Finding Dubuque

BLACK RELIGIOUS WORSHIP and PIONEERS NATHANIEL & CHARLOTTE MORGAN

Among the 1830s settlers of Dubuque were Charlotte and Nathaniel Morgan. Charlotte was one of the financial contributors to the first church in Iowa, erected at the northwest corner of 6th and Locust, which was dedicated on August 23, 1934. By 1835, the Morgans were landowners of Lot One in the Village of Dubuque, a prominent property at the corners of First & Main Street, which then was nearer to the Mississippi River.

By 1839, the Methodist congregation erected a new church one block north, calling it the Centenary Church, built 100 years after the evangelical conversion of the Methodist Church founder John Wesley.

Black Dubuquers formed what we know as the first entirely Black church as early as 1868, when a city directory lists a "colored church" at the corner of Seventh and Locust Streets. They moved into the Centenary Methodist Church which served Black Dubuquers through 1880. This location was listed as a "Colored School" between the years of 1866-1877, when the Dubuque School Board rented the basement from the owner, the Methodist Episcopal Church. By 1870, city directories list the African Methodist Episcopal Church led by Rev. Ward.

By 1880, the AME Church organized to build a church on Robinson Avenue, the only church in Dubuque known to have been built just for that purpose. It operated at least through the 1920s.

Sources suggest that by the 1910s, the AME church had between 100 and 150 congregants. It was a simple wood frame structure, and many members considered it inadequate. (As a point of reference, in 1902 the Iowa State Bystander reported there were only 75 men women and children remaining in Dubuque.)

In 1924, Rev. I Wilbur Bess, pastor at St. Peter's AME Church approached St. John's Episcopal Church leadership and proposed the latter purchase the vacant Zion church at 1699 Jackson Street and asked that the AME members to utilize it. According to St. John's vestry minutes (June 2, 1924), the AME church members would become Episcopalians and join St. John's Parish with services segregated among the two churches. The Episcopalian bishop in the end attributed that the move "would not be the proper way to obtain new members," and the vestry refused the AME congregation.

At some point, it appears the congregation abandoned the building along Robinson Avenue. In 1934, the St. Peter AME Church is listed at 596 University Avenue, a residence of Mrs. Sarah Cooper. (The year before, the Prince Hall Masons, a Black Masonic order, also called the site home.)

A 1942 Church Directory published in the Telegraph Herald lists the Sunday school room in St. Luke's Cathedral as the location for AME Church services. The Robinson Avenue location, the only structure built specifically for the AME church, was razed sometime before 1956 when urban renewal in Dubuque removed traces of Rock Street, East Rock Street and Robinson Avenue.

More about Nathaniel Morgan

Despite being a founder of Dubuque, early landowner and contributor to the community, in 1840, Nathaniel Morgan, husband to Charlotte, was brutally lynched by a group of men accusing him of stealing clothes from the hotel where he worked. The men were acquitted, despite their crime of a violent, public murder.

CHARLOTTE & NATHANIEL MORGAN

The Morgans were amoung founders of Dubuque. Charlotte is listed as a financial contributor to the first church in what would become the state of Iowa, at 6th and Locust Streets, which opened for services in 1834. By 1835, she and her husband Nathaniel purchased "Lot One in the Village of Dubuque", a prominent property near the river at the corner of 1st and Main Streets, the quintessential center of any community, and certainly Dubuque. They were not alone as Black landowners at the center of Dubuque, joined by the Aaron and Arthur families who were land and business owners in Dubuque's early days.

Resentment took hold of members of the White community. In 1840, newspaper accounts in Dubuque and Galena describe the lynching of Nathaniel, brutally beaten and dragged around the community until his death, and then being reposited by the murderers to Charlotte at their home.

Three leaders of the mob were tried for murder but eventually were acquitted, on account that the intention to commit murder was not proven.

Charlotte continued to live in Dubuque, listed in the 1850 census living with two miners, and in the 1863 directories with another man named Coren Morgan, who may have been brother to Nathaniel. She is no longer a land owner.

RALPH MONTGOMERY

Rafe Nelson, later known as Ralph Montgomery, was a man born into the institution of slavery in Virginia c.1795 and came to Dubuque to work and pay his way out. Ralph, who, in commonplace practice, was given the last name of his captor Jorden J. Montgomery, came to an agreement with him that if in five years Ralph could earn and pay a debt of $500 plus interest, he would be freed. (Today's equivalent would be about $19,000.) He came to Dubuque upon hearing of lucrative lead mining and worked to save the money. By 1839 Ralph had amassed the majority of the debt, but Jordan Montgomery disagreed that the debt was met and ordered his capture and return to Missouri.

