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Biography

Ross Wilburn was born in Galesburg, Illinois but moved to Davenport, Iowa as a child. After graduating from the University of Iowa with a Masters Degree in Social Work, he chose to stay in Iowa City. He is currently serving his third term on the City Council.  He served as the first African American Mayor of Iowa City from January 2006 to January 2008. He has also served on the Parks and Recreation Commission, served in the National Guard, and was a professor of Social Work at the University. He was a founder of the Iowa Community Youth Development Training Institute, trains for the National Network for Youth and works at United Action for Youth. His is a life of service and dedication to his community.

Transcript

Date of Interview:  6 March 2010

Mahogany White: Hello. My name is Mahogany White. I am interviewing Ross Wilburn on the topic of African American history makers of Iowa City. You have been identified as a black history maker of Iowa City and are known as the first African American mayor of Iowa City. Can you describe the feeling when you were first was elected mayor?

Ross Wilburn: If I could go back just a little bit, one of the reasons that I felt it was important for me to try to become mayor; the public isn’t aware of this, but on the back of the city council chambers there are pictures of all the former mayors of Iowa City and the council looks out at those and it jumps out at you that at the time there were only all white, primarily male, city council members and mayors and I just felt, since I was in the position to make the attempt and try to become mayor, that I guess there was a calling; that I should go ahead and give the attempt while I was there. It was very exciting; I knew it would be important to some people, but there was an incident that had happened later on in the day; interaction with an older African American woman in town, that really drove home for me how important it was to have, made the attempt and become successful becoming there.

Mahogany: What brought you to Iowa City?

Ross Wilburn: I came here for school. I am originally from Galesburg, IL., and went to junior high and high school in Davenport, Iowa. I came to the University of Iowa for school and then hung around like a lot of people before me, but just love it here. Had an opportunity for a job, before I even finished school, decided to go ahead and raise my family here.

Mahogany: How long have you lived in Iowa City?

Ross Wilburn: Since 1982. So it’s been some time.

Mahogany: Have you been involved with any Civil Rights organizations?

Ross Wilburn: Well, I’ve done some speaking with different organizations. I’m not a member of the NAACP, but I have done some speaking in front of that group. I’ve was involved in President Obama’s campaign then Senator Obama’s campaign to become president and did some speaking with the Iowa/ Nebraska chapter of the NAACP. Then just throughout my time here in Iowa City and the work that I have done both as a city council member, but even before as a youth worker and at the University of Iowa, getting involved with different groups. I was on our diversity committee at the School of Social Work. I was part of a national organization called the National Network for Youth and was involved in some of the efforts there reaching out to minority youth. I mentioned earlier in the interview the event after I had become mayor that interaction that I had with an African American woman. She’d been around town; I didn’t know her by name, but she’d been around town for a long time and I bumped into her on the street about an hour later and she came over to me, and said “You know I just heard on the radio that you were picked as mayor. I thought it would never happen.” We started talking and tears started coming to her eyes. It was that moment that I knew this was an important accomplishment to have achieved not just for myself, but for the council members that selected me, as mayor and the public that saw past race as an issue in the first place, just even putting me on city council, so that was an important moment I think. But just personally, I am a parent; I’m a father of two daughters. You know they teach me as much about myself as I think I teach them. One of them’s off to college right now the other one’s a sophomore at Iowa City High School and in a couple more years she’ll be off to school somewhere. For me just having been a parent to them and see them become successful and trying to do something in life has been an important thing for me.

Mahogany: What has been your happiest memory?

Ross Wilburn: My happiest memory? Is seeing my children being born. Becoming involved in their lives, but even going back, my mother died when I was 20 years old and so just kind of remembering; reflecting on the times that we had together and the lessons that she taught me about life and community and being involved and respecting your elders and just trying to be positive and get involved in whatever town you are in, those are some of the happier memories of my life.

Mahogany: And your saddest moment?

Ross Wilburn: The saddest moment was obviously when my mother died. That was a tough, tough moment for me. There are four siblings and my mother and I were very close and when she contracted cancer and slowly died over the course of a couple years that was a pretty low moment. But even out of that, it taught me, that despite some of the tough moments that I may have on city council, or with my job at the Iowa City Community School District Equity Director, that in most situations no one has passed away, no one has died. And you can pretty much make it through a lot of other things and I think even out of that sad moment I try to hold that as a positive; both the memory of her, but even just recognizing in day to day life that as hard as things can get, and they can get hard sometimes for everyone, if you’ve got your health if you’ve got our family and your friends then things are going to be right.

Mahogany: And with your biggest accomplishment what would you change about what you did?

Ross Wilburn: I don’t know that I would change anything, either with my children or with city council. I’m on my eleventh year now in city council. Hopefully there will be some folks that I can talk to, about running for city council on the year that I decide not to run for city council again. But in terms of the process and what had happened, I don’t know if I would change a thing.

