Iowa stood up to discrimination. Now we endorse it

Don’t look now, but December is upon us. That means only 27 shopping days until Iowa Statehood Day.

Iowa became a state on Dec. 28, 1846, or 179 years ago.

What to buy? A geode? Cliche. Maybe a wild rose bush. A sturdy oak tree, perhaps. Or how about a goldfinch? But not a real goldfinch, that’s cruel.

For much of its history, Iowa has been giving gifts of civil rights, equality and compassion to its citizens.

That’s our heritage.

In 1839 our Territorial Supreme Court allowed a slave named Ralph living in Iowa to remain free after his former owner sent bounty hunters to bring him back to Missouri.

“No man in this territory can be reduced to slavery,” the territorial court ruled.

In 1851, Iowa’s territorial law banning interracial marriages was overturned.

The University of Iowa was the first public university to admit men and women as equals and to grant law degrees to a woman and an African American in 1879.

That first Black law graduate was Alexander Clark, whose daughter Susan Clark was denied admission to a Muscatine school in 1868 because of her race. He sued and the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that “separate” is not “equal,” 96 years before Brown v. Board of Education.

“The principle of equality is announced and secured by the very first words of our state constitution which relate to the rights of the people, in language most comprehensive, and incapable of misconstruction, namely: ‘All men are, by nature, free and equal.’ ” The state Supreme Court ruled.

In 1873 it ruled in favor of Emma Coger, a “mixed-race” woman who was kicked out of a steamboat dining room reserved for whites only.

In 1948, Edna May Griffin, her one-year-old daughter, John Bibbs and Leonard Hudson tried to order lunch at Katz Drug Store in Des Moines. They were refused service because they were Black. Griffin organized protests and the state filed a lawsuit against the owner and manager, who were found guilty of racial discrimination.

Our heritage also includes the expansion of LGBTQ rights. UI was the first state university to recognize an LGBTQ student organization and was the first public institution to offer domestic partner benefits to employees.

In 2007, the Legislature added sexual orientation and gender identity to the Civil Rights Act. In 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court tossed Iowa’s ban on same-sex marriage in a unanimous decision. Iowa was the first Midwest state to recognize marriage equality.

That’s our heritage. But here’s our reality.

In 2021, Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed “Back the Blue” legislation in the wake of social justice protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police officers. The bill increased penalties for protesting, including felonies for criminal mischief and disorderly conduct. It gave civil immunity to drivers who injure protesters who are blocking traffic.

The non-partisan Legislative Services Agency found the bill would have a disparate impact on Black Iowans. That’s a feature, not a flaw.

"If this is not a racist tone, I am not sure what is and is not,” said Rep. Phyllis Thede, D-Bettendorf during debate.

Republicans and their pals packing the Board of Regents have banned all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs from state universities. Efforts to make campuses more inclusive, while also promoting the value of diversity, are gone.

DEI offices at universities have been abolished. Websites have been scrubbed to remove any reference to diversity, equity and inclusion. Employees have been threatened with termination for criticizing the new Republican order. UI has been under intense scrutiny. Critics say it’s too progressive, but that’s its heritage.

“I don't want any of the DEI, CRT, woke left stuff …” said regents member Robert Cramer.

Educators from K-12 on up are taking cues from conservative politicians to avoid teaching any history tied to racism — slavery, Jim Crow, the civil rights struggle and continued discrimination. Instead, teach whitewashed lessons emphasizing American exceptionalism.

Lawmakers and Reynolds approved a law banning all books from school libraries that describe or depict a sex act. But the real target is books that reflect a worldview conservatives want to banish from schools. Access might result in empathy.

“We know that content, LGBTQ+ content, content with people of color, Black folks, Indigenous folks, tend to be the focal objects or disproportionately impacted by policies like this,” Josh Coleman, who studies book bans for the National Academy of Education, told the Des Moines Register.

In 2023, Iowa Republicans declared war on transgender Iowans. School support policies for transgender kids are targeted, and teachers are barred from teaching anything about LGBTQ Americans and Iowans through 6th grade.

Transgender people are barred from restrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their gender identity. No gender affirming medical treatment can be offered to minors, even with the permission of parents.

This year, the Legislature and Reynolds removed gender identity protection from the Civil Rights Act. No other state has erased a protected class.

“It pains me to see how the rights of an entire group of people can be so quickly and easily discarded. It pains me to hear the slander, the stereotypes and the fear leveled at the trans community, my community, my friends and my family, my people. People who just want to live their lives to be themselves and to live free of fear,” said state Rep. Aime Wichtendahl, Iowa’s first transgender lawmaker, on the House floor.

Women no longer have the right to decide whether they need an abortion. Iowa’s strict, six-week ban will do untold harm to women and young girls who become pregnant.

One of Iowa’s proudest moments was in the 1970s when Republican Gov. Bob Ray offered an Iowa home to scores of refugees escaping war in Southeast Asia.

“I didn’t think we could just sit here idly and say, ‘Let those people die,’” Ray said. “We wouldn’t want the rest of the world to say that about us if we were in the same situation … Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.”

Our reality is less generous.

“This is not our problem,” Reynolds said when states were asked by the Biden administration to take unaccompanied immigrant children.

So, our heritage is strong. But the weak, fearful, cruel and racist want a different sort of Iowa. We’ll be giving Iowa a swell 180th birthday gift if we vote them out.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com