Rep. Rob Johnson, D-Des Moines, spoke at a Iowa Legislative Black Caucus news conference March 19, 2025 criticizing the measures focused on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives passed by the Republican-led Iowa House the day earlier. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
Members of the Iowa Legislative Black Caucus called on the public Wednesday to speak up and get involved if they oppose anti-diversity, equity and inclusion legislation that Republicans passed through the Iowa House the evening before.
The tenets of DEI were born out of the need to address problems in the state and country, and there’s a reason the acronym and what it represents caught on with the public and private sectors, Rep. Rob Johnson, D-Des Moines, said during a news conference. He said it is still needed today as he and other Black lawmakers in the Iowa House work to defend it.
Iowa has a history of furthering progressive movements, Johnson said, from enacting the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education before any other state to establishing the first national bar association for Black attorneys in Des Moines and more. Echoing comments he made while urging his fellow representatives to vote against anti-DEI bills on the House floor, Johnson said such legislation moves Iowa back in time rather than into the future.
“Dismantling (DEI) dismantles the progress that Iowa has pushed forward,” Johnson said.
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The Iowa House passed multiple bills Tuesday aimed at doing away with DEI across the state, from state entities and local government departments to community and private colleges. Legislation sent over to the Iowa Senate would also establish a center for intellectual freedom at the UI, place general education requirements on each of the three public universities and bar DEI and critical race theory-related content from being required in college classrooms.
Ruth Ann Gaines, D-Des Moines, agreed with Johnson’s comments, saying the legislation passed this week “will throw us back from progress that we’ve made as a country, as a state, in the last 60 years.”
This cannot happen, she said. The caucus was discouraged by how the debate played out, Gaines said, but there is power in coming together as a collective to push back against these actions with hopes of encouraging Iowa senators and Gov. Kim Reynolds to reject anti-DEI legislation.
“We’ll make it,” Gaines said. “There’s always hope.”
If the Senate passes the bills and Reynolds signs them into law, Rep. Ross Wilburn of Ames said she needs to be questioned on why she is prioritizing a “false narrative” about DEI and its impacts over funding schools.
After refusing to answer questions from Democrats about House File 856, Rep. Henry Stone, R-Forest City, said during debate that despite hearing members of the Black caucus had expressed concerns with the legislation to the media, no one ever reached out to him in any way about questions or problems in the more than a month of the bill being public. It wasn’t until it came up for debate and people were watching that they decided to speak up, he said.
Rep. Jerome Amos Jr., D-Waterloo, called Stone’s comments “political fodder,” adding that both sides need to get better at reaching out across the aisle. Rep. Mary Madison, D-West Des Moines, said she was surprised to hear Stone’s comments since there had been discussions on the legislation during subcommittee and committee meetings.
When asked whether Stone reached out to any members of the caucus after debate, all replied they haven’t heard anything.
“I feel like we were thrown under the bus, and I just don’t think that that is what we should be doing,” Amos Jr. said.
What people who share lawmakers’ concerns about these bills and anti-DEI sentiments should do boils down to a few things, Johnson said, that could have a large impact.
Johnson said constituents should reach out to their representatives, Democrat or Republican and from the Senate or House, and show up in person at the Statehouse to voice their opposition to these actions.
“Please take a minute to let us do what we have to do, but support us in this process,” Johnson said. “Let us know what you’re thinking. Contact us and let us know how you and us can work together to make this a possibility and an opportunity.”
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