A plaza, a statue—85 years late.
IOWA CITY, Iowa, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — In 1941, Lulu Merle Johnson became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in Iowa at the University of Iowa. Despite discriminatory hiring practices, she built her career in the segregated South.
On Saturday, August 29, Johnson County will dedicate the Dr. Lulu Merle Johnson Plaza and unveil a 7-foot bronze at 913 S. Dubuque St. The 1,500-pound statue, by sculptor Steve Maxon of Max-Cast in Kalona, is the largest ever cast at his foundry, ringed by six interpretive panels. Doors open at 10 a.m.; the ceremony will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
Born in Gravity, Iowa, in 1907, the granddaughter of the formerly enslaved, Johnson enrolled at the University of Iowa in 1925. Black students were barred from the residence halls. Her doctorate came 11 years after her master’s degree, earned while she taught full time at Talladega and Tougaloo and built the course The Negro in American Life, which she first taught in 1941, decades before Black Studies became a field.
“Dr. Johnson earned her doctorate in this county and could not be hired in this state. Recognizing her as the official eponym of the county was the correction. This statue is the proof,” said Lisa Green-Douglass, Vice Chair of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors.
“For nearly 40 years I have carried Aunt Lulu’s story—first as a girl told to remember it, then as a woman who would not let it go,” said Johnson’s great-niece Sonya Y. Jackson. “Iowa closed a classroom door; her county is opening a plaza.”
Johnson went on to West Virginia State, Florida A&M and Cheyney, ending as dean of women and department chair. A lifetime member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., she retired in 1971 and died in 1995. In 2021, supervisors made her the county’s eponym, replacing Richard Mentor Johnson, a Kentucky enslaver who never set foot in Iowa.
At the ceremony, a short film, written and directed by Jackson, produced by her sister, Kim Jackson, will screen, along with live jazz before and after the dedication. (Lulu is pronounced Loo-LA.)
MEDIA CONTACT: Shawn Taylor, tshawntaylor@yahoo.com, +1 (312) 371-6260. Photos, film and interviews upon request.
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SOURCE Sonya Y. Jackson
