Recently in History Category

Elena Kagan was confirmed by the U.S. Senate today on a 63 to 37 vote. Iowa's senators, Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin, split with Harkin voting in favor.

Will add to this list as more are received...

I know I join many Iowans in congratulating Elena Kagan on her confirmation to the Supreme Court, she will be a great asset as she upholds the constitutional promise of equal justice under the law. Her forthrightness with Senators from both parties and her informed and intelligent answers to the toughest legal questions facing our nation is proof that she will be a strong and fair voice. Kagan's professional career and dedication to public service will serve her well as she takes her seat on the bench.

"While I am glad to see bipartisan support for her nomination it is troubling that Senator Grassley chose to stand in opposition, guided by nothing more than blind partisanship. His vote is unsurprising given his recent opposition to everything except extending tax cuts for the rich."

~ Sue Dvorsky, chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party

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"Senator Grassley's vote against Elena Kagan is proof that Washington is broken, and any bipartisanship in the Senate is on the verge of extinction. Senator Grassley has chosen to vote against two talented, qualified women nominated to the Supreme Court, by a Democratic president, after decades of support for past nominations. This is an incredibly dangerous and disturbing precedent. Voting on a Supreme Court nominee is a serious responsibility and Iowans deserve much better than childish, partisan games."

~ Roxanne Conlin, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate

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"Today, I was proud to cast my vote to confirm Solicitor General Elena Kagan to our nation's highest court. As a student, she excelled at Princeton, Oxford and Harvard Law School. She has stellar legal credentials that have been recognized by liberal and conservative lawyers alike. And, throughout her career, including as a professor of law, as a key advisor to President Clinton, as Dean of Harvard Law School and as Solicitor General, she has demonstrated a great mind and intellect.

"Solicitor General Kagan will be an important and needed voice on the Court to ensure that appropriate respect and deference is given to Congress, and proper effect is given to our most important statutes, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, so all Americans receive the fullest protections of the law. And at the heart of her credentials is a strong sense of justice for those at the bottom of the economic ladder.

"And as the fourth woman to serve on the Supreme Court, her confirmation is a historic one, similar to her accomplishments as the first female Dean of Harvard Law School and first female Solicitor General. I congratulate her on this honor."

~ U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, Democrat

This two-day 2010 Iowa African American Women's Leadership Conference offers personal and professional development opportunities relating to family, health, leadership and culture for women across the state.

The conference begins Aug. 26 at 6 p.m. with a "History Makers Gala" at the African American Museum of Iowa. The second day of events will be held at the Cedar Rapids Marriott from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will include various break-out sessions and performances.

More info on registration and tickets is available at the museum's site.

It is a sad day in the feminist and civil rights communities. Dorothy Height, who served four decades as the president of the National Council of Negro Women, died at the age of 98.

From the Los Angeles Times:

...Height, who also played a key role in integrating the YWCA, died Tuesday of natural causes at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., the council announced.

Though not nearly as well known as her male contemporaries, Height was a steadfast presence in the civil rights movement. Often the only woman at strategy meetings with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders, she was a determined voice pressing the importance of issues affecting women and children, such as child care and education. ...

...As president of the National Council of Negro Women from 1957 to 1998, she led the group to expand its mission. Her initiatives included training thousands of women --housewives, teachers, office workers, students -- to work as community advocates. Back in their own communities, they pushed for better housing, schools and stores. It was a way to help women escape what Height called the "triple bind of racism, sexism and poverty." ...

The civil rights movement and feminism, which are so closely knitted, have lost entirely too many forceful and efficient leaders in recent months.

To celebrate Presidents Day I selected several old Reader's Digests to browse for articles on Presidents.  With President Obama just completing his first year as Commander in Chief I found an article I thought appropriate. The following is not the complete article.

Reader's Digest, 1962.
pp 53-54

Condensed from
Time (January 5, '62)

The Testing of a President

Fourteen tough months in office have proved a sobering and maturing experience for the youngest elected chief executive in America's history

The taste of victory was fresh and sweet to John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  He sat in the drawing room of his Georgetown home and spoke breezily about the office he would assume.  "Sure, it's a big job," he said.  "But, I don't know anybody who can do it any better than I can.  It isn't going to be so bad.  You've got time to think - and besides, the pay is pretty good."

