Tanya Duval came to Iowa State from Omaha. It takes her six hours to drive home and back. That’s a long trip for a pair of panty hose.

After two years as a student at ISU, Duval said she’s convinced that some of Ames’ biggest stores are ignoring her and others’ cries for products especially made for African-Americans.

“The only reason I can’t get the products I need is because I’m black,” Duval said. “I didn’t think about it at first, but then I noticed it right away when it was time to go to church. I drove around from store to store searching for a pair of panty hose dark enough for me. I couldn’t find anything anywhere.I really took it for granted that I would be able to go and buy panty hose and makeup when I needed it.”

For months, Duval would wait until she made a trip to Omaha to stock up on makeup, panty hose and other products not carried by stores in Ames.

Now, Duval is married, has a child, and is a senior in sociology thinking about what law school she’s going to attend. She said it’s harder than ever to get back to Omaha for the necessities she says she should be able to get in Ames.

“Walgreens carries black makeup and hair-care products, but why should I have to make an extra trip farther away from my home when Wal-Mart, the biggest store in the nation, has the ability to carry the very products I’ve been requesting for months?” Duval asked.

“That’s where I spend all my money for Pampers and formula. They should also carry these products for the 300 other women who also need them,” she said.

To let Wal-Mart officials know that there are many African-American women in Ames who need these products, Duval and others are organizing a civil protest that will take place sometime after spring break.

“We’re going to organize and go to Wal-Mart so they can see there are African-American women in this area,” Duval said.

Duval’s frustration is something ISU’s Vice President for External Affairs Murray Blackwelder has been focusing on much of the year. Blackwelder, through a newly formed Ames-ISU Multicultural Task Force, is working to bring Black Entertainment Television and other services and products for African-Americans to the Ames area.

Blackwelder said Monday that while he hadn’t heard of Duval’s plans to protest, her situation is not uncommon. “I’d like to invite her to my next task force meeting. I can give her a better forum to speak from. That’s one of the concerns we’ve voiced.”

Duval first called Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters last July. Since then she said she has made three more calls to corporate officials and every time she shops at Wal-Mart she talks to store manager Mark Pistorius. Duval said she’s still waiting for results.

But Pistorius said he’s stuck. He said he wants to get the products Duval is demanding, but because of store policies on ordering and shelf stocking, he said he can’t.

“It’s not my call. I don’t have millions of dollars invested here. I’m just trying to keep everyone happy. If it was my call, I’d order anything she wanted,” Pistorius said.

Wal-Mart stores base orders to fill their shelves on demographics and population percentages. Since only 3 percent of the population is African-American in Story County, the Ames Wal-Mart doesn’t have the go-ahead to order the products targeted toward African-Americans. The numbers need to be over 5 percent.

“The decision is based on the percent of population numbers we turn in. We include Nevada, Huxley, Ames and even parts of Hamilton County in our counts. Every six months those numbers are reviewed and the next review is due in six weeks,” Pistorius said. “I know she’s written letters, even to the district manager, but it all deals with the traits. There’s nothing I can do until the next review.”

Even shipping down merchandise from Des Moines stores violates the traiting rules, which doesn’t make sense to the hundreds of African-Americans who say they need these products.

Pistorius said this is the first he’s heard of anyone in Ames having this problem.

“I’ve been here five years and it’s the first time anything like this has been brought to my attention,” he said. “I’ve done what I can do. If she wants a solution soon, she should look into other stores like Cub Foods and Hy-Vee.”

But Duval said she is focusing her attention towards Wal-Mart, because that’s where she does her other shopping.

“We’ve talked about going to Wal-Mart daily and knocking off the makeup off the shelves, but we don’t want to get ugly like that,” Duval said. “It’s a slap in the face. They can afford to put five bottles on the shelf for us. I see trucks come to Wal-Mart every day with merchandise. I know Omaha has a lot of merchandise, so they’ve got at least nine lines of products to choose from.”