End of First video beginning of Second

Ross Wilburn: When I did become mayor, I had a lot of groups both in town and across the state, well in the state of Illinois, too, that asked me to come speak to their groups and to their youth groups. I look around today and there are so many more young people that are aware of what city government does that they’re getting involved in projects at their school, but also in their community, in their neighborhoods, I am not claiming that’s all because of me, but I’d like to think because of some of the interest that young people took in local government at that time, that it was maybe a part of a catalyst for a lot of peoples’ work with young people in the community to get things going.

Mahogany: What do you think is the most important thing to remember about what happened to you and becoming a mayor?

Ross Wilburn: I think that the most important thing is that we as individuals, and especially young people; that you need to, it’s important to believe in yourself, but also to reach out to others that are around you. Both people that are alike and different from you, because it actually took me three tries to get to city council. The third time I was successful, but each time I felt that I was a success, because I got to know more people, they got to know and believe in me. We had exchanges of ideas; both things we had in common and differences, but that understanding that we came together it helped me just slowly build a coalition of people around that were willing to support me and to believe in me and to feel that I believed in their issues. So I think the message there, is that the more connections that you can have with your neighbors, with your friends, with people in the community, again both that are similar and dissimilar to you that it will create a lot of opportunities that you may not be aware of at the moment, but in the future people will come back and remember their interaction with you. It can be something that can open a lot of doors to you.

Mahogany: What advice would you give people who are watching this interview?

Ross Wilburn: I think the statement I just made about trying reach out to others. I think also you have to take care of yourself. We have to look out for both our physical, our mental health. The healthier you are the better off you’re going to be; the better support you’re going to be for your family. I think that’s one thing, but taking on that taking care of yourself, also involves taking care of your community, whether that’s your faith community, whether that’s the neighborhood immediately around you, friends, relatives; I think if you are taking care of, and taking interest in, something beyond yourself, then again that’s going to lead to healthier life for yourself.

Mahogany: You said something about faith. Would you describe the African American church in your community?

Ross Wilburn: Well in Iowa City, there’s a strong African Methodist Episcopal Church and they’re doing a renovation right now and hopefully they’ll get some good funds to finish their renovation. I’m actually a member of the Episcopal Church here in town, Trinity Episcopal Church. I’ve always worked with a lot of different groups; people of different faiths and backgrounds. I think, again, if you can believe in yourself and find something higher than yourself to believe in, it’s a good foundation for yourself, for both when things go wrong and you need something to build from, but when things are going right and you need to enjoy that it’s good to have others around, to celebrate life and celebrate your accomplishments.

Mahogany: How does your family feel about you being involved in everything?

Ross Wilburn: My sisters and my brother they’re all proud of me. I won’t tell you the nicknames that they have for me, but a lot of them live in Illinois, they’re always talking about my becoming involved in community, my work with the schools, my work with the local government, my work on President Obama’s campaign. That’s something that they’re always talking about, so I know that they’re proud. One of the things, I think my daughters, they probably wouldn’t say it to my face, because that’s part of the sacrifice that you make with public service, elected life, is that it has taken some time away from my family and some time away from my girls, but I did push to become involved. I used to coach them in softball and go to all their events both athletic and musical. But even seeing my daughters, their friends will come up and talk to them about government issues, things that they’ll read in the paper and just hearing my daughters describe, factually, what is going on, with more knowledge than frankly many adults in the community, they’re awareness of community, I think is there. So even though they may not say it to my face I think there’s some pride there.

Mahogany: The last question. What advice would you give to the African American children that are here now in Iowa City?

Ross Wilburn: That are here in Iowa City?

Mahogany: Um-hum.

Ross Wilburn: Again, I have to go back to trying to believe in yourself or finding someone that will believe in you-to take care of yourself and to reach out to others both with similar ideas and similar backgrounds, but people that are of different backgrounds and not just different racial backgrounds, but whether it is different faith, different sports, different music, because I think you’re trying to grow the network of people around you that can be a support for you that can be someone that you can draw upon and that someone will come and ask you for assistance. You never know; I think that’s another thing that serving in public life has taught me; you never know how many lives you touch until you hear someone referring to a conversation that you had with them that was helpful for them, you’ll hear someone using some of the words that you may use as they are standing up for themselves, or getting involved in something in the community. You just don’t realize that if you are trying to do something positive for yourself that it’s going to affect others. What you do, people watch and observe what you’re doing and they can observe negative things, they can observe positive things. That image that you knowingly or unknowingly portray, people are watching and it can come back to help you, or it can come back to haunt you. So I just suggest trying to, despite both the positives and negatives in life, try and take care of yourself and get to know others in your community and project a positive image.

Mahogany: Well, I would like to thank you for your time Mr. Ross and I would like to thank the African American Museum in Cedar Rapids for giving their time and effort for us to interview the history makers in Iowa City.