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Biography

Lametta Wynn was actively involved on the school board, happy in her career as a nurse. Encouraged to run for mayor, she won 54% of all votes in a five person race becoming Iowa's first female African American mayor and Iowa's second African American mayor. She has also served on the hospital board and been appointed to the state Board of Education. Her focus on improving her community has lead to an impressive list of accomplishments. She has raised nine children who have become successful citizens as well.

Transcript

Date of Interview: 10 October 2008

Donielle: Thank you for coming to help us with our oral history report.

LaMetta Wynn: My pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Donielle: Now what’s your name?

LaMetta Wynn: My name is LaMetta Wynn.

Donielle: OK.

Kenya: CYP Intervention Dance Group.

Donielle: My name is Donielle. I am from Clinton High School. I am a freshman. And I like to dance. That’s really all I like to do. My hobbies.

Kenya: Ok, my name is Kenya Lewis. I’m in ninth grade. I’m a freshman. And I like to do volleyball and sing and dance.

Donielle: Ok. It’s nice to meet you. How long have you been living in Clinton, Iowa?

Lynetta Wynn: I’ve been living in Clinton, since 1955.

Donielle: 1955?

Lynetta Wynn: When I graduated from nurses’ training in Cedar Rapids, I came to Clinton, Iowa.

Kenya: How many children do you have?

LaMetta Wynn: I have nine daughters and one son.

Donielle: Oh!

LaMetta Wynn: Yeah wow. (laughter) A lot of people say wow.

Kenya: Wow!

LaMetta Wynn: Yeah!

Donielle: What do some of them do?

LaMetta Wynn: Well I can tell you all of them if you have time. (laughter)

Donielle: Yeah

Kenya: We have time.

LaMetta Wynn: Ok. My oldest daughter is Gina. She lives in Connecticut. She works in Manhattan, New York, and she’s a sales manager for a publishers. Next is Mary and she’s a physician and she lives in Ohio now. But she’s moving to Illinois- southern Illinois- she’s going to be a doctor there. Janet has a law degree from Texas Southern and she lives in Waterloo. Tom my only son is a police officer. He lives in Des Moines but he’s a policeman in West Des Moines. He graduated from UNI. Debbie is, lives in Des Moines and she works at a restaurant there. And that’s the kind of work she likes. Wanda is a physician’s assistant; she just had been a, worked with a physician here in Clinton for about thirteen years. A lot of people were sorry to see her go, but her husband got a transfer to Arizona, so she lives there now. Ruth lives here in Clinton and works at the YWCA with women who are assaulted or who have problems. She just got married last Saturday.

Donielle: Oh, that’s nice.

LaMetta Wynn: Yeah. Kathy lives here in Clinton and she is going to Clinton Community College. She wants to be a nurse. Carol, (laughter) I have to stop and think. Carol graduated from Coe, and she lives in Florida. She works at a Community College there. And Linda lives here in town, and you might know Linda. I don’t know.

Donielle: Yeah. I do.

LaMetta Wynn: She works with the afterschool programs with the kids here. I have fifteen grandchildren; don’t ask me to talk about them. (Laughter) But some of them live here in Clinton you probably know. You probably know Kiki.

Donielle: Yeah.

Kenya: Right.

LaMetta Wynn: OK.

Kenya: Are you involved in any civic groups?

LaMetta Wynn: Yes I am. I belong to some committees that work with the school. Like the, things that look at our progress for the school and what we’re going to be doing with the schools, and what we need to do with the schools. I’ve been appointed by the governor to the state board of education and I am very proud of that, because education is so important to all of us. It was something I didn’t even ask for, but he asked me to be on it and I am very thankful that he did. I work with the, Ashford a lot. They’ve asked me to do various things. Some things I didn’t know I could do, but I’m finding out I can. So, yeah I’m busier now than when I was retired. And next year I will be the board, president of the board of the hospital here.

Donielle: Oh and how many years have you started in some of these things?

LaMetta Wynn: Well you know in the past I was the mayor for twelve years. And twelve years before that I was on the school board. And I can’t tell you everything, because I probably don’t know everything. (Laughter) Can’t remember everything.

Kenya: Has it been difficult to be involved?

LaMetta Wynn: You mean because of my race and that sort of thing?

Kenya: Yeah.

LaMetta Wynn: You know this sounds like you might not believe it, but I really haven’t. One thing I’ve been very proud of the kids here in school. Since you’re kids I will tell you this, that kids have been very respectful to the office of Mayor. And you know when they see me they may not know my name, but they know I’m the mayor. And “Hi Mayor!” you know. And if I see little kids in the store with their parents they will say “Mom, did you know that was the Mayor?” And they’re just excited. I can tell you one little incident. I went into Pizza Hut with a friend and her husband and her son. As we were going in she said, “Don’t turn around,” because all these little kids were sitting there, there were scouts: brownies I think at a table. And they were saying, “Here comes the Mayor, Do you know that’s the Mayor?” and one little girl was saying “Who’s the Mayor?” And the rest of them were saying, “Don’t you know that’s the Mayor?” So we went, I said hello to all of them and we went and sat down. And here came all these little kids with their placemats and a crayon. They wanted my autograph.

