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Biography

Cammie Dean was born and raised in Texas, but came to Iowa for a university education. After college she became the first Director of Multi-cultural Student Services then the first Director of Student Life at Clarke College. When she was elected to the school board, she became the first black elected to an office in Dubuque County. She finds Iowa’s growing diversity exciting. She is a born leader, a born teacher. She recognizes that her educational experiences are a direct result of the Civil Rights Movement to which her family was deeply committed. She discusses the differences between and the impact of legal and de facto segregation. She also addresses the need for the NAACP, why she changed her mind about its relevance and how to use community involvement to effect the type of change she wants.

Transcript

Date of Interview:  February 25, 2009

Shanique Ivory: Please state your name and spell it.

Cammie Dean: My name is Cammie Mary Elizabeth Dean. Cammie is C-a-m-m-i-e. Mary M-a-r-y, Elizabeth E-l-i-z-a-b-e-t-h, Dean D-e-a-n. I usually do motivational speaking. And when I introduce myself I explain that Cammie Mary Elizabeth means gift of God. Dean means that I am meant to be a teacher. So I am called to tell the truth. It is not always good news, but I do.

Shanique: OK. Where were you born and raised?

Cammie Dean: I was born in Texas. At Ft. Worth….Ft. Walters Air Force Base. Which was slightly west of Dallas, Fort Worth. And I grew up my first five years in Mineral Wells, Texas. Which is a very small town that nobody’s ever heard of. And then we moved to Ft Worth, were I lived until I graduated from high school.

Shanique- Ok. Where did you go to school? Start from elementary down to college.

Cammie Dean: I started school at Lewis Cartwright Elementary. That was at Carswold Air Force Base. It was a very diverse school. There were kids from the world, kids from all over the country. When I went into the 4th grade I actually took the ITBS test, The Iowa Test of Basic Skills. And did really well and they recruited me for a special school across town. So in beginning of the 4th grade I was bused across town to a school called North High Mount, where a lot of rich kids went. And I was the only black kid in my class for the 4th grade and 5th grade. I was also the poorest kid in the class, (laughter) which is always interesting. For elementary school I went to…for middle school I went to a strictly middle school. That was actually almost all black. But I was still in a magnet program and so all the kids in the program with me were white. I was the only black kid in the class. And I was there for two years. Then I switched schools. Irma Marsh Middle School was where I went in the 8th grade, all white school in a very poor district. And then for high school I stayed in that district and went to Castleberry High School which is where I graduated.

Shanique: How long have you been in Iowa?

Cammie Dean: I have been in Iowa for 20 years as of this year.

Shanique: Ok. And what brought you to Dubuque?

Cammie Dean: I came to Dubuque for a job. I came to Iowa to go to college at the University of Iowa. And after I spent too long there, studying and trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and changing my major eight times-which is a really bad thing to do, don’t do that when you go to college-I graduated and decided that I actually wanted to stay at a college. But as an employee, as a mentor, because there were some people that I met along the way that really changed my life. Because of that I wanted to turn around and do the same thing for someone else. So when I looked for a job I found the job at Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, and I have been here ever since.

Shanique: OK. Could you talk about your family and do you have any family in Dubuque?

Cammie Dean: Well my immediate family is just myself and my daughter Viola, who you all know. My mother, my father, my sister and her kids and husband are all still in Texas. So it is just us anywhere close to here.

Shanique: What is your impression of Iowa?

Cammie Dean: My impression of Iowa. Iowa is ah, it’s an interesting place. It’s obviously very rural. It’s a lot of small towns, and a lot of small town mentalities. And for me that means there are good people who work hard and want the best for their families and their communities, but at the same time it means they have not been exposed to a whole lot. The fact that Iowa is less than 2% black really stands out for me. It really has impacted my life and the life of my daughter. But I think that in the 20 years I have been here there have been a lot of changes and even Dubuque is becoming more diverse, which I find very exciting.

Shanique: What did you do for entertainment when you were young?

Cammie Dean: When I was young for entertainment we still had to go outside and play. That’s what your parents told you and that’s what you did. And you made it up as you went along. Sometimes you had toys and sometimes you didn’t. Sometimes you picked up sticks and used your imagination. And we stayed out till it was dark and played hide and seek in the dark until about forty-five minutes after the street lights came on and then you could go back in the house. That was the way it was. So we made it up as we went along.

