. Over the next twenty-five years she becomes a true mover-n-shaker for women’s rights across Johnson County.
- 1969. One year after her death, the Iowa Art Guild publishes Sketches of Historic Iowa – a collection of art from Harriet P. Macy – an art teacher from Des Moines – 38 years – who taught the beauty of diversity to all of her students.
- 1970. Iowa City opens a new elementary school, naming it after long-time civil rights activist and community leader, Helen Lemme.
- 1970. 69-year-old Mae Driscoll opens her boarding house for mentally-impaired friends – one of which is Iowa City’s famed icon – Bill Sackter.
- 1970. The University of Iowa becomes the first state university to recognize the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Allied Union.
- 1973. Dr. Christine Grant becomes the University of Iowa’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women – a national pioneer and influential voice for gender equity in collegiate athletics.
- 1976. Mary C. Neuhauser becomes Iowa City’s third woman mayor.
- 1978. James Alan McPherson becomes the first African-American to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction with his collection of essays, “Elbow Room.”
- 1980. The Iowa Supreme Court decides that a child custody order could not be modified merely because the custodial parent was in an interracial relationship. This decision came four years before the U.S. Supreme Court would reach the same conclusion on federal grounds.
- 1981. CBS broadcasts ‘Bill’ – the amazing story of ‘Wild Bill’ Sackter and his Coffee Shop that opened in 1975 in the UI School of Social Work. Bill not only survived 44 years in a Minnesota mental institution, but went on to become a national celebrity – an icon of hope for impaired people.
- 1983. UI School of Social Work Professor Tom Walz takes the vision of Bill Sackter and his coffee shop and over the next 35 years spreads the work across Iowa City and beyond.
- 1986. Justice Linda K. Neuman becomes the first woman to serve on the Iowa Supreme Court and Jo Ann Zimmerman – the first female Iowa Lieutenant Governor.
- 1990. Bonnie J. Campbell becomes the first female Iowa Attorney General.
- 1990. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 becomes law. Iowa’s U.S. Senator, Tom Harkin, is one of the authors of the bill.
- 1991. Union Park – the green space just south of IMU – is renamed for Philip G. Hubbard – SUI’s first African-American professor. (2)
- 1992. Women’s suffrage leader Carrie C. Catt is honored with the highest award for an Iowa citizen, The Iowa Award.
- 1992. The Mid-City Vision Coalition advocates better inner-city neighborhoods in Des Moines.
- 1996. Simon Estes is given The Iowa Award, the highest honor given to an Iowa citizen. (2)
- 1998. USPS celebrates Ioway chief, White Cloud.
- 2002. George Washington Carver is given The Iowa Award, the highest honor given to a resident of our state. (2)
- 2006. Iowa City’s first mayor of color is elected: African-American Ross Wilburn.
- 2007. Renée Sueppel and her team begin The Women at Iowa Project – produced by the Council on the Status of Women and the University of Iowa cable network (UITV) and designed to tell the stories of recent Iowa women graduates.
- 2009. The Shattering Silence monument is dedicated in Des Moines, honoring Ralph Montgomery and the Iowa Supreme Court on the 170th anniversary of their landmark decision setting Montgomery free from his Missouri-based slave owner.
- 2010. Romonda Belcher-Ford becomes the first female, African-American judge in Iowa.
- 2012. The Meskwaki Language Preservation (MLP) Program begins teaching the native language to a new generation.
- 2012. The Iowa City Mosque purchased six acres of property with the plans of developing Al-Iman Cemetery, which will serve the growing Muslim community of Johnson County.
- 2016. Linda Upmeyer becomes the first female Iowa House Speaker.
- 2018. Bethel AME Church in Iowa City celebrates its 150th anniversary. (2)
- 2019. The Muscatine Board of Education makes good on its discriminatory past, naming their new middle school for Susan Clark – the 12-year-old black student it banned from attending public schools in 1868.
- 2020. Iowa City’s second mayor of color – African-American Bruce A. Teague – is elected.
- 2020. George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis rekindles a national Black Lives Matter movement.
- 2021. Johnson County officially makes African-American Lulu M. Johnson, Iowa Ph.D., its county namesake. (2)
- 2021. Juneteenth – the remembrance of June 19, 1865 – when blacks in Texas first heard about Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 – becomes a national holiday.
- 2021. Iowa City honors Simon Estes with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
- 2021. Iowa City honors the thirty-year veteran of the Iowa Writers Workshop, James Alan McPherson, by renaming a city park in his memory. (2), (3)
- 2021. The football field in Kinnick Stadium is named for All-American Duke Slater, star of Iowa’s 1921 national championship team, and one of the first African-Americans given this high award.
- 2021. Iowa City, Johnson County, and UI all take positive steps in breaking down long-standing walls of racial discrimination, honoring James Alan McPherson, Lulu Johnson, and Duke Slater respectively, while electors welcome both a Sudanese and a Vietnamese woman to public office.
- 2022. Johnson County’s newest historical site – Remembrance Park – is dedicated. (2)
- 2022. Nearly 200 years after the 1838 treaty that forced the tribe from the state, the Ioway once again have land in Iowa – seven acres in Johnson County.
- 2023. The term “woke” is being used as a slam against those who, like Lincoln in 1860, are standing for social justice and racial equality. Do we understand the historical significance?
- 2023. A new NCAA record is set on October 15, 2023, when the University of Iowa Women’s Basketball team draws the largest single-game attendance for a women’s basketball game – Crossover At Kinnick.
- 2023-2024. Iowa women’s basketball star – Caitlin Clark – breaks every record in the NCAA books as the UI Hawkeye Women’s Basketball Team captures America’s heart – The Catlin Clark Effect.
- 2024. Krysty Bujakowska – the Iowa Women’s Basketball Team’s Kid Captain – passes away (at age 13) after a 3-year battle with bone cancer.
- 2025. Iowa women’s basketball star – Caitlin Clark – returns to Iowa City for her jersey (#22) retirement ceremony.
- 2025. Iowa WBB Coach Jan Jensen and former Hawkeye WBB star Kate Martin pay a fund-raising visit to the Coralville Community Food Pantry.
Read more her-stories – Women of Iowa who truly impacted our community, our state and beyond.
Kudos to the amazing resources below for the many quotes, photographs, etc. used on this page.
University Archives: Resource Guide to University ‘Firsts’, University of Iowa Libraries
A Timeline of Iowa’s Civil Rights History, City of Dubuque
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