The Iowa Bystander Newspaper Brings Hope

Elaine Graham Estes, longtime director of the Des Moines Public Library, describes the impact of the African-American newspaper, The Iowa Bystander.

The period of the '20s in Thompson’s paper, was a period to bring information that was positive about people, information that was informative, information that correlated with the period after World War I when people had a great deal of hope and expectations for being Americans. And that was a point in focusing on education, the importance of it, and for people to have an opportunity to rediscovery themselves as new Americans coming back from World War I. Also that was the period of the migration north for Southerns, and it was a period that they had a great deal of hope and expectations of their movement north.