Biography

The Black Hawk County Democratic Women's Organizaton held its first meeting on July 19, 1956 at the home of Mary Haymound. The purpose of the club was to further the work of the Democratic Party by helping elect Democrats to office. Randy Dunbar was unanimously elected the first president. The club held regular monthly meetings, which were sometimes followed by a speaker or presentation. Speakers included local candidates, public officials, or professors; a local A.M.E. pastor who spoke on the crisis in Selma, Alabama, in 1965; a former economic advisor to Fidel Castro; and the Know Your Neighbor Panel, a women's interracial group dedicated to improving race relations. In 1963, two members of the group were elected to public office: Gertrude Cohen became a member of the state legislature and Joan Glaza became the clerk of district court. Lynn Cutler, an active member in the 1960s, was elected to the Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors in 1974 and later served as the Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. In 1964, the club was invited to attend a meeting of the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women. Records are inconclusive about if or how the club stopped meeting.

The organization was variously called the Black Hawk County Democratic Women's Organization and the Black Hawk County Democratic Women's Club.

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