Shanique: How has the Civil Rights Movement affected you?

Cammie Dean: The Civil Rights Movement was before my time; I’m not that old. But I know that it has affected me, because I wouldn’t have had many of the experiences that I have had. I wouldn’t have had the education that I’ve had if it hadn’t been for the changes that happened during the Civil Rights Movement. My great-grandfather Sevoy Nixon was a civil rights worker. He was a preacher in east Texas. And he marched and he spoke and he went all the way to Washington and sat in the office at the White House with President Kennedy while he read out one of his proclamations about changes that would happen. So I come from a family that was very committed to the changes that happened with the Civil Rights Movement. I know that I got the best education I could because there were programs trying to make changes from things that had happened in the past. I know that my mother for example could not have stepped foot in the school with the rich kids I went to. I know that they probably had to have me there. They had to find some black kid with good grades to bring into that program so they could say that they were making a change. But regardless of why they brought me in there, they did it and I took full advantage of it and got the best education that I could. And had it not been for the Civil Rights Movement I wouldn’t have been able to do that.

Shanique : What was segregation like for you?

Cammie Dean: I have never lived in a place where segregation was the law. The segregation that I experienced was the segregation that people choose. So like I said, when I was with the rich kids, in elementary school, I was never invited to a birthday party; I was never invited to a sleep over. They understood that I was there for school and they were nice to me during that time, but beyond that I didn’t exist. I didn’t play on teams with them; I wasn’t in Girl Scouts with them. I was not part of their world and it was very clear. So it was still a type of segregation. It wasn’t legalized. It wasn’t written on any books. I don’t even know if anyone really decided that we’re not inviting the black girl to this event or that event, but it is just the way that it was. That was the way things still were one generation after legal segregation. When I went to school with the poor kids on the other side of town, it was a little bit different. They were more hateful. I again was with them on a day to day basis at school, but I wasn’t hanging out with them after school. Some of them I couldn’t hang out with because their parents wouldn’t let them. The KKK was still active in the Dallas, Ft Worth area. We were the only black family in the neighborhood that we lived in. I heard the “N-word” on a daily basis from white kid’s mouths for about five years of my life. Not legalized segregation, but still the impact is the same. You’ve got white kids who think they are too good to spend time with you. You’ve got white kids that think its ok to talk crazy to you. And you’ve got a structured system where people are not making sure that everyone is treated fairly. So that’s the way I’ve experienced segregation. It’s been something that is institutional and something that is habit formed. But not something that was legal. It was different for my mother who has told me stories when she went to Mississippi when she was a little girl. And black people could only go into town to do their shopping on Saturdays, and they had to be out of town by sundown. It was called a sundown town. And that was written into the rules. That was the law in the town. Black people could not go into the grocery store; they could not go into the drug store, until Saturday. And they could only be in town until sundown, and then they had to be out or something bad would happen. That was the law. So I don’t know what it’s like to live with that, but I do know what it’s like to live with the history and heritage of it that still carries on with us today.

Shanique: Have you been a part of any Civil Rights organizations?

Cammie Dean: I have. The last couple years I am been a member of the NAACP. And I was here for a long time in Dubuque before actually joining. I helped with some of their activities over the years. I was the judge for the Martin Luther King essay contest. I helped do the program and the newsletter and things for them because I recognized they were an important group in the community. But for a long time I couldn’t see the need for an NAACP in the 21st century. I thought you know, my mother had it the way she had it and I had it the way I had it. I know that there are still issues with race. I know there is still discrimination and problems in communities. But I felt like the problems had changed in a way that the NAACP was not changing with it. And so for a long time I thought wouldn’t ever join the NAACP, because we need something different, something new to deal with the kind of institutionalized racism that exists, the internalized oppression that takes place in the black community. The sorts of things that, that go on on a regular basis that are different from what we used to be able to just file lawsuits for. You know can’t file a lawsuit for someone who just thinks they are better than you and treats you like crap. Unless they are calling you a name or denying you a job, or something like that, you can’t really go into court with that. And so there is this more subtle, mental oppression is still taking place, and I did not think that the NAACP was responding to that need. So for a long time I didn’t join. And two years ago, the president Ms. Ruby, who I admire very much, just looked at me and said she’s, she’s tired. She is a lovely lady who’s up in her 60’s and should be retiring. She was still the President because there was no one else who would take the job. And so I did say I will take the job. As I stepped in, just to help her out, I realized that the only way that the organization is going to change, is for people like us who know what’s happening now in the world, to get in there and change the organization. And so I have no regrets that I did join. And there have been changes and there have been efforts in addressing what’s going on now. Last year the NAACP went around the country and they held funerals for the “N-Word” which was a really interesting process. There’s always that debate about who should use it and who shouldn’t and when is it okay. They turned around and talked about the power of the word and the meaning of the word. And has it changed and does it matter if it has an “er” or “a” on the end? Who can say it or who can’t? They really held some important discussions that I thought were important. And it was the first time for me that I recognized the group itself on a national level was changing, really looking at things that are happening right now. It is not just about historical information any more. It’s about dealing with the issues that black folks have right now and I think that’s important.

