Since I was present on campus for all the events mentioned in “Retrospectives: What fueled the legacy of black leadership at Iowa State” and since I was named in the article, I feel compelled to respond.

There are some obvious errors and confusions in the piece itself. A confusion is not mentioning the hiring of Dr. Thomas Hill in 1997 as Vice President for Student Affairs; instead the author states “other demands such as a black administrator, would not be fulfilled for years” when the preceding paragraph gives the date 2016 and the paragraph before that lists 1968. An error in the article is to write that the statue of Jack Trice was erected at the stadium in 1988. For several years the statue stood between Beardshear and Carver. I walked past it almost every working day. As the Daily itself reported in 1996, funds began to be raised to move it to the stadium. At the time several faculty members mentioned to me how they would miss walking past the statue and felt sad to see it moved to the stadium where students and faculty would not see it on a daily basis.

However, those examples are only a small section of the article since the author spends (if I counted correctly) thirty-four paragraphs on the Sept. 29 Movement. In the interests of full disclosure, I had spent three years researching Carrie Chapman Catt before the dedication in 1995, talked with an individual who had attended the very first meeting of the above group, debated Milton McGriff on more than one public occasion and was present at the group’s last public meeting in the Memorial Union. I also have a fairly complete file of the Daily’s reporting, letters to the editor, etc.

First, the fundraising for the building had gone on for years. It was, from the outset, to be named after Carrie Chapman Catt and would be the first building on campus, other than a few dorms and Sloss House, to be named after a woman. It is very difficult to raise money for a building when it will not be named after a wealthy donor, but over the years the funds came in and construction began.

Your reporter is correct that the article in UHURU was published only a few days before the formal dedication on Oct. 6, 1995. By the way, I have in my files an original copy of that publication if you or your reporter would like to read it. As an interesting sidebar, the O.J. Simpson trial was concluding during the same time as the dedication week with a verdict handed down on Oct. 3. I remember it distinctly because the verdict arrived during the time I was speaking in a tent on central campus as part of the week long dedication.

Celia N. Naylor-Ojurongbe and I were two out of many who had gathered in the same tent to listen to a panel discuss “Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Suffrage Movement” on Oct. 5. After the panel, there was a call for questions and after several questions had been asked and answered by the panel, Celia N. Naylor-Ojurongbe asked about Carrie Chapman Catt’s racism. There was a long pause during which several people looked at me since I had researched CCC. I stood and, yes, I did say that since there were so many definitions of racism, I would, in the short time that was left, speak only to the dictionary definition which is believing that one’s own race is superior to another. I briefly discussed what CCC said in private (she wrote a letter to a friend describing “Negro phobia” as a “cave man’s prejudice”, what she said in public, “We are all of us apt to be arrogant on the score of our Anglo-Saxon blood, but we must remember that ages ago the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons were regarded as so low and embruted that the Romans refused to have them for slaves. The race that will be dominant through the ages will be the one that proves itself the most worthy” and what she did (give her adult life to fighting for the right to vote for ALL women. I then quoted the Nineteenth Amendment which says just that (yes, I had it memorized), and sat down.

It is interesting that it is reported in your article that the student who wrote the UHURU article was “receiving threatening calls.” I guess I was lucky. No one said they were going to kill me, but I was pushed off the sidewalk as I walked to class and had the driver’s side of my car sledgehammered. One of my colleagues who wrote a very short letter to the Daily merely saying that the issue should be researched then had his car sledgehammered in exactly the same way. Coincidence?

For the record, I did not talk to Tim Frerking but I have several clippings from the Daily of other students who supported Catt, wrote to the Daily with their support, but are not mentioned in the article. Only Tim Frerking is mentioned who “admitted” he had used my research. Just let me know if you would like me to email you copies of those clippings of other students.

There were many people who would come up to me (faculty, staff and students) and actually WHISPER to me, “I think you are right, but I can’t say so in public.” I suppose they had their reasons. I can assure you that primary sources were in Parks Library, but very, very few chose to take the time to read them. Sides were chosen for less than scholarly reasons. Milton McGriff at the final meeting of the Sept. 29 Movement presented a series of slides with quotes of Catt; some of the slides were superimposed over an image of a lynching. Four of the 12 quotes came from the same speech made by Catt; when I asked what that speech was about, neither Milton or any other member of the group present would even venture a guess. The quotes that were used were used were full of ellipses; one sentence with four sets. It was illuminating to check the actual sentence from primary sources and to see the difference in meaning.

There is also the implication in the article that there were no lectures, panels or discussions on race and the suffrage movement. This is a short list of the lectures, panels and discussions that were scheduled by the Lectures Committee followed by those presented during the week of the formal dedication:

African American Women in the Suffrage Movement – Nell Irvin Painter

Jan. 17, 1996, 8 p.m. – Sun Room, Memorial Union – Nell Irvin Painter is the Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton University and author of Sojourner Truth, a Life, a Symbol; Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction and The Narrative of Hosea Hudson: His Life as a Negro Communist in the South. Part of Women’s History Month

A Conversation on Race: Is This a Nation Divided? A Panel Discussion

Jan. 24, 1996 at 12 p.m. – Maintenance Shop, Memorial Union — Panel members included Mary Sawyer, associate professor of religious studies, and seniors Theaster Gates and Laurisha McClarin. Modupe Labode, assistant professor of history, moderated the discussion. Part of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Celebration.

