The Burden of Dubuque: A Brief History of Racism in Iowa’s First City Ben Wheeler Follow Jul 2, 2016 · Unlisted

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I came across a comment left on someone’s Facebook post about the usage of the N-word in Dubuque:

Upon reading this comment, I was filled with anger over the fact that someone would use such a hateful word in 2016. After some thinking, I decided I would capitalize on my brief experience with living in Dubuque as a student and tell it’s history of racism.

While living in Dubuque, I found that the history of racism in the city was a burden for the residents. No one wanted to talk about it because it made them feel uncomfortable. Racism is not water, it won’t evaporate if you ignore it long enough. Racism is like milk, it only becomes more toxic the longer you ignore it.

Dubuque’s long documented race problem goes all the way back to 1840 when the first African-Americans arrived in the city.

Pre-Civil War

In 1840, 72 African Americans arrived in Dubuque. Ten years later, the population had decreased to just 29 African Americans. What led to such a dramatic decrease? The work available in Dubuque’s mining industry decreased (Large migration of the Irish, people in the 1850s hated the Irish but not as much as they hated African-Americans) and a lynching in 1840.

Nathaniel Morgan was the victim of this particular lynching. Nathaniel was a young African American who was regarded as a world class chef and an excellent waiter at a local hotel. Nathaniel managed to anger one of the guests at the hotel and later that night, he was accused of stealing this guest’s trunk of clothes. Nathaniel was dragged out into the street by an angry mob where he was whipped and beaten by a mob. Nathaniel was eventually hung when the guest could not find the trunk that he accused Nathaniel of taking.

The members of this blood thirsty mob were arrested and tried, but did not serve time for their heinous act because “intention to commit murder had not been proven.” (Sounds familiar huh?)

Of the 29 African Americans remaining in Dubuque in 1850, only two of them weren’t farm hands and personal servants. This is a trend that would only continue until 1857 when the African-American population went from 8.5 percent to just .5 percent

In 1861, Dennis Mahony, an outspoken editor of the Dubuque Herald (now the Telegraph Herald) published an editorial notifying all African Americans that they must leave the town immediately and in the weeks following, African-Americans were not allowed into Dubuque’s ports.

When the Civil War broke out, Dubuque debated whether or not to join the south (they almost lynched Dennis Mahony over it!) but ultimately decided to stay as part of the North.

Reconstruction Era

In 1868, Iowa’s Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal was unconstitutional and that schools must integrate. Dubuque did not comply with this ruling until 1870. The decision to integrate in Dubuque was almost immediately repealed citing “mingling of the races was causing discord in the school” as the reason for the continued exclusion of the “colored” children from Dubuque Public Schools. This defiance of state law continued until 1877 when black parents petitioned the school board to end the segregation. It took nine years for Dubuque to comply with State law.

The Arrival of The Klan

In 1920, the Ku Klux Klan made Dubuque one of it’s headquarters. In 1925, the Ku Klux Klan had a Konklave in Dubuque in which 50,000 people attended. The entertainment at the Konklave included community speakers, airplane stunts, and an entertainer who would “slide down a slide with his clothes aflame, representing a human fiery cross.”

They held 4 more Konklaves in Dubuque throughout the 1920s, all of which were sponsored by the Dubuque Energy Company (now the Interstate Power Company).

The only group that stood up to the Klan in Dubuque was the American Legion. Many of Dubuque’s bluffs and hills had crosses burned on them. Klan activity died down when the 1930s came around. The Klan in Dubuque is kind of like the mob in the United States in that it never went away, it just hid itself in the institutions that were meant to crackdown on it.

In 1989, a burned cross with the words “KKK lives” written on it was found in the garage of a NAACP official. As a result, Dubuque’s city council decided to bring in 100 black families in 1990 and all hell broke lose. 10 crosses were burned in Dubuque throughout 1990 and police officers were stationed in Dubuque Senior High School after racial fights happened. The fights weren’t limited to the schools, several fights and scuffles happened throughout all of Dubuque. Many of the attackers proclaiming loyalty to the KKK. In 1991, a Klan rally was held in Dubuque.

That happened 25 years ago.

The New Jim Crow

In 2013, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released a 21-page report that criticized policy changes to Dubuque’s Section 8 program that deliberately made it harder for African-Americans to qualify and move to Dubuque. The report noted a 2007 stabbing, when several people screamed from their cars “White Power!” and “Long live the KKK” while passing a murder scene.

The Federal Government also addressed the fact that the Dubuque Police force seems to stop anyone, anywhere, and anytime if they suspect that there may be a breach of law involving minorities.

Citing a particular instance:

The police surrounded one tavern on four corners prior to closing with officers standing at the door with their hands on their hips, batons showing, and a fifth squad stationed at curbside. As young black college students left they were often accused of public intoxication. Police boldness included advice to the owner to change the music from hip hop to rock and roll to remove the “problem.”

City officials repeatedly denied such claims that their changes had negative impacts on black applicants. However, they vowed to correct it. Interesting how that works… That is kind of like saying “I don’t have an drug problem but I’ll go to rehab.”

In 2015, a man with a swastika tattoo was convicted of a hate crime for the beating of a black man in January of 2015 at the Northside Bar in Dubuque.

In April of this year, two burnt crosses were found in Dubuque.