Shanique: What sort of positions are you in or have you been involved in and why?

Cammie Dean: As I said the NAACP. Also in this community there is a group called Faces and Voices which is a diversity initiative. They do programs like the Martin Luther King breakfast which we do every year. We have about 400 or 500 people who attend. It is a huge event for the community. I have a diversity conference when we do that, Human Rights banquet when we do that, so that’s going on in our community here in Dubuque. I have worked with the Human Rights Commission which deals with all sorts of issues in diversity in addition to race, nationality, religion, and sexual orientation, because all of those things are tied together. So I’ve been active in those ways on a local level. Hold on for a second. Is that my phone?

Josh Person: Why did you choose to be involved in an organization?

Cammie Dean: I think it is important to be involved because the only way to see the changes that we want to have is to make them happen. Where I learned that lesson earliest was when I was when I was in college and I pledged a sorority, Zeta Phi Beta. And I learned from my brothers and sisters in that organization, Phi Beta Sigma and Zeta Phi Beta, that an organization is what you make it. A lot of people particularly in the black community, will sit around and complain about the way that they see the world and the things that are going on, but don’t do anything about it. And when I was in college and I was looking around at who was complaining and who was actually doing something Zeta Phi Beta and Phi Beta Sigma were out there doing it, and I wanted to be a part of it. But in that process I learned that it wasn’t just about being part of a group and identifying yourself with it, but doing the work. And so I used that to take me into my approach to life. It’s about the work that you do and the impact that you have. And so it’s not enough for me be here and even just have my job at Clarke where I want to make a difference in student’s lives. I have to make the community better for the students that I work with. In order to do that I have to join whatever’s going on and help to make it better.

Josh: How did you get involved with your connections?

Cammie Dean: One at a time. It was a matter of finding out what was going on. In small communities like Dubuque reading the newspaper is an important way to find out what’s going on. You’re not always going to see huge signs or billboards or that sort of thing, huge announcements on the radio or things like that. A lot of the things that happen you will read about in the newspaper or in our community Dubuquethrough65.com and things like that as well. But in smaller towns the newspaper is probably a good place to look. But then also, just connections from work when I got here. I knew that I wanted to work with blacks, so I could see right away if I wanted to help black students I had to help make the community better. So I looked for people who were also trying to make the community better. I connected with the other colleges and then from there we connected with the City of Dubuque and the people that worked for them. And the more people you meet and the more people you talk to the more you find out what they are into and find the place where you fit.

Josh: So what were you doing to be involved before you got here?

Cammie Dean: Before I got here. I was in college and in college as I mentioned, I was a member of a sorority. Traditionally a black Greek sorority which is different than what you see on TV, you can’t believe all that stuff. And that was a major service organization, so we were involved in AIDS awareness for the black community. We were involved in the rape victim advocacy program and sexual assault, a problem in the African American community. We were involved with the March of Dimes, which includes fighting prematurity in infants and helping with issues of poverty. In addition to that, I was also involved with the Black Student Union on campus, the African Association, the Hawkeye Hunting and Rifle Club, cause I like to shoot guns. (laughter) I also worked a lot. I had 26 different jobs, when I was in college, temporary jobs because I wanted to learn how to do a lot of things.

Josh: How did your family fill about you getting involved?