The case came before the Iowa Supreme Court in 1839 in Ralph's favor. The Court's first ever decision found that Ralph should pay his debt, but held that "no man in this territory can be reduced to slavery." They rejected the argument that Ralph was a fugitive slave, reasoning that by allowing him to leave Missouri and reside in a free state, Montgomery could no longer exercise any right over him in the Iowa territory. Ralph Montgomery passed away at the age of 75 in 1870.

EDUCATION IN THE 19TH CENTURY

The Dubuque School Board records reach back to the 1830s. Coupled with information gleaned from the newspaper and city directories, we piece together the issue of schooling for Black children, including forming a segregated school and the pressure of integration in the 1860s and 1870s.

The Public School Board minutes of June 3, 1864 report that "Miss S. Moreriny (sp) has opened a school for the children of American citizens of African (descent) and has had the same in operation for nearly two months, maintaining attendance is about 20 children of all ages, with 13 in regular attendance." Discussion continues over the next two years, when the school is opened again in the spring of 1866.

The Centenary Church served as a location for both the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and for the Dubuque School Board to lease out the basement starting in 1866 for five dollars per month for the use of a "colored school." It is unclear where the previous school met (from 1864), but it may have been at the first 1833 church building at the northwest corner of Sixth and Locust Streets.

SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS

Black Dubuquers belonged to a variety of social and fraternal organizations. While some groups put up explicit and implicit barriers to keep African Americans from joining, Black Dubuquers joined the organizations they could or started their own, a testament to their power and perseverance.

John Logan, a local barber that worked in barbershops (1890s) and later operated a barbershop business himself (1901-1911) is pictured in the above image of the Barbers Local 429 labor union. Being part of the union afforded Logan the ability to adhere to set prices with other barbers, ensuring a more even playing field. Logan lived on West Rock Street in 1890, and later moved to 43 West 8th Street and 141 Julien (University) Avenue.

A. "Biff" Martin participated in the first and oldest Boy Scout troop in the area, according to a Telegraph Herald retrospective article. Troop #5 was formed in Dubuque in 1917.

We know of two Martin families who were Black living in Dubuque in 1917. If a guesstimate of Biff's age is 14 in the 1920 picture above, five years later he would have been 19 and potentially listed in the City Directories.

The Masons: One organization in Dubuque for African Americans was the Prince Hall Masons. A branch of Freemasonry founded by Prince Hall in 1784, Prince Hall Masons are the largest and oldest African American Fraternal Organization in the United States. Dubuque's Lodge No. 29 was active in the early to mid-20th Century. The chapter had an Order of the Eastern Star auxiliary organization associated with it as well. Members represented some of Dubuque's most well known African American families.

In the 1913 City Directory, the Masonic Hall (Col.) is listed at 636 Main Street and not associated with the Masonic Temple at the southwest corner of Locust and 11th Sts. A 1933 announcement for the Prince Hall Lodge 29 lists 596 University Avenue (then Julien Avenue) as their location.

This 1883 City Directory lists Henry Rose, who became a well-known doctor in Dubuque, as Vice President of the local chapter. The International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor is an African-American fraternal organization best known as the sponsor of the Taborian Hospital. It was founded as the International Order of Twelve in 1846 as an antislavery society. The location was in Bush's Hall, at Bush's Block.

DR. HENRY C. ROSE

Dr. Henry C. Rose was a remarkable Dubuque figure, arriving around 1870 to the City of Dubuque following the Civil War. He was born c. 1847-1844 in Missouri, and it is unclear whether he was born into the institution of slavery. Rose served in a Missouri unit during the Civil War in the 11th Missouri State Militia Cavalry, Company E from 1862-65. It is unclear whether Rose was an enlisted soldier or more likely, contracted as a non-combatant military personnel serving the company quartermaster. He was recognized by his White comrades and fellow Dubuque veterans for his service to the Union Cause. He often went by Colonel Rose and used the name in business later.