One year later, on a cool, gray day, the 35th President of the United States sat at his desk in the oval office of the White House and discussed the same subject.  "This job is interesting," he said in the combination of Irish slur and broad Bostonese that has become immediately identifiable on all the world's radios, "but the possibilities for trouble are unlimited.  It takes a lot of thought and effort.  It's been a tough first year, but then they're all going to be tough."

Kennedy has come to realize that national and international issues look much different from the President's chair than from a candidate's rostrum.  There are fewer certainties, and far more complexities.  "We must face problems which do not lend themselves to easy, quick or permanent solutions," he said recently. "And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent not omniscient, and that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity, and that therefore there cannot be an American solution for every world problem."

That sober view of the limitations of power and authority is far removed from Kennedy's campaign oratory.  He promised a "New Frontier" to "get America moving again." He soon found that it was tough enough just to keep the old problems from getting out of hand.

In the 1960 campaign he effectively used the charge that U.S. prestige had plummeted during Dwight Eisenhower's administration.  In fact, the United States had under Ike, and retains under Kennedy, a high reservoir of good will in the free world - as Kennedy saw for himself in his triumphal trips to London, Paris and, more recently, Latin America. 

When Kennedy first came to the White House, he resented his inheritance, constantly referred to problems "not of his own making."  But now those old problems tend to become "our problems" and the fact that the world is in trouble seems to Kennedy less Dwight Eisenhower's fault than he once suspected.

Behind such changes of attitude lies the central story of a U.S. President's coming of age.  Personality is a key to the use of Presidential power, and John Kennedy in 1961 passed through three distinct phases of Presidential personality.  First there was the cocksure new man in office.  Then, after the disastrous, U.S. invasion of Cuba, which might have ruined some Presidents, came disillusionment.  Finally, in the year's last months, came a return of confidence, but of a wiser, more mature kind that had been tempered by the bitter lessons of experience.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

Some Iowa households received an automated phone call this week that featured the familiar voice of former Lt. Gov. Joy Corning:

In the call, which is paid for by One Iowa, Corning reminds Iowans of the state's history of being open-minded and fair, and requests that other residents join her in ensuring that the civil rights of all are protected, and that the state "continues to move forward as a leader in fairness and equality." 

Corning, an Iowa native, has a long political history in this state and has been a role model for many women. She served as a senator in the state legislature, the first woman ever elected to serve in that chamber, representing a district in Black Hawk County. She was the president of the Cedar Falls School Board. She was also the director of the Iowa Housing Finance Authority during the early 1980s.

She's probably best known, however, for her service as lieutenant governor alongside former Gov. Terry Branstad during the of the 1990s. At the end of Branstad's tenure, in 1998, she became the first Republican woman to ever make a bid for governor, but was not successful in garnering her party's nomination.

Despite being elected as a Republican woman and serving as a Republican woman, Corning's views on two key social conservative issues -- abortion and marriage equality -- often put her at odds with a state party that has been drifting (if not speeding) toward a more and more social conservative stance. Not only has she served on the board of directors for Planned Parenthood in Iowa, but has co-authored open letters with Sally Pederson, another former lieutenant governor of the Democratic variety, stating her support for same-sex marriage and rebuffing the claims of radio entertainer Rush Limbaugh that reproductive health care is abortion.

"Women's reproductive health is primary health care," the women wrote, and went on to explain that such health care includes gynecological exams, Pap tests, mammograms, prenatal care, birth control and screening and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

"Providing safe and legal medical services for terminating a pregnancy is only one small part of a comprehensive health care system. Defining the discussion of women's reproductive health as this issue alone is a great injustice to all women and to the professionals that serve them."

The letters, of course, have drawn the ire of those within the Republican Party of Iowa who disagree. Those disagreements have, however, paled in comparison to the reactions to the One Iowa automated call. 

The action arm of the Iowa Family Policy Center used the call as a warning to Republicans as they prepare to select a 2010 gubernatorial candidate:

...The current recorded phone messages are consistent with Corning's long-standing anti-family ideology and leftist political social agenda.