Cammie Dean: My mother was worried because she was footing the bill for college and I was doing more volunteering and partying than I was going to class for a couple of years. That was a hard lesson for me to learn, to figure out how to balance things. Being that involved means you have a meeting every night; you’ve got stuff every weekend. And in addition, like I said to the volunteering, I like to party on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and watch football on Sunday and so I got myself into a little trouble academically. But, I eventually figured out that if I wanted to make a difference on the long term, it wasn’t enough just to do the volunteering and have a good time while I was in college; I actually needed to graduate and figure out how to make a bigger difference in the world. So I buckled down and finished up eventually. But yeah my family was a little bit worried that I might be too involved.

Josh: What professional experience and positions have you had? Were you the first African American in that position?

Cammie Dean: I was the first African American in my position at Clarke. Originally I was director of Multi-Cultural Student Services. It was actually a completely new position that was created for me. And I was also the first in the position that I’m currently in at Clarke which is Director of Student Life, where I oversee residents’ life the Multi Cultural Center assessment, along with other things. I’ve been told that I am the highest placed African American in the community of Dubuque, professionally speaking. I’m not sure if that is true, but that is what I’ve been told. I was also on the school board here in Dubuque, Iowa. I was the first black elected official in the county of Dubuque, which was a unique experience. A lot of money passes through the hands of the district, 10,000 students, growing increasingly diverse. And it was an opportunity for me to try to make a difference and to give a voice to people that really hadn’t been recognized in our community before. So those are the two main areas that people know me for in this community.

Josh: What leadership experiences did you have in college?

Cammie Dean: In college I think I’ve held just about every leadership position you can have in an organization: Secretary, where I learned to be very detailed and recording information, typing information for the group, saving things, communicating with other organizations, The treasurer where you have to use all that math and balancing the books and making sure things are handled properly, Vice president which in some organizations in addition to just substituting for the president, you also are in charge of working on membership and recruiting people and getting people involved in the organization, and then I’ve also been the president. I was the president of about three organizations while I was in college. So I think I’ve filled just about every position you can have.

Josh: What are some of your biggest accomplishments?

Cammie Dean: I think being elected to a political office was a major accomplishment for me.
And I realized that when after about a year on the board; I actually went with a group of people from Dubuque to Washington DC to lobby on behalf of the City of Dubuque, try to get some money for some projects and make sure that our representatives in DC knew who we were and that we were keeping an eye on them. I stepped off the elevator and I was just down the hall from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office as I was heading to a meeting and I thought – Whoa who the heck am I, that I am looking at Dick Cheney’s office? You think you’re doing something small for a school board or just a local thing trying to make a difference, but it’s not that far a reach, to start with something small like that to commit yourself to helping your community and you find yourself in a room as I did a couple of years later shaking hands with President Obama. It’s a small world and people who are making a difference and are committed to that really have those opportunities to get out there and meet people and do things and it’s actually really exciting.

Josh: What was your happiest and saddest memory?

Cammie Dean: My happiest memory….I guess I would have to say meeting Obama, as he was running was my happiest memory. Anytime you are looking at an elected official particularly someone who is African American and you’re trying to figure out who’s interest he is working in and is he going to benefit the black community, is he more committed to the white community and then you need someone to figure out that they’re really just committed to service and community and what’s best for everyone and that they’re going to struggle and figure that out and do the best that they can. And with elected officials, particularly with national figures you don’t really know that, until you are in a room with them and you shake their hand and you look in their eyes. And when I was there with him and realized this guy’s the real deal, it was a very happy moment for me, because I did not really believe until I was there with him-this guy might be the next president. And to be on the phone, having met him, with my grandfather the night that the election numbers came in and have my grandfather tell me that he never thought he would live to see the day that there would be a black president. I could tell him, yeah I met this guy and he’s the real deal. That was a very happy moment, was a very happy moment. For me my saddest moments are, they’re a little bit smaller, a little bit closer to home. The saddest moments for me happen when I see a very capable African American student come into the doors of my college and not be able to graduate, not make it out, because they weren’t ready, or they didn’t buckle down, they were afraid to ask for help, or they didn’t develop the connections that they needed to or they didn’t go to class. Whatever the reason, the saddest thing for me is to see someone who could be on the dean’s list with a 4 point GPA, but instead they are leaving in the middle of the semester with nothing but the clothes on their back and the stuff they brought with them. That’s the saddest memory for me.

