Benning, Victoria

Description

Photocopy only; Archives does not hold original. Contact the University Archives at the University of Iowa: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/contact/ Scanned with Ricoh Aficio 2335 scanner at 600 ppi, 8-bit grayscale. Archival tiff available. OUR PEOPLE Black pioneer began life in Gravity DES MOINES ^ Gravity 6 Milti 2^ A woman who turned obstacles into successes now enjoys re¬ tirement and downplays her pioneering role for blacks. By VICTORIA BENNING Rt9ist«r Staff Writtr Lulu Merle Johnson led a pretty nor¬ mal childhood growing up near Gravity during the early 1900s. She was captain of the high school girls' basketball team and took her turn as secre¬ tary of her Sunday school class. It didn't seem to matter that she and her family were the only blacks in town. "Someone once asked my mother, 'Don't you have any mirrors in your house? Doesn't Lulu know she's col¬ ored?' " Johnson recalled. The fact is, Johnson didn't know what it meant to be "colored" until she attended the University of Iowa several years later. She and the handful of other black students weren't allowed to live in the university's dormitories, nor could they socialize with other students at the town's hangouts. "You talk about discriminatio

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