Protesters say iconic suffragist embraced white supremacy, demand Iowa State rename Catt Hall

Civil rights protesters at Iowa State University are demanding a building named in honor of iconic suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt be renamed, citing a highly disputed allegation that she once embraced white supremacy.

"In her efforts to win suffrage state-by-state, Catt strategically appealed to the prejudices of the time," said a protester at Iowa State University's Catt Hall Thursday evening during a march organized by the Ames Black Lives Matter organization.

Catt, who championed the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution that gave women the right to vote in 1920, has been accused of upholding racist rhetoric in previous publications.

In a 1996 Associated Press article published in the New York Times, for example, Catt was alleged to have made a statement during her advocacy for the 19th Amendment that: "White supremacy will be strengthened, not weakened, by women's suffrage."

Officials from the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University have said the information in the New York Times article was based on a 1995 newsletter called UHURU! produced by the Iowa State Chapter of the Black Student Union. That newsletter was largely based on secondary sources and officials have have challenged its factual basis. Officials from the center did not return calls for comment.

“We’re not here to protest peacefully, we’re here to protest nonviolently,” an organizer told the crowd of about 200 on the steps in front of Catt Hall said Thursday. “When we’re protesting, we’re definitely disrupting people’s way of life, we’re making noise (and) we’re having our voices heard.”

The march, whose participants chanted “Change Catt Hall,” made a stop in ISU President Wendy Wintersteen’s driveway Thursday.

Wintersteen earlier this month ordered the remove a plaque commemorating W.T. Hornaday, an 1800s alumnus associated with a racist exhibit.

“We have been demanding (Catt Hall’s name change) for years,” an organizer said into a megaphone outside Wintersteen’s home. “Once we ask you about the rock and the plaque about the zoologist, she removes it with no hesitation – but you can’t rename Catt Hall … the name needs to be removed.”On Friday, Wintersteen released a statement to the Ames Tribune in response to questions about Thursday’s march. The statement did not say whether the university will consider renaming buildings or programs associated with Catt.“Iowa State is committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff,” Wintersteen said in the statement. “We ask all members of the Iowa State community to be a force for positive change and condemn racism on campus.”

Civil rights advocates earlier this month also requested Catt's name be removed from the university's center of women and politics.

The center on June 11 issued a statement to "condemn the racism, sexism, transphobia and homophobia that has underlain our country’s political and economic systems since its founding, and the history of the state violence against Black Americans that has most recently manifested itself in the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery."

Though chants called for Wintersteen to come out of her residence to talk, she did not appear and it is unclear whether she was home during Thursday's march.

An attendee who volunteered to speak during the march announced a "Speak Your Peace" event will take place on Saturday at Memorial Park beginning at 6 p.m. in Ames. 

CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to clarify that the Carrie Chapman Catt Center’s concerns were focused on the UHURU! article.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa State protesters call for renaming of building commemorating Carrie Chapman Catt