"A memorable page in Iowa's black history," November 20, 1977

Iowans at Home/People Des Moines Sunday Register, November 20, 1977 / 4E A memorable page in Iowa’s black history By Sherry Ricchiardi Register Staff Writer Adah Hyde Johnson limps across the tiny front room of her Des Moines apartment, leaning heavily on a huge wooden cane; she eases into a huge overstuffed chair and sets a stack of yellowed photos on her lap. In a soft, velvety voice, Adah, 86 begins talking about her historically prominent family. What she says is important, because Adah and many other elderly black Iowans are part of a project called “Iowa's Black Experience” - an attempt to bring local black history into the schools. “My father, Robert Hyde, has been described by some historians as “the most phenomenal Negro businessman in Des Moines history” Adah says, displaying an old photograph of herself as a little girl standing with her father. He is credited with inventing one of the first electric carpet sweepers sold in this country. Hyde patented a soap and cleaning formula that until recent years was sold nationwide. He also ran real estate and employment businesses before he died in 1922. Tracking down facts about Iowa’s oldest black families is a project being financed by a $37,000 U.S. Office of Education grant to the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls. Eugenia G. Parisho, an elementary schoolteacher in the Price Laboratory School there, is heading up the effort. Parisho explains the research will culminate in study units used in Iowa schools. Gap in Schools George Garcia, chief of the urban education section of the Iowa Department of Public Instruction, says the project is a big step toward implementing legislation passed in Iowa this year requiring a multi-cultural, non-sexist approach to education. “We need to develop a lot of curricular material to accomplish this,” Garcia says. “The study will help fill the gap of black history from the Iowa perspective. Parisho’s isn’t the first study on black history in Iowa, but it’s the only one I know of geared toward an educational model for the schools.” Why did Parisho, a white teacher, take on a task that involves traveling around the state, tracking down court records, mulling over census figures, interviewing dozens of people, hunting for old newspaper stories about blacks? “I’ve always gone to school with blacks and associated with them,” she says. “Besides that, I grew up in a melting pot community on the east coast where some of us couldn’t even speak English.” Parisho, who is of eastern European descent, recalls experiencing prejudice while she as growing up. “Once, when we moved to an Anglo-Protestant community, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in our yard and made threats. They called us “hunkies,” because of our ethnic, Catholic background.” Parisho found the first historic evidence of blacks living in Iowa around the 1830’s. She relates, “A slave named Ralph – nobody ever knew his last name – came to the Dubuque area to work in the lead mines and earn money to buy his freedom. First black in Iowa “For some reason, his owner demanded that he return to the south, but instead, Ralph went to court, sued for his freedom and won. It was one of the first cases of its kind in the country.” Parisho stresses the importance of preserving Iowa’s black history. “I feel strongly that, in order for young people to handle the issues of the day intelligently, they need to know about the ordeals that blacks and other minorities endured,” she says. Before completing the project, Parisho plans to seek help from black consultants on the development of study materials. “I think it’s vital that black people – especially educators or black historians – go over this to see where it should go from the black perspective,” she says. Adah Johnson agrees on the need for documentation of Iowa’s black history. “But we’d better get going; there aren’t many of us old-timers left,” says Adah, who, in 1912, was one of the first two negro girls to graduate from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Great dream- “In my time, most young people quit school around eighth grade; the few girls who graduated from high school went right off and got married. Seeing his three children educated was one of my father’s great dreams,” she says. “My peers thought I was an odd one when I went to college. I was more interested in being a teacher than in marriage, keeping house and raising children. People really thought I was strange when I didn’t marry until I was 32.” Her late husband, Fred Johnson, was in charge of room service at the Hotel Fort Des Moines, where he worked for 40 years. Adah taught school in Indiana, West Virginia and Arkansas, before returning to Des Moines to work as a program director for senior citizens at Willkie House, a community center, and as director for the former Negro branch of the YMCA. One of her greatest delights is talking about her father. Adah displays a newspaper clipping – the story of her father’s death at age 71. The headline reads, “Born into slavery, left fortune at his death.” “My father was a slave in Virginia before he came to Des Moines in 1876. He couldn’t read or write, but he was ambitious. He used to lead parades in Des Moines, riding his white horse, Mable – he raised her from a colt,” Adah recalls. When President Theodore Roosevelt visited Iowa in 1903, Hyde, in top hat and Prince Albert was among those who greeted him. Adah, who is a member of the Missionary Society of St. Paul’s AME Church and active with Delta Sigma Theta sorority at Drake University, also serves on the finance committee for the Des Moines YMCA. I guess I just never learned to say, “No,” but I’d rather wear out than rust out,” she says with a grin. “It’s a good thing I have young friends who can keep up with me.” CC picture caption left: Adah Hyde Johnson, of Des Moines, was one of the first two Negro girls to be graduated from the University of Iowa. That was 1912. CC picture caption right: These are mementos of Robert Hyde, prominent Des Moines businessman who died in 1922. A former slave, he came to Iowa in 1876 and a patented cleaning compound that was sold nationwide. University of Iowa Libraries. University Archives