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‘We had to start somewhere’: Five years after George Floyd, what’s next for social justice in Eastern Iowa?
Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Marion were three of thousands of cities nationwide to experience a surge of community activism in 2020, although lasting change has been variable.
May. 25, 2025 5:45 am, Updated: May. 27, 2025 7:31 pm
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Business owner Anthony Arrington always considered himself an advocate for social justice and racial equity. It wasn’t until 2020 that he called himself an activist.
Arrington, of Cedar Rapids, was one of the thousands of residents to take to local streets in protest after the death of George Floyd, a Black man murdered May 25, 2020, by Minneapolis police during a misdemeanor arrest.
Word of Floyd’s unjust death quickly spread nationwide, hastened by the dissemination of bystander video showing Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for over nine minutes despite Floyd’s repeated pleas for air.
The video ignited a national racial reckoning and placed a searing spotlight on systemic inequities in policing and social structures. Amid the ensuing wave of outrage and despair, many people — including Arrington — turned to activism for recourse.
“I’ve been (an activist) my whole career … maybe even my whole life,” said Arrington, owner of diversity consulting firm Top RANK. “But I didn’t call myself that. Not until this moment that highlighted (the inequities) we’ve experienced in our communities and said it’s time we no longer allow it.”
Polls estimate that anywhere between 15 and 26 million people participated in protests nationwide after Floyd’s death, including thousands in Eastern Iowa.
Many of the Cedar Rapids protests were organized by Advocates for Social Justice, a nonprofit where Arrington serves on the board of directors. The group organized demonstrations, held listening sessions and eventually drafted and presented Cedar Rapids city officials with a list of seven demands to address racial inequities.
Similar groups formed in surrounding municipalities including Iowa City and Marion, and each developed its own set of demands for and relationships with city officials, police departments and other area stakeholders to work toward equitable change.
Five years later, city officials and area activists alike are asking what comes now.
Although state and local governments initially took steps toward meeting some of the demands, many of the ideas championed by activists now have boomeranged — with citizen police review boards and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on the chopping block. Yet many activists and city officials alike say that regardless of those developments, the events of 2020 have continued to have a lasting impact.
The events of 2020 “ushered in conversation and created opportunities for working together and building relationships to focus on issues of equity in our city,” said Marion Mayor Nicolas AbouAssaly. “It’s made us more intentional about thinking about equity as a lens in everything that we do.”
Early days marked by high energy, stakes
When Anne Harris Carter thinks about the aftermath of Floyd’s death, she remembers a time marked by “high stakes” and “highly charged emotions.” Harris Carter, of Cedar Rapids, was an early member of ASJ and assisted with the presentation of the group’s seven demands to city officials.
Chief among those demands were the establishment of a citizens’ police review board and significant city investment into diversity, equity and inclusion efforts including more robust training and recruitment strategies.
Other demands included:
- Banning the use of lethal law enforcement restraining techniques such as chokeholds and knee-to-neck maneuvers, and strengthening existing use-of-force standards
- Imposing strict body camera provisions with law enforcement
- Decriminalization of minor marijuana offenses
- Making negotiations between municipal authorities and police unions public
- Abolishing qualified immunity for police officers.
Those demands were collaboratively drafted after a gathering of more than 30 Black community members from across the greater Cedar Rapids area who came together to brainstorm potential solutions to pressing social issues.
“It was a time of highly charged emotions and high stakes, but we were still very intentional about moving forward and talking through where we disagreed on things as an entity knowing that some of what we would discuss with the city would be well received and others wouldn’t,” Harris Carter said.
ASJ presented its demands to city officials on June 6, 2020, and the group set a deadline of 12 days for the council to agree. Demonstrations took place regularly until the City Council passed a June 19, 2020, resolution to support the demands. Protests continued well into July as advocates pushed to see those demands come to fruition.
The Iowa City Council adopted its own resolution, called the Black Lives Matter and Systemic Racism resolution, on June 16, 2020, that outlined 17 initial action steps the city would take to address systemic inequity.
The resolution included actions such as restructuring the Iowa City Police Department, banning the use of chokeholds, developing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and establishing opportunities for public art by artists from historically marginalized groups.
In a statement last week, Iowa City Manager Geoff Fruin said the passage of the city’s resolution spoke to the “widespread energy behind efforts to respond to systemic racism.”
“While there were divergent thoughts across the community on how best to respond, there was also a unifying call to act with urgency,” Fruin wrote. “The City met the call for immediate action while also acknowledging the long-term commitment needed to make sustained progress.”
Iowa City Council member Mazahir Salih was the only member at the time to vote against the initial resolution, saying that she while she supported the idea, she felt like the city should have been taking stronger action.