Josh: If you could change your experience in the community, what would it be?

Cammie Dean: If I could change my experience. I am still disappointed with the Dubuque Community in that we don’t have any sort of a center of the African American community- we don’t have a church or we don’t have a community center, or something that we know anyone can go to, to make connections and get the resources that we need. We still have a lot of divisions in this community. Even within groups of black folks. And when people that are up here working at John Deere and making a lot of money and people that are over here who are barely making it at all, and they don’t talk to each other. And I have a problem with that. And that has always bothered me, for the time that I have been here. And I don’t think there has been a lot of improvement with that. And I would like to see some improvement. And I think some of that will come as more and more African Americans move into the community. And with more people be willing get out and join groups and be part of organizations and be those connections for the people who come in. But it has to be up to the people of the community to make it work.

Josh: What would you change about your past?

Cammie Dean: What would I change about my past? That’s a hard question to answer because I can look back and think about the moments when I would look around the classroom and realized that I was the only person in the room who looked like me. That there were people who, you know, hated me just because I am who I am and there was nothing I could do about it. And a lot of times I have said particularly when I was younger, well if I had not had to go through that maybe, I would have been happier or life would have been easier. But I realize now that, I never would have had the motivation to run for school board, I never would have had the motivation to move to Nowhere, Iowa, unless I had had the struggles that I went through, in the times that I did when I was your age. And so I don’t know if I would take any of that back, because I wouldn’t have done much of what I’ve done in life if I hadn’t had to deal with those things.

Josh: What are your plans for the future?

Cammie Dean: My plans for the future. Actually next week I’m moving back to Texas. I’ve been in Iowa for 20 years and in Dubuque for 12 years. I’m ready to do something different. I’m ready to move on to some newer and better things. So immediately I’m headed back home. I feel like I have had a lot of great experiences in Iowa. And I would like to take some those back home. I’ve learned over the past years, I’ve watched the energy in our country with the way that people are getting involved politically, with the excitement over Barack Obama being elected and the changes that people are hoping to happen, that none of those changes will happen if we’re not involved, if we’re not a part of that process which is building the black community. And I feel a really strong need to go back to where I came from and to do what I do for the kids that are in the same boat that I was in. When I was in middle school I had a dear, dear, friend that I just connected with in the past year, who went to the same middle school I went to. But like I said I was the only black kid in the special magnet program that was about 50 kids, but all the rest of the school was black. And he told me that I was the first black person he had ever seen that did not live in the projects and that’s still the realty for a lot of people in the black community back home. And if people like me pick up and leave and never go back, then they still may never see someone who doesn’t live in the projects or isn’t from the ghetto or isn’t from the hood. And they still may not know what’s out there, for them, if they are willing to take a little bit of risk. So I am ready to go back home and try to help some folks most directly from where I come from. So I am going home.

Josh: In twenty years when people talk about Cammie Dean what is the one thing you want people to remember?

Cammie Dean: I think I want people to remember that I lived what I believed. I didn’t just talk about it, though I am a pretty good talker. I just didn’t complain about it, but I got out and tried to make a difference. I respected people from all walks of life and with whatever they had to bring to the table. But ultimately it was all about trying to make an improvement in the community and that I tried to live that.

Josh: What advice would you give to the African American people in this community?

Cammie Dean: I think it’s important for people to own this community. There is a sense that if you are black here it’s not meant to be home, that you are a visitor, that you’re passing through. And that’s the way that this community has been for a long time. But it’s only if we make of the decision that we’re going to do the best we can here, however long we are here and we’re going to make a contribution that the Dubuquers as they are called, will see the value that we have to offer and that we will see our own value. And I think that one of the greatest downfalls in the black community is that many times we don’t see our own value, and we let people think what they want to think and go on about our business, when we have so much to offer. And it’s just like I said with my saddest moment, I hate to see when someone comes through the door with so much to offer and they end up leaving having given nothing. That’s the most disappointing thing that there is and for us as a community I think that is just as disappointing.

Several Students: Thanks for coming.

Cammie Dean: Thanks for having me. You guys did a great job. Keep doing what you are doing.