Dubuque city leaders initiate project to look into city’s Black history

DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) - The city of Dubuque will immerse itself in a year-long project to find the history related to people, events, and places of Black people of Dubuque from 1830 to 1980.

City officials said the idea for the Black Heritage Survey came after they noticed they could not find much information on the history of Black families in Dubuque.

The project consists of three parts. First, city leaders will go out into the community and interview Black people in Dubuque. They will then organize that information and present it to the community.

“Traditionally with preservation we look around and we see historic buildings, you can feel it when you look at our community, but we are changing our methods in being able to look for people first and connect them back to places later, whether they are places that are still here that we can celebrate or places that have maybe been demolished over the years so we can tell that story of Black Dubuquers over time,” Chris Happ Olson, the project coordinator, said.

City leaders expect to finish the project in the first half of 2023.

Copyright 2022 KCRG. All rights reserved.