“One of the biggest challenges I have seen is follow-through. It is easier to pass a resolution than it is to build lasting change, and without a strong sense of accountability and momentum. Even now we still see gaps in how certain voices, especially immigrants and refugees, are included in the city,” Salih said last week.
The steps outlined in the resolution were a response to, although not a replica of, the dozen demands put forth by the Iowa Freedom Riders — a grassroots racial justice organization based in Iowa City.
The group led several demonstrations across Iowa City with a message centered on bolstering community services and support to address societal ills and inequities, rather than reliance on intimidation and punishment.
Protests had been occurring for over a week when law enforcement used tear gas and flash bang devices against protesters on June 3, 2020, to prevent them from getting onto Interstate 80 at Dubuque Street.
The Iowa City Council later approved an independent investigation, completed by OIR Group of California, of the Iowa City Police Department’s involvement in the incident. The results and video from police perspective were released publicly.
“Over the next few days after that (June 3 protest), I think there was a lot more conversations between elected officials and other community leaders on what felt like to me, a premise of that was not OK, what are we going to do?” recalled Iowa City Council member Laura Bergus.
Bergus, first elected in 2019, had been an active participant in the 2020 protests and drafted the city’s resolution using input from other council members and city staff.
In reflecting on its language, Bergus recognized that some of the city’s action items fell short of protesters’ demands and said she would likely push for stronger steps if she were to draft the resolution now.
“At the time, I remember being a little bit frustrated that we were talking about things like banning chokeholds instead of why policing as a system is inherently harmful,” Bergus said. “But I didn’t really have the vocabulary for it then.”
Outcomes mixed, but ‘we had to start somewhere’
The success of subsequent efforts to meet internal city goals while balancing protesters’ demands was widely variable, and somewhat subjective.
In Iowa City, for example, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission traveled a rocky road. As outlined in the city’s resolution, the group was formed in 2020 to gather feedback about racial injustice in Iowa City and foster potential solutions rooted in restorative justice.
Those findings were to be prepared for presentation to the City Council alongside recommendations for systemic change — although the final report still is in the works.
Over its lifetime, the commission was plagued by turnover. Numerous commissioners resigned, including several with the strongest ties to the Iowa Freedom Riders.
Some were concerned with the lack of financial compensation offered to commission members despite the intensity and importance of their work, while others were frustrated with a perceived lack of direction, scope and financial support from the city.
Former commissioner Sikowis Nobiss said the commission at times felt like a part-time job, with some commissioners working up to 10 hours a week. Nobiss applied for the commission after learning it lacked Indigenous representation and served on the board from April 2021 through spring 2024.
During her tenure, she worked with the city to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day and display Indigenous-made artwork for Native American Heritage Month. She also helped draft the land acknowledgment used by the commission until its final meeting.
However, Nobiss said she was frustrated by the City Council’s decision to turn down the commission’s funding requests, and she ultimately resigned after a conflict between a commissioner and consultant at one of the commission’s events.
“I'm very divided on it,” Nobiss said of the commission. “I think that it was one of the most important things the city has ever done, but I don't think it was handled well. I don't think the city was ready to have something like this actually be a success.”
The commission concluded its meetings at the end of 2024 after two extensions for fact finding and community outreach. The commission asked for the deadline to be extended a third time, though that request was ultimately denied by the city.
The group now is working with Frankline Matanji, an associate research scientist at the University of Iowa, to compile a final report with findings and recommendations for public review and City Council consideration.
In other instances, there was more immediate synergy between protesters’ demands and existing city policy — such as the overlap between ASJ’s demand around knee-to-neck maneuvers and an existing Cedar Rapids Police Department ban on such moves outside of situations necessitating lethal force.
Further, some additional steps ultimately were taken toward improving racial equity that fell outside the purview of protesters’ original demands.
In Marion, the city hired a consultant to review its policies through a lens of equity and inclusion. Those findings were then presented to the city’s Community Equity Task Force to inform the group’s recommendations to the City Council.
Marion’s AbouAssaly said the move was made to better inform decision making around equitable policies in the wake of Floyd’s death and the subsequent rise in civic engagement, although it was not a specific demand made by the Marion Alliance for Racial Equity.
MARE formed in 2020 as a local Black Lives Matter branch and organized a series of demonstrations in Marion to push for racial equity. The group ultimately issued six demands to the city, including the creation of a citizen police review board, decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana and the addition of a mental health liaison at the Marion Police Department.
The success of those demands was mixed, but MARE cofounder Circe Stumbo said that doesn’t mean they were a waste. Instead, she sees outright success when those directives instead are cast as conversational catalysts.
According to data from the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Americans are roughly 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people despite consuming the drug at similar rates.
The city was unlikely to be able to address that issue through the decriminalization of marijuana given that governing law was set by state code, Stumbo conceded. Still, the directive offered an entry point into conversations around inequities in arrests and incarceration.
