Chew on This: Brie Swenson Arnold

Emma Oliphant and Women’s Labor Activism in Nineteenth-Century Cedar Rapids

June 5, 2025
12:30 p.m.

Coe College Professor of History Brie Swenson Arnold will share the inspiring story of Emma Oliphant and six other African American women who challenged racial segregation in women's factory work in Cedar Rapids in the 1890s. This is the subject of Dr. Swenson Arnold’s award-winning article "An Opportunity to Challenge the 'Color Line': Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Women's Activism in late Nineteenth-Century Cedar Rapids, Iowa," which pieced together Oliphant’s story for the first time. Oliphant was born and raised in Iowa to parents who experienced decades of enslavement in the South prior to the Civil War. Seeking better opportunities, Emma’s parents relocated to Iowa following the end of slavery and the Civil War. While they found opportunity there in some ways, the Oliphants and their children continued to encounter discrimination in their new northern home. Emma Oliphant was one of many nineteenth-century Black women who sought to change such discrimination. In 1897, she led an effort to allow Black women to work at the Liddle & Carter garment factory in Cedar Rapids. The presentation will trace the Civil War-era story of the Oliphant family and recount the dramatic events surrounding Emma’s 1897 protest to offer a portrait of the ways women pressed for equitable treatment and challenged the boundaries of racial restriction.

This is a Lunch & Learn program! Bring a sack lunch and we'll provide the program and the dessert!

Admission is $8.00 General Public, $6.00 Members
This program takes place at The History Center (800 2nd Ave SE)

Doors Open 12:00 p.m.
Program Starts at 12:30 p.m.

Chew on This is sponsored by: Rob & Kathy Cook

You may also like the following events from The History Center:

• Next Tuesday, 20th May, 06:00 pm, Bite of History - Addy's Public House in Lisbon
• Next month, 3rd June, 06:00 pm, Walking Tour - Downtown in Cedar Rapids
• Next month, 4th June, 07:30 pm, Cedar Rapids Municipal Band Concert in Cedar Rapids

Also check out other Sports events in Cedar Rapids, Performances in Cedar Rapids, Arts events in Cedar Rapids.