Kenya and Donielle: Ohhh!! (laughter)

LaMetta Wynn: They just you know, they stand as close as they can. They would come to City Hall. I’d invite them. They would have their pictures taken with the Mayor and the Council. And they would just want to get as close as they could. I have never been disrespected by a child here in Clinton.

Donielle: Oh, well when you first got like appointed to Mayor, how did you feel being in charge of a white community?

LaMetta Wynn: You know what, it was the white community that wanted me to be Mayor. I was a nurse, happy (laughter) as a nurse. When people were telling me LaMetta you need to run for Mayor. And I’m saying I’ve never been mayor. I don’t know anything about being mayor. And I ran and was, I ran against the incumbent. And there were four white men that I ran against and won. Which was kind of a surprise to me. You know you, if you run for something you want it. You know I’m thinking, gee can I run against this man who has been the mayor and been on the council for a lot of years. So I was very happy, of the five of us I got 54% of all the votes.

Donielle: Fifty-four!

LaMetta Wynn: Yes. I was really surprised. When I ran four years later, no one ran against me. (Laughter) When I ran four years later, one man ran against me, and most people didn’t even know who he was. So I got, I got a large percentage of the votes. And I didn’t run last year simply because I had been mayor for twelve years, and it’s an honor to be the Mayor. And I thought I’ve been Mayor for twelve years, I bet somebody else would like to be Mayor, and I think we’d accomplished a lot. So I just decided I’m not going to run anymore.

Kenya: So, what are the things that you accomplished?

LaMetta Wynn: Well there’s some things that I’m really proud of. I’ve got to tell you something I’m proud of for when I was, the twelve years before I was Mayor, I was twelve years on the, on the school board. And one of the things I am proudest of for being on the school board was that we established the alternative high school. It was kicking and fighting a lot of people, because people were saying we’ve got a high school, we don’t need another high school. If we don’t, if these kids can’t come to that high school, then they don’t need to come. But I think it’s one of the greatest things we’ve accomplished here, because we have kids that are graduating from high school now, who never would have. They would not have gone to school. We have girls who have babies. Not that we’re, you know, condoning any of that. But they have them and that’s a fact of life. So they need a place to go back to school, because otherwise these girls would not have gone back to school with those babies. Who would take care of those babies for them? So that’s one of the things I am proudest of in the last twenty-four years that I have done. The things I’ve done in Clinton. One of the things is our trips to Washington. We go to Washington every year and it’s called the Mayor’s Summit. It doesn’t mean the LaMetta Mayor, Wynn Mayor; it means any of the Mayors in the area who want to go. The reason I established that was because, when I got into the office I’m thinking, “We need some money, and we don’t have that much money.” So I said to the Council, “You need to send the Mayor to Washington.” The Mayor had never been to Washington. But you don’t have to go by yourself, so I talked to people at the Chamber of Commerce, the Regional Development Core, and we got together. And in ‘99 was our first trip to Washington. We’ve gone every year since then. And we brought back not just for Clinton, but for this whole region. Some of it’s been for people in Illinois; some of it’s been for other little cities here. Over 50 million dollars for projects that we all need here.

End of first video, beginning of second.

Donielle: Oh.

Unidentified student voice: What was it like running for the senate, opposed to Mayor?

LaMetta Wynn: Running for Senate was a lot different because, running for Mayor in Clinton, this is, you know, you don’t have to be a Democrat or a Republican. People just vote for you. When I ran for the Senate that was like running for, you’re either a Democrat or a Republican. So that’s the biggest difference it’s, it has to do with party preference. In fact when I ran for the Senate people were saying to me, “I didn’t know you were a Republican.” See it didn’t make any difference when I was running for Mayor. But when I ran for Senate that meant, that made a big difference to people.

Donielle: Oh. Have you encountered any segregation or discrimination?

LaMetta Wynn: You know. I really can’t say I have. I really can’t. There were, the only thing I can think of since coming to Clinton, was probably in the late ’50s. And I went to a dentist, because, it wasn’t my teeth, it was, my jaws were hurting. And so he told me, you know, what he thought it was. And I said thank you. And I said that I would like to set up a time when I can come in for a regular check up. And he told me that he thought that I probably shouldn’t come back there, because some of his patients would not feel comfortable sitting there with someone. This is in the ’50s. I’ve gone to various dentists since then. And I probably could go to anyone now, because I think times are different. That’s the only thing that I can honestly say. I was a nurse for a lot of years. I took care of a lot of people. I really didn’t, was not discriminated against. I must say I told that dentist, ’cause I was a nurse at that time, “I hope you come to the hospital sometime too, and then when I find time, maybe I’ll take care of you.” Which is very unrealistic, but it just, you know you had to say something. Couldn’t just let him get by with that.