In the 1880s, Henry Rose purchased the house he was living in at 654 Seminary Hill, now Clarke Drive and pictured on the main page. He and his wife Kathrine Derbe, married in 1883, a White German woman, raised their three children there (sons Harry Walter, August J. and William Henry). He sold the home at auction in 1891. (A photo of the Rose family home is featured as the background image.)

The Telegraph Herald reports the purchase at auction by Rose on June 16, and then two weeks later reports a claim of a White woman secretly purchasing the home for her husband as a trick to the neighbors. This was Kate and Henry Rose's last home.

In the mid-1890s, Rose became a chiropodist (podiatrist) and set up offices at the Bank & Insurance Building (today the Fischer Building) and at the Hotel Julien.

Dr. Rose later befriended a young man, Henry A. Martin serving as a porter at Clay's Barber Shop in 1912, and encouraged him to become a chiropodist. Martin earned his degree and set up an office in Dubuque. Four of his children followed in his footsteps, including daughter Hattie in 1938 and even Martin's grandchildren. Dr. Rose supported his community and was well known and respected in Dubuque, as communicated in the article below.

On December 17, 1919, Dr. Henry Rose succumbed to a five week long illness. A funeral service was held at his West 14th Street home, with a procession to the African Methodist Church. He was buried with his late wife Kate and unnamed "Baby Rose" in Linwood Cemetery, and was survived by his second wife Mamie Rose.

His cemetery plot is was rediscovered in January 2022. In 2023 a stone was donated and laid at their plot. The community celebrated with the Sons of the Union Veterans of the Civil War honor guard at a ceremony on October 1, 2023.

DR. HENRY A. MARTIN & FAMILY

Henry Ambrose Martin, born in Natchitoches, Louisiana in 1874, came to Dubuque around 1905 and had various jobs, including as a porter at Clay's Barber Shop in 1912 at 926 Main St. At the time, he and his wife Mattie were living upstairs. The building today is Yen Ching Restaurant, with an expanded footprint and following the removal of two floors following various 20th Century fires.

By 1916, he had become a chiropodist (podiatrist), influenced by his mentor Dr. Henry C. Rose, also a practicing Black chiropodist in Dubuque. By October 1917, he opened an office in the basement of the Bank & Insurance Building (today the Fischer Building).

In 1918, Henry and wife Mattie were living at 47 W. 8th Street (later 615 W. 8th).

City directories are not available between the years of 1919-1920, and by 1921 the Martins are listed at 712 Julien Avenue (later University). Henry Rose's son Harry was also living at this address. (This is the same duplex where Florine Johnson and her family lived in 1955-56, opposite of Edwin & Pearl Martin. Mrs. Martin ran a Greenbook Tourist Home after the death of Mr. Martin.)

Several of Henry and Mattie's children and grandchildren went on to become podiatrists. Their son Robert L. Martin became an engineer at Iowa State University and served as a Captain in World War II as part of the Tuskegee Airmen unit. He serves as the namesake for the commercial terminal at the Dubuque Regional Airport.

CAPTAIN ROBERT L. MARTIN

Robert L. Martin, son of Dr. & Mrs. Henry & Mattie Martin, was born in Dubuque in 1919. A resident of the 8th Street Neighborhood, he was raised with eight siblings at the Martin Family home at 560 Hill Street.

THE KU KLUX KLAN IN DUBUQUE

The following images are from a Dubuque County Ku Klux Klan rally in 1926. The images were donated to the City of Dubuque as part of a larger collection of photographs, known as the Mullholland Collection. The Klan saw a surge in membership in Dubuque and nationwide during the 1920s, following the Great War, with a focus against Catholic, German, and Black people.

Tim Horsfield, former City employee, helped preserve the images.

THE KU KLUX KLAN IN DUBUQUE

The following images are from an envelope, enclosed note, and a piece of lumber, found inside a newel post at 2270 Woodworth Street. The pieces were placed there in 1926 when the house was constructed by the owner Grover Cleve Hoch and other named builders. This was the same year the Ku Klux Klan rally took place along Peru Road in Dubuque. The documentation identifies all the builders as "100% American..., men belonging to the order of the Ku Klux Klan and 100% Masons."

The practice of hiding building plans or a time capsule in a newel post is fairly common. This collection identifies local Klan members who constructed the house.

The cover map highlights three properties:

2270 Woodworth Street (in yellow) - built 1925-1926, property developed and owned by Grover C. Hoch, and later occupied by his family through 1946. He was an active Masonic Lodge member and became a top leader in the 1930s and 1940s.