African American Women in the Suffrage Movement – Darlene Clark Hine (canceled due to weather)

March 20, 1996 – Sun Room, Memorial Union

Darlene Clark Hine is a professor of American history at Michigan State University and editor of a 16-volume series, Black Women in United States History: From Colonial Times to the Present; a two-volume series, Black Women in America: A Historical Encyclopedia and The State of Afro-American History, Past, Present, and Future.Her books include the just-published Speak Truth to Power: Black Professional Class in United States History. Part of Women’s History Month

Gender, Race & Class – Angela Davis (President Jiscke stood in Great Hall lobby for lecture & stayed there to talk with students.)

Oct. 11, 1996, 8 p.m. – Great Hall, Memorial Union – Angela Davis has a long history of activism and is on faculty in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 1994, she was appointed to the University of California Presidential Chair in African American and Feminist Studies.Part of Women’s Week.

African American Women Suffragists in the Booker T. Washington Era – Rosalyn Terborg–Penn

Oct. 24, 1996 at 12 a.m. – Sun Room, Memorial Union

Rosalyn Terborg-Penn has written extensively about African American history and the suffrage movement, and is the author of The Afro-American Woman: Struggles and Images, Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia and Women in Africa and the African Diaspora. Widely known as the foremost authority on African American women in the suffrage movement, Terborg-Penn is a professor of history at Morgan State University, was a consultant and historian for numerous documentaries and films, and was featured on the PBS American Experience series in One Woman, One Vote and Ida B. Wells: Legacy of Struggles. This lecture is the second in a series focusing on African American women in the suffrage movement.

A Forum: Finding Common Ground: A Dialogue on Carrie Chapman Catt – Terri Houston

April 9, 1997, 7 p.m.

150 Years After Seneca Falls: Bridging Race, Class and Gender – Panel: Valerie Grim, Dorothy Schwieder and Mary Kay Blakely

March 4, 1998 – Memorial Union – Valerie Grim is visiting associate professor in history at ISU; Dorothy Schwieder is professor of history at ISU; and Mary Kay Blakely is associate professor at the University of Missouri school of Journalism. She is author of Wake Me When It’s Over, Red, White and Blue and American Mom.

In addition to the Presidential forum, the University Committee on Women sponsored a lunchtime dialogue on the Catt controversy, and facilitated discussions with Francie Kendall, an organizational change consultant specializing in issues of diversity and white privilege, in mid-April.

Here are the speakers/events that were scheduled working with Catt dedication planning committee and Women’s Week from the University Lectures Program archive:

Anonymous and Named: Stories of Women and God in the Struggle – Megan McKenna

Oct. 2, 1995 – Great Hall, Memorial Union – Megan McKenna is Supple Visiting Scholar in Religious Studies. McKenna is an author and professor of religious studies.

Meeting of the Minds – Alice McGill, Jane Cox and Taylor Williams

Oct. 3, 1995 – Chautauqua Tent

The Changing Role of Native Women – Wilma Mankiller

Oct. 4, 1995 – Great Hall, Memorial Union. First woman elected chief of the Cherokee Nation

Excerpts from “Moo” – Jane Smiley

Oct. 5, 1995 –

Political Crisis and Women’s Suffrage 1910-1920 – Walter Dean Burnham

Oct. 5, 1995 – Chautauqua Tent –

Race, Gender and Ethnicity in the Suffrage Movement – Panel

Oct. 5, 1995 – Chautauqua Tent – Panelists include Nancy Isenberg, Susan Traverso, Sharon Wood and Edith Mayo.

We’ve come a Long Way, Sister, Now let’s talk about how far we’ve got to go – Molly Ivins

Oct. 5, 1995 – Memorial Union – Women’s Week.

Women and Justice – Bonnie Campbell

Oct. 5, 1995 – Iowa

From Harriet and Sojourner to Carrie Chapman Catt and Fannie Lou Hamer: Right to the Tree of Life – Bernice Johnson Reagon

Oct. 6, 1995 – Memorial Union

Voices of Influence: Iowa Women and Politics – A Panel Discussion

Oct. 6, 1995 – Chautauqua Tent – Panelists include Mary Louise Smith, Patty Judge, Mary Lundby, Jane Haliburton and Becky Cain.Carrie Chapman Catt Dedication Celebration

Finally, during my many years at Iowa State I have had the privilege of encountering outstanding black leadership within the faculty, staff, and student body—individuals to admire and emulate–men and women who, throughout their dedicated lives, were an inspiration to all whom they met.

Therefore I am saddened that the Daily chose not to celebrate those individuals, but to commemorate ones who did not did not take the trouble to use primary resources for their research and who, on a lovely spring day, led a march from the Memorial Union to Parks Library.