According to IFPC Action President Chuck Hurley, "She would never have become Lt. Governor without the electoral support of tens of thousands of Christians and conservatives, and we have no one to blame for this but ourselves." He went on to say, "Joy Corning has given us another clear example of just exactly why as Christians and conservatives we should no longer sacrifice our convictions for perceived political victories. When we elect people like Joy Corning, we elevate and advance the destruction of the family."

With the 2010 campaign now in full swing, many Iowans are beginning to pay more attention to where candidates stand on key issues. Hurley said, "We need reminders from time to time as to why personal convictions and party platforms are so important, and Joy Corning has given us a gift that punctuates the need for a new paradigm in Iowa politics."

Bob Vander Plaats, a self-proclaimed social conservative Republican who is seeking the office of governor for the third time, derided Corning for being "out of touch" with mainstream Iowans and, of course, used the connection between Corning and Branstad to attack his primary competition:

"Terry Branstad enters the governor's race on Saturday night without stating where he truly stands on the issue and on Tuesday night his lieutenant governor does an automated call urging Iowans to support same-sex marriages. All of that takes place not too long after his former chief of staff wrote an opinion piece saying the Republican Party needs to nominate a candidate with 'centrist' views on social issues," Vander Plaats said. "Urging Iowans to support same-sex marriage is not only out of touch with Republican values but it is overwhelmingly out of touch with Main Street Iowa."

He added, "If you listened closely to his speech on Saturday night, Terry Branstad did not say he supports one-man, one-woman marriage. He said he would break the legislative logjam that is preventing a referendum by Iowans. That's not the same thing. If he wants to break the road block, he should join me by committing to sign an executive order banning additional same-sex marriages on day one in office until Iowans have a right to vote on the issue."

Both political parties are making a lot of noise these days about their "big tents," meaning their ability to overlook the platforms that have been created by their membership and accept people into their fold who hold opposing viewpoints on some issues. What has become clear over the past two decades, however, is that there are certain members of each party that would like to hold leaders and members to specific purity tests.

Due to current events within the state, this divide is primarily apparent in Iowa within the Republican Party as predominantly fiscal conservatives (like Corning) butt heads with predominantly social conservatives (like Vander Plaats). 

So, why do Iowa women owe Joy Corning a big round of applause? Because it takes a lot of backbone to stand firmly where you feel you need to be politically -- in her case, within the Republican Party -- and still voice your own deeply-held beliefs about what is right and what is wrong.

I have watched as friends have left one party or the other to join ranks with third parties, which simply do not have much political clout in America. Instead of standing up within their political party and demanding that an opposing viewpoint be heard and acknowledged, these individuals have found it easier and less stressful to bow out and leave the parties to find their own way -- even when "their own way" was not in the best interests of this county, state or nation.

I began this post by telling you that Corning has been a role model for many women. I want to end by telling you why she will continue to be a role model for young Iowa women: She speaks her mind, regardless of the political cost. She not only stands up for what she believes, but crawls up on a table to be heard above the din around her.  While her former titles alone garner her an audience, she understand the value of partnering with others to amplify her voice and her beliefs.

Two of the best known (as well as most well preserved) examples of Southern American quilting were created by Harriet Powers, an African American woman who was born in October 1837 and lived a portion of her life as a Georgia slave.

One, an 1886 Bible quilt, is kept by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The second pictorial quilt, although not currently on display, is a part of the collection at the Museum of Fine Art, Boston.

Because of Powers' life in slavery as well as her detailed depictions on her quilts, most historians believed she was illiterate. Prior to this year, the only known descriptions relating to her two well-known quilts were written by another person, apparently writing as Powers described with her voice the stories told on the quilt squares.

Because of the diligent historical forensics of author Kyra Hicks, who is an accomplished quilter of her own right, we now know for certain that Powers was able to both read and write. In addition, it is also known that at least two other quilts were produced by the artist -- one of which depicted The Last Supper.

The newly discovered information about Powers was courtesy of a letter she wrote in 1896 to Lorene Curtis Diver, a resident of Keokuk, Iowa. In the letter Powers wrote about how she learned to read as a child, and about her quilts. Because of Hicks' research, it is now believed that Powers produced at least five quilts.

Hicks' book -- This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces -- published in July and is available at Prairie Lights Books in Iowa City as well as other independent booksellers.