“The demands were always meant to be systemic,” Stumbo said. “We knew that the system, big picture, has multiple entry points. We were never going to capture them all in any six demands, but we had to start somewhere.”
Relationships, collaboration key to lasting change
When simply considering the demands made of local government bodies, it also is difficult to capture the relationships that were formed in 2020 and beyond.
While the initial conversations with the Marion officials were “strenuous,” Ana Clymer, a MARE cofounder, said the group eventually was able to establish an effective working relationship with the city to push for positive change.
MARE representatives were invited to join the city’s 13-member Community Equity Task Force in August 2020, for example, alongside city staff, business leaders and other Marion residents to create recommendations around how the city could operate more equitably for all residents.
Those recommendations were presented in 2021 and spanned a wide range of short- to long-term proposals. The city provided an update on those efforts in 2022, and a review is currently underway for a similar update to cover 2023 and 2024.
While it’s not a perfect partnership, it’s a healthy one that has held fast over the past five years, Clymer said, noting that the city recently conferred with MARE to receive input on its ongoing search for a new police chief.
Several city officials also were present at MARE’s most recent “Love Conquers Hate” demonstration, held earlier this month in response to a small group of neo-Nazis who had gathered earlier this spring to disseminate white supremacist propaganda in Uptown Marion.
While the latter included a band of four masked men, the MARE event drew over 100 people to the same spot for speeches, musical performances and community building.
“The seeds that were planted in 2020 continue to be nurtured, even if in different ways” than originally thought, Clymer said. “ … It’s all about how we show up in an authentic way with care and compassion for one another, and it really goes back to being present, being consistent and being supportive.”
AbouAssaly said Marion has been able to form additional partnerships over the past five years that have aided in its mission to better serve all residents, such as the ongoing partnership between Marion police and Foundation 2 Crisis Services.
The city in 2021 hired its first mental health liaison for the department through an agreement with Foundation 2, a nonprofit human services agency that offers mobile crisis services. The current liaison is Roechelle Wilcox, who works with officers to assist with mental health-related calls and follow ups.
The partnership aligns with one of MARE’s six demands, although initial conversations about the program between Marion and Foundation 2 predated the 2020 protests.
Public information officer Tom Daubs said the Marion Police Department was impressed by the reported progress and benefits of Foundation 2’s partnership with the Cedar Rapids Police Department that spanned back several years, prompting early conversations about a Marion liaison.
Marion City Council members in late 2020 unanimously approved the agreement with Foundation 2, and the liaison position was filled in January 2021. Ever since, Daubs said he “has yet to hear a negative takeaway.”
“As cops, we try to do everything to the best of our ability. … But sometimes you need that person who knows what to say and how to say it using all the right vocabulary and tools needed to hit the ground running” on mental health calls, Daubs said. “Roechelle makes it look so easy, but it’s because she really cares.”
In Iowa City, Fruin pointed to similar partnerships that have helped meet “the wide array of needs within our community” such as its partnerships with Shelter House and CommUnity Crisis Services to add a street outreach specialist and mental health liaison to the Iowa City Police Department.
“Although the work is never finished, these important partnerships will continue, and I am proud of the department’s dedication and commitment to the city it serves,” he wrote.
Progress, partnerships not always linear
Tamara Marcus, cofounder of ASJ, said she also saw the importance of relationships during the 2020 protests and in subsequent conversations around the topic of racial justice and equity.
She said the formation of ASJ was a testament to grassroots community organizing, and she highlighted the early collaboration between ASJ and the city to create a citizen police review board as a prime example of participatory government.
“I want the people who are most impacted by decisions to not just be a rubber stamp, but to be in the room to give their perspective,” Marcus said. “That doesn’t mean they get the final say, but it’s important to be in the room.”
But like any partnership, the relationship between government bodies and community groups like ASJ are subject to internal and external strain.
Cedar Rapids city officials and ASJ disagreed, for example, on how to pursue formation of the citizen police review board after the city put forth a plan to create a task force for further review that would include some ASJ members, as well as others.
The advocates felt the move was an effort to slow-walk reform, and the city later opted not to create a task force and instead gather public input before tapping community development staff to work with the advocates to form the review board. The city’s Citizen Police Review Board later launched in 2021.
When the city receives a complaint against an officer, the police department’s Professional Standards Unit conducts an investigation and delivers findings to the police chief, who then reviews that report and may request additional information.
Afterward, the chief provides a report to the citizens board, which may provide its own report to the City Council if a board majority disagrees with the chief's findings. The board itself does not have disciplinary authority over officers.
“I consider it a best practice,” Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said in a recent editorial board meeting with The Gazette. “We wish more people asked us how ours works here because we do feel like we’ve got a good thing going that we can continue to learn from and evolve.”