795 Seminary Hill, now 795 Clarke Drive (in green) where 16 year old Ellsworth Avery lived at the time, and is listed as "utility man" for the project. (Avery does not have a number by his name like the others on the wood artifact.)

771 Seminary Hill, now 771 Clarke Drive (in pink) residence of G. C. Hoch in 1927.

Wilbert L. Hansel, listed as "carpenter" for the project, lived further east at 409 Seminary Hill.

The following are images of the information found within the newel post at 2270 Woodworth Street:

THE SCOTT FAMILY

Patricia and Samuel Scott's family moved to Dubuque in the 1940s. The family attended the Catholic church and their children were enrolled in the parochial schools. The Scotts were among the few black families remaining in Dubuque in the 1950s.

The Scott family's home was lost to demolition in the early 21st Century, part of the distinctive row houses along 8th Street that are pictured in a 1934 photograph from the Dubuque Health & Housing Survey (see cover image). It looks down 8th Street toward the intersection with University Avenue. Sandra Scott continues to live in the West 8th Street neighborhood.

RUBY SUTTON, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST

Ruby Sutton and her family settled on Air Hill in the early 1950s. She helped found the Community Action Agency and worked dilligently through her career and personal life to help Blacks and other people in Dubuque with civil rights issues.

COVER: The West 8th Street Neighborhood following the 1956 urban renewal removing Robinson Avenue, Rock Street and East Rock Street. Air Hill Street, home to the Suttons, is at the top left of center.

Florine Moore's memory of her early years in Dubuque are fond ones. She was born in Dubuque 1947 and moved away when she was nine years old.

She lived at 607 West 8th Street and later moved into 712 University Avenue, which was a duplex. The other unit was the home of Pearl & Edwin Martin. Florine remembers visiting the day when Mr. Martin died. She remembers him on the floor of the kitchen with a blanket over him. Florine's mother Mags shoed her away. It was a scary time for Florine.

Mrs. Martin operated the home as a Green Book Tourist home, a safe place where Black out-of-towners could stay for the night while visiting Dubuque and get a meal during a time when segregation and refusal of service to Blacks was commonplace.

Florine's parents Mag and Mason Johnson (pictured at top) came to Dubuque for Mason to work on with the Illinois Central Railroad, which allowed her family to ride for free to different places. Florine remembers her mother packing a shoebox of fried chicken to eat on the train. As a young girl, she did not know whether they brought their own food because they were not allow to go to the dining car, or if it was because they did not have a lot of money to purchase food. Florine's mother Mags mother worked as a maid at Clarke College while in Dubuque.

Florine remembers visiting Kissel Grocery at the northeast corner of Spruce Street and University. As a small child, she took an apple from the fruit baskets that were outside without asking. The owner told her parents and she said after her father was done with her, she never stole anything ever again!

Today Florine lives in Waterloo. Her her family moved away from Dubuque in 1956, coinciding with the time of urban renewal which removed homes and buildings along Robinson Avenue, Rock and East Rock Streets. She says in Waterloo, Dubuque can have a reputation to be racist. However, her experience was that the Black children in Waterloo were mean to her when she moved, and she longed to move back to Dubuque. Ms. Moore returned to Dubuque in November 2022 to share her story with other Dubuquers and learn more about Dubuque's Black heritage.

RESTRICTIVE RACIAL COVENANTS

Exclusionary or restrictive covenants, a device used to discriminate against people of color, were commonplace across America and utilized in Dubuque. In the two neighborhoods known to have these covenants in Dubuque, the deeds were placed on the properties in the 1930s and 1940s prior to their development, as a way of preventing Blacks from moving into a certain area. Banks and lending institutions followed federally sanctioned redlining maps to prevent Black migration, and further segregate Dubuque's Black population.

Dubuque's own map was based on a Slum and Blight Map created as part of a New Deal-funded survey of Dubuque's Health and Housing in 1934, conducted by the Iowa State Planning Board.

In the 1930s and 1940s, prior to the development of the Deereville Neighborhood in Dubuque, 73 lots between Hillcrest, Asbury and Avalon Roads had restrictive covenants added to their titles. These covenants identified that "lots shall not be sold or leased to a person of the negro race." Most of the houses were built in 1947 and the Supreme Court declared the covenants "unenforceable" through the Shelley vs. Kraemer decision in 1948.

