Racial justice demonstrations and protests erupted across the U.S. over the last few weeks. Each location added its own flavor, and Iowa City was no exception. Iowa City’s contribution comes from the Iowa Freedom Riders.
I’ve followed along with the progress of the Iowa Freedom Riders from demonstration and march to protest movement. Usually not in-person, due to some family health issues. But certainly by live broadcast. Here’s a bit about what the Iowa Freedom Riders have done and how it’s going.
From Marches to Protest Movement
Early racial justice actions in Iowa City emerged spontaneously from many sources. They emerged at various places, most notably the Coral Ridge Mall area. Over the course of a few days, these events coalesced around the main Iowa Freedom Riders actions.
The main actions begin at different times, but always at the Pentacrest in Iowa City. It’s an important symbolic location in Iowa City – long a major site of protests and the point at which the City of Iowa City connects to the University of Iowa. They started as demonstrations and long marches to City Hall and the county jail, gradually building toward a sustained protest movement. The turning point from the one to the other? Several attempts – the first ones unsuccessful due to police violence, and then a later one successful – at marching to Interstate 80.
Later marches moved through much of the physical space of Iowa City: downtown at first, and then at the personal homes of city council members.
Iowa Freedom Riders vs. City of Iowa City
All this occurred as a part of a series of strategic and tactical maneuvers between the Iowa Freedom Riders and the City of Iowa City. The City itself responded aggressively to the early events, when officials physically cordoned City Hall and police teargassed protesters trying to reach I-80.
It was a classic over-reach by the City. The events raised public awareness and sympathy for protesters. While this perhaps would’ve been true in any scenario, it was particularly true given the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd and the nationwide wave of anti-police sentiment. The Iowa City Police Department – once quite masterful at engineering public sentiment in its favor – was caught off-guard and was far from the top of its propaganda game.
The City recovered, and its later responses turned less ham-handed. They next tried to co-opt the movement, turning it “from the streets to City Hall,” as Mayor Bruce Teague explicitly termed it in a public letter. To carry this out, Teague and other city council members attended one of the events. There were also various ‘ally’ events not affiliated with the Iowa Freedom Riders. While no doubt well-intentioned, these ally events served mostly to co-opt the movement and direct it toward conventional political ends that wouldn’t challenge the basic structure of power.
Two Demand Lists
The Iowa Freedom Riders have issued two lists of demands. It appears they put together the first list pretty quickly. And then they put together the second one after discussion and input from a wide range of sources.
I won’t discuss the demand list much here, but I’ll invite readers to navigate to the Instagram page I linked above to check it out. Overall, the demand list is a good one. And I was happy to vote to endorse the demands in my role as a Board member with the local tenants union. The demands focus on restructuring the relationship between police and resident. They also focus on issues of diversity and inclusion. Some of the demands are less important than others, and some of the demands don’t go far enough. But, overall, it’s a good list and a good start for conversations and policy-making.
Mistakes and Lessons
All protest movements make mistakes, and the Iowa Freedom Riders are no exception. What makes a movement a good one is minimizing mistakes and learning from them. The Iowa Freedom Riders have done an excellent job at this.
They’ve taken time off a few times, and each time presented dangers. Police arrested Mazin Mohamedali – an organizer – during one of the early nights off. The city seems to have convinced organizers to take a couple nights off later to give it time to ‘work on the demand list.’
Was it a mistake to take a night off? Maybe the first time, and definitely the second time. After the city tried and failed to co-opt the movement, it was clear that killing the movement in legislative foot-dragging was the next step. But what impressed me about the Iowa Freedom Riders is how they responded to the mistake: by marching on the homes of city council members. That move effectively took back momentum and kept the city council on task.
I attended the second city council member march – the one on the home of John Thomas. He’s a neighbor down the street from me. And I thought organizers put it together very effectively.
Future of the Iowa Freedom Riders
In truth, it’s difficult to gauge the future of the Iowa Freedom Riders. They face one major risk: loss of enthusiasm and momentum. They’ve kept the city council on task, but there’s still a risk the council will break the movement with more legislative foot-dragging.
They’ve got a good demand list, and they learn from their mistakes. And overall, Iowa City is a good place to practice this kind of protest politics. Its politics are dominated by relatively wealthy, white progressives. And its city council reflects that fact. Iowa City is the kind of place where a candidate like Elizabeth Warren does well – someone who appeals to people who love progressive politics, but also have a distaste for working-class activism and action outside official channels. That all presents challenges to the Iowa Freedom Riders, but it’s a much better political environment than the rest of Iowa.
But, as I said, they face challenges. It’s tough to run daily actions like this. And it looks like they’re going to respond by restricting action to 3-4 days per week in the future. The City will probably continue trying to wear them down. Hopefully they’re able to continue pressing the City.