The board is facing upheaval, however, after Gov. Kim Reynolds this month signed a bill that prohibits cities that already have civil service commissions from establishing “a board or other entity for the purpose of citizen review of the conduct of police officers.”
The law takes effect Aug. 16 and will affect at least five cities in addition to Cedar Rapids including Coralville, Iowa City, University Heights, Dubuque and Ames.
The city of Cedar Rapids registered against the bill when it was moving through the Iowa Legislature, and Community Development Director Jennifer Pratt said the city is now working to “respond accordingly” to Reynolds’ signature.
“The city will work with the Citizen Police Review Board and the Cedar Rapids Police Department to respond to the current legislation,” Pratt said at the recent editorial board meeting. “It is very important to the city that we are compliant with state law regarding the rights of all public employees.”
Cities like Cedar Rapids and Iowa City also are facing increased pressure at the state and federal level to reduce investment and support for efforts related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Soon after his inauguration, President Donald Trump threatened to cut off federal funding to entities supporting such efforts, and the Iowa Legislature this year passed a law to prohibit diversity, equity and inclusion-specific positions in community colleges and local government bodies.
That bill, House File 856, is awaiting Reynolds’ signature before it can become law, but Cedar Rapids already hit pause on its internal diversity, equity and inclusion program in February citing “recent presidential executive orders.”
That move drew ire from community groups like Advocates for Social Justice, who cast the decision as “preemptive compliance” that spoke to a lack of commitment.
“There was this moment where there was good collaboration with the city, and I think in the last two years, it’s really fallen off,” Arrington said. It begs the question, “Did you really mean what you said (in 2020)? Do you feel today like you felt then?”
Cities, organizers look to the future
Reflecting on Iowa City’s progress over the last five years, Bergus said that work around social justice and equity is “more important (now) than ever.” However, she said “there is just kind of this loss of urgency, loss of wind in our sails” since 2020.
So with mounting state and federal pressure to abandon diversity and inclusion work, Bergus and many others are asking: What’s next?
Cedar Rapids city staff declined requests to arrange in-person interviews for this article outside of comments made at the editorial board meeting.
Instead, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz offered an emailed statement with a link to the city website outlining its progress in following through on the 2020 resolution passed in response to the demands.
“The City responded meaningfully to the priorities brought forward in 2020 with efforts that drove important progress,” Pomeranz wrote. “We recognize that recent shifts in the political landscape have required us to adapt our approach.”
He continued, “The City remains committed to continually evaluating how best to understand and meet our community’s changing needs. This includes a focus on public engagement that ensures all voices are heard and every resident has the opportunity to help shape decisions and find solutions for current and future challenges.”
Iowa City’s Salih said initial city actions have helped to bring equity into city decision making, but more work still needs to be done.
“As the first Black woman, the first immigrant and the first Muslim to serve on Iowa City Council, yeah, I have experienced racism myself, from some city staff and from a few people in the community. I wasn't always treated the same as other council members. So this work is very personal to me. It is not just about policy, it is about lived experience, and in 2020 that experience was both painful and motivating,” she said.
“We also need to make sure everyone is treated with respect and has a real seat at the table, not just to listen, but to make decisions. Also, of course, the people affected by the injustice must be at the center of the work, and I always say ‘nothing for us without us.’ I think real racial equity is not just about having diverse voices in the room, it is about sharing power and building a city where everyone belongs and has the opportunity to lead,” Salih said.
AbouAssaly said Marion has yet to experience direct impacts from state and federal pushback to diversity and inclusion efforts but that the city was aware of and monitoring the developments. In the meantime, he stressed the city’s commitment to such efforts.
“Our equity statement continues to guide our actions, and we are very serious and intentional about being a city that wants to serve everyone that lives here and give everyone great opportunities to achieve their goals,” he said.
Area activist groups and community organizers are similarly doubling down on their ongoing push for equity and justice. MARE has revamped its efforts to send members to attend Marion City Council meetings, for example, building off its community networking from the past five years.
ASJ board members are in the process of working with a number of area organizations with shared interests in social justice and racial equity to build a coalition for future civic engagement and community building.
Ultimately, organizers say they’re focusing on collaboration, communication and long-term sustainability — because while Floyd’s death put a spotlight on the fight for racial justice, multiple activists noted such efforts long predated 2020 and will long outlast it.
“Right now is a moment where we’re stronger together than as individuals,” Clymer said. “I think it all comes down to sitting down, listening and being persistent in the work — not just in the streets, but in City Council meetings and school board meetings where you can show up with the presence and power of people who can speak about their own experiences.”
Comments: grace.nieland@thegazette.com or megan.woolard@thegazette.com
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