Along Simpson Street, near Fremont Avenue in Dubuque, were three lots that were purchased and subdivided into seven lots by Ed and Marie Alber in 1941. With a long list of other restrictive covenants, including building residency restrictions, they placed a racial covenant in a deed that was filed with the title for the properties. They called out that the lots were to be sold only to persons of the Caucasian race, and that only domestic servants of a different race were allowed to reside at those lots with the owners or tenants, who were Caucasian. The houses were built in the late 1940s.

Do you know of other racial or religious discrimination covenants placed on the titles or abstracts of properties in Dubuque? The City of Dubuque seeks further information of restrictive covenants to further understand its housing and development history. Contact Planning Services at 563-589-4210 or planning@cityofdubuque.org.

SR. LUCY WILLIAMS, OSF

Sister Lucy Wiliams was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 29, 1933 to Lincoln and Charlotte Curtis Williams. The family converted to Catholicism following entering their children at the Corpus Christi School in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood. As a student, she was taught by the Dubuque Franciscans and decided she wanted to be a sister from early on. She entered the Mount St. Francis on in 1953, living in Dubuque for three years and then returning to the Corpus Christi School to teach.

She taught around the country during her lifetime and in 1968 became an active member in the National Black Sisters Conference, co-chairing the committee of the Conference. She resigned her position as a principal in 2005 and died that year on November 1, following her diagnosis of cancer.

Found among Sr. Lucy's things by her fellow sisters was a poem by Lind H. Hollies entitled Bodacious Black Women:

In the origin of articulated history, the Divine Designer gathered rich, dark, bittersweet chocolate, and mixed it with love, intelligence, and dynamism to fashion the Black Woman.

The entire human race issued forth from her abundant womb. The Creator watched this production and declared, "Very good!"

This story is possible through sharing from community members David Vanderah and Sr. Lucy's sisters at Mount Saint Francis. The cover photo is Sr. Lucy teaching around 1960 at Corpus Christi School in Chicago.

THE GREEN BOOK IN DUBUQUE

"The Negro Motorist's Green-Book," most commonly referred to as The Green Book, was an invaluable resource for African American travelers in the time of open segregation. Published by Victor Green between 1936 and 1967, the Green Book listed locations where African American travelers could eat, sleep, or play without being turned away. Even in northern states like Iowa, the Green Book was a valuable resource because even without explicit laws, some businesses overtly or covertly refused service to Black patrons.

Many editions of the Green Book list only a few locations in Dubuque. Two houses in the West 8th Street neighborhood are listed as tourist homes--essentially a 20th century Airbnb--for many years. The buildings still stand today.

The 1957 edition of the Green Book also lists the Canfield Hotel and Frantz Motel (located in Fort Dodge, wrongly attributed to Dubuque). Even with these options, the places where Black travelers to Dubuque could stay were limited.

LORAS COLLEGE | BLACK CULTURE AND EMPOWERMENT

This section was written, researched and compiled by Catherine Koetz, Archival Intern, Loras College Center for Dubuque History. Work was overseen by Professor Kristin Anderson-Bricker. Loras College is a partner in the Black Heritage Survey.

In 1969, the Students for Human Rights and the Intellectual Affairs Committee joined their efforts to write a “Study of Inequities at Loras College.” It stated that “The cultural bias of Loras is definitely oriented toward the standards of middle class white America.” They pointed to the lack of black speakers brought on campus in recent years, the only one of whom the students identified with was militant preacher Rev. James Groppi.

The students closely identified themselves with leaders like Malcolm X, who famously stated, “A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself.” The Inequities Study ultimately asked Loras College, “Can black students feel comfortable in their own life style, or must they conform to the white life style?”

In the early 1970’s, black students from Loras, The University of Dubuque, and Clarke University came together to put on “A Black Art Experience,” in the St. Joseph Auditorium. Students would perform skits and dances, sing songs, and read poetry and stories about the black American experience. They invited everyone from their schools to attend to learn more about black culture.

THE BLACK FLOOR

In the fall of 1968, a group of black students asked if they could live together in one place to create a feeling of unity on campus. About 15 black and 35 supportive white students lived together on the fourth floor of Keane Hall, known as “The Black Floor." The students took the initial idea for the Black Floor to Rev. Eugene Kutsch, Dean of Men.