Unidentified student voice: Did you end up going back to that dentist?

LaMetta Wynn: NO! My teeth have never been bad enough for me to go back to him. Besides he is no longer here.

Kenya: How did you feel about that?

LaMetta Wynn: Well it’s very hurtful, when someone tells you something like that. You know, and it makes you feel like you’re not as good as other people. And no one should be made to feel like that.

Donielle: What church do you belong to?

LaMetta Wynn: I belong to the First Presbyterian Church. And for a long time I went to Bethel, because that was my husband’s preference for the kids. I go to the Presbyterian Church now, because when I grew up in Galena, that’s the church I grew up in. So now that my kids are grown, my husband is no longer here and I can go to the church I want to go to. So, that’s the church I go to.

Unidentified student voice: Oh. When you were a nurse were there any patients that didn’t want you to help them cause of your race?

LaMetta Wynn: If they did I didn’t know about it. I, maybe I’m naive. I don’t know. But, I do not know of any instances where people said they didn’t want me to take care of them.

Donielle: And are there African Americans in your church?

LaMetta Wynn: Yeah, there are a few.

Donielle: How long have you been going to that church?

LaMetta Wynn: Gee, probably for four or five years, before that I went to Bethel. And my kids went there. But I’ve probably been going for five years.

Donielle: Is there any awards that you have?

LaMetta Wynn: I’ve gotten lots of awards. And a lot of it is because I am Iowa’s first African American Female Mayor, and probably the second African American Mayor in Iowa. When I go places like with the League of Cities, I was the president of the Iowa League for a while, and people across the country are surprised that Iowa has an African American mayor. They say things like, “Are there any African Americans in Iowa?” They’re astonished. You know you have your little name tag on. And my name, LaMetta Wynn, is on here. They mess up my name LaMetta, usually, and then-which is fine. And they say the mayor, that’s fine. But when they say Iowa they can’t believe that, Iowa! Because people don’t believe there are any African Americans in Iowa. I have three honorary degrees, Doctorate degrees: one from Marycrest, one from Mt. Saint Claire and one from St. Ambrose. These are honorary; I really didn’t work for those. I mean, I’m not a doctor. I guess I could call myself a doctor; I have three degrees. I have a degree, I have a wall in my house that is covered with plagues where people have given me different honors. That are you know-they’re wonderful. I am very pleased; I’ve worked with some of the probably the greatest people you will ever know. And they’re not necessarily famous people. But they’re just good people.

Kenya: Who was the first African American Mayor?

LaMetta Wynn: You know I think he, it was a man who lived in maybe, don’t hold me to this, but I think he was from Shell Rock, Iowa, which is a very small town in Iowa. And there are some men who are Mayors now, but at the time there weren’t any. One of the awards I really like are given, is given out, by the County Attorney’s Association. They give one person an award. And you know when I got this award, this is, I’m not usually, you know I usually don’t harp back on things. But when I got this award from this group of attorney’s, I am thinking, you know I’m thinking back to the time when my people and your people couldn’t even walk on the sidewalk, couldn’t drink out of a fountain, couldn’t do any of those things that, that people should be allowed to do, and here I’m given an award. And that’s the way it affected me. I don’t know.

Donielle: So how do you feel about, since you were the first Mayor, African American female Mayor, how do you feel about Obama having a chance to become President?

LaMetta Wynn: I think it’s wonderful. I think that you know that, for a country like ours to support a person. You know, we’ve come a long way. We’ve got a longer way to go, but we have an even longer way to come. And I think it’s wonderful that we just look at a person. And look at him to be the leader of our country, maybe someday.

Kenya: What was it like being published in Ebony Magazine?

LaMetta Wynn: Well first it was Newsweek. First it was the Chicago Tribune, one of my daughters that lives here now, used to work for the Tribune in Chicago. And she met this man, and he said he wanted to come out here, a reporter, and interview me for the Chicago Tribune. He came out, sat in my living room, and interviewed me for this. It was, it was a wonderful thing. It was in the Sunday paper on page two or three. I was amazed. And so he contacted somebody from Newsweek magazine. And this man called me and said he was interviewing Mayors across the country. And he wanted to interview me. So we had this nice interview. And he said that it would be in Newsweek. And I, so, you know what I did? I went out and got a subscription to Newsweek because I wanted to see it when it came out. So it, I kept looking at it. And finally there was this magazine that came out that said “America’s 25 Most Dynamic Mayors” on the front of it. And I thought, well that can’t be me. But I’ll look at it anyhow. Well it was. Here were all these Mayors from Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, all the big cities, and Clinton, Iowa. I was very proud of that. So I’ve been interviewed by Fox Media, Fox TV. They interviewed me because they wanted to interview me and the man who was Mayor of Gary, Indiana, because Gary is mostly African American, they had elected a white Mayor.

Donielle: Well thanks for coming.

LaMetta Wynn: You’re welcome. Thank you for asking me. I think this is a wonderful project.