"SUI shocks Houston," December 29, 1955

IOWA PRESS CLIPPING BUREAU Des Moines, Iowa Pilot Tribune Storm Lake, Iowa DEC 29 1955 SUI SHOCKS HOUSTON! Ever since the earliest days of slavery, what to do with the Negro has been a subject for discussion in these United States. Recent developments in the south where an effort is being made by big-wigs to overlook the supreme court's ruling on segregation indicate that the question remains unsettled as far as Dixie is concerned. It must have horrified the diehards down south when they learned that the male students at the State University of Iowa selected a 17-year-old colored girl from Houston, Texas, to be Miss SUI for 1955. In fact the girl herself, Dora Lee Martin, observed that "in Houston this will be the shock of the century. . . But it's not the color of the skin that should matter, it's just the person." In that, Dora Lee said a mouthful! While on the question of the Negro, we saw a Gallup poll the other day which showed that the majority of Negro voters are still democrats. Political sharps say that Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt switched the Negro vote from Abe Lincoln's party to FDR. That was surprising - to ye editor at least. But it's even more astonishing to note that Dr. Gallup finds the colored vote in 1953 still favors the democrats. One would think the absurd efforts of democrats in the southern states to keep Negro children out of white schools - or even from playing football with a northern university - would be sufficient to disgust the Negro voter. Down in Mississippi, they've even resorted to murder in an effort to keep the Negro "in his place," as the southerners term it. Which in itself should make the Negro know that the southern democrat is not now and never will be in favor of de-segregation ! But then politics is a great game. We often think the democrats play the game a bit shrewder than do the republicans. Anyway, they're still holding onto the Negro vote. Which cuts quite some ice in a close presidential election. In the meantime, congratulations to the men at SUI who overlooked the color line and selected a Negro gal with personality to reign at the university's annual winter formal dance. The males in the student body really set a precedent! University of Iowa Libraries. University Archives