"One of the things that happened, one of the black students who was a real leader… and he said, ‘Would it be possible for the black students to live on the fourth floor? We have the white students who are interested come and join us.’ And I asked them there for their reasons. And I won't talk about exactly what they told me, but I think was pretty much [that] they have their own space, you know, and they have a place where they were very comfortable with each other. And so I said it would be okay." Eugene Kutch, April 2022 Interview

Greg Rhodes, a black student councilor and senior residing on the fourth floor said in the Telegraph Herald, “We have formed to educate ourselves and the white campus. We have come together for identity purposes, so we can identify with ourselves." They hoped to challenge their own idea that “black is bad.” Rhodes also offers an eloquent definition of black power, saying, “Black power is the black man accepting himself as black. That is, he is proud of being black. He accepts his skin, his superficialities. Black power is black people coming together, controlling their own economic, social, and political aspects of life.”

Reactions to the black floor were mixed, many people felt like the college was encouraging segregation on its campus. Kutsch acknowledged these concerns in the Telegraph Herald, saying that "any student should feel at home at Loras. I did not think about it in terms of segregation." The students wanted to create a space on campus to get away from discrimination on campus and in the city of Dubuque. Kutsch also ties hesitancy surrounding the black floor to the bigger picture, saying that "The problem on this campus is not a misunderstanding of black power. The problem is the white racism-- an unwillingness to accept black people. But Loras is just a reflection of the rest of America, and America is racist.”

LORAS COLLEGE | THE ATHLETIC HAIR POLICY

This section was written, researched and compiled by Catherine Koetz, Archival Intern, Loras College Center for Dubuque History

Fall of 1968 marked the beginning of notable tensions between black students and the college. Greg Rhodes, a senior and a member of the basketball team, took issue with the athletic facial hair policy which required him to shave his goatee. On September 30, 1968, Mr. John Coe, Assistant Professor of Physical Education, sent a letter to Monsignor Justin A. Driscoll, president of Loras College, to argue for the continuance of the current athletic hair policy. Rhodes quit the basketball team to maintain his facial hair, which Kutsch explained to be “somewhat a cultural thing.”

In late November, President Driscoll notified the campus body that he made a committee "to decide whether or not the present policy on grooming is necessary for the advancement of a favorable image of Loras College.”

The Ad Hoc Committee he formed suggested that the facial hair policy should be changed to a general grooming policy stating, “…after due consideration of the issues involved regarding the hair policy of the Loras College coaching staff does recommend to the staff that it abolish the policy in question.” Driscoll responded to the committee’s findings but did not act to change the policy immediately. He suggested the policy be changed for the following academic year.

LORAS COLLEGE | THE SIT IN AT HENION MANOR

This section was written, researched and compiled by Catherine Koetz, Archival Intern, Loras College Center for Dubuque History

On November 3 ^rd , 1969 at approximately 1:15 PM, 16 black students began a 13-hour sit-in at Henion Manor, an administrative building on lower campus. Faculty were ushered out of the building peacefully. The Telegraph Herald reported that they were tired of the college’s poor communication with their request for a black culture house.

The Telegraph Herald reported that the students wanted a non-residential Black Culture House “to be situated near the Loras campus, and furnished by the school for the convenience and comfort of the students.” Loras offered a room on the fifth floor of Keane Hall in mid-October, but they rejected it.

The Lorian reported that the black students ended the occupation at about 2 AM Tuesday morning. Later that day, BSU leader Thomas Jackson and President Driscoll spoke at a press conference that ended abruptly when black students walked out during Driscoll’s address. Later that week, all 16 students involved in the sit-in were expelled indefinitely.

THE SIT IN AT KEANE HALL

The suspended students were ordered to leave campus by Saturday evening. They refused to leave campus, posing another demonstration on the 3 ^rd  floor of Keane Hall. The Telegraph Herald reported that an estimated 100 black students from area colleges joined the suspended Loras students in Keane Hall Saturday night in solidarity.

At 4 AM Sunday morning, President Driscoll reversed his decision after negotiations and advisement from civil rights officials, clergymen, and representatives from Dubuque’s other two colleges. Students were still coming in from Chicago, Iowa City, Platteville, Cedar Rapids, and Waterloo when the decision was reversed.

BLACK POWER AT LORAS

Loras graduate (2023) Cate Koetz researched and developed a fuller story of Black empowerment at Loras College following her work on the articles above. Explore Ms. Koetz work at:

 Loras College Center for Dubuque History's webpage.