Chapter 7: “Maintaining a Home for Girls”: The Iowa Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs at the University of Iowa, 1919-1950

This chapter examines the Iowa Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs’ (IFCWC) campaign to operate a house for African American women at the University of Iowa from 1919 to 1950.¹ It seeks to add to a growing body of literature that focuses on African American philanthropy and collective black economic enterprises. An examination of the experiences of African American women at the University of Iowa and the campaign for the IFCWC Home campaign offers an interesting case study that builds on recent research on African American women’s philanthropy.² The IFCWC’s economic enterprise developed because between 1913 and 1946 the University of Iowa barred African American students from campus dormitories and some student activities. The experiences of African American women at the University of Iowa are unique for two reasons: (1) the house they occupied was one of a few “women’s dormitories” in the nation owned and operated by a formally organized group of African American women and (2) the campaign to maintain the IFCWC Home provided mostly middle-class African American women students with the organizational, intellectual, and leadership skills necessary to become the next generation of black women activists. In general, the experiences of African American college women at predominantly white coeducational institutions in the early 20th century are unique because white women often had the guidance and support of white women administrators and/or faculty.³ African American women, on the other hand, had to look outside the university for such mentors and role models. This raises several questions: How did the alliance with the IFCWC help to keep students connected to the African American community and how did the community respond? How did limited employment prospects that resulted from race and gender prejudice help to bring about a sharply focused movement to make a college education available to a number of Iowa’s young African American women? I contend that the IFCWC prepared African American women at the University of Iowa to assume positions of leadership in organizations such as the IFCWC, National Association of Colored Women (NACW), the Order of the Eastern Star (OES), and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and a host of other local and regional civil rights organizations.⁴ Upon graduation, these women also assumed responsibilities in their local communities in their effort to “uplift the race.”