Our Board

The Iowa Black History Research Collective was born out of Kari’s need, as a Black woman, to imagine and create a space where contributions of historically excluded folks are centered, honored, respected, and valued. Kari became interested in historic Black churches after her family’s church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was designated a historic location in 2017.

Norris has continued the family legacy of helping others through his nonprofit group, Bettering Youth Organization. Now, he’s developing plans to build an African American Cultural Museum in Des Moines.

Growing up in Chicago, Norris watched his grandmother and other women work tirelessly to build community. His grandmother taught him everything from the streets — to how to be kind to people. He watched as she organized community events, worked with city officials and did what she could to improve the neighborhood. Norris’ grandfather, a pastor, led Greater Zion Temple. Norris loved to hear him preach and hear his grandfather’s theme song, “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” being sung at the church.

So, he transferred the nonprofit he’d created in Illinois to Iowa and began working on museum plans at the Evelyn K. Davis Center for Working Families.  

Norris’ plans to build an African American Cultural Museum in Des Moines are taking shape, and he also has plans for a pop-up museum and other initiatives to benefit Black Iowans and others. 

An activist, coach and pitcher at heart, in the future when Norris asks young Black children about famed baseball legend Jackie Robinson, he wants them to know who Robinson was and about the history of the Negro Leagues. He also wants them to know about Motown and Soul Train, the Black Panthers and Black Wall Street. 

She joined the faculty of Grinnell in 2000 after teaching at Central Michigan University. Ms. Purcell’s research interests include: the Early National, Antebellum, and Civil War periods; popular culture and political culture; gender history; and military history. She is author of Sealed with Blood: War, Sacrifice, and Memory in Revolutionary America, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, and Eyewitness History: The Early American Republic. She is co-author of The Encyclopedia of Battles in North America, 1517-1915 (which won a 2000 Best of Reference award from the New York Public Library) and Critical Lives: The Life and Work of Eleanor Roosevelt. Her latest book Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era, came out in April 2022 from UNC Press.

She went on to form SiSTAR Girl Talk, a monthly mediation and discussion group. Last but not least, Loretta is the creator of SistaSoulFest, Iowa’s largest Black-women led vendor festival. Under Loretta’s leadership, SistaSoulFest has continued to grow and expand to North Carolina, Denver, as well as Waterloo, Iowa.

In 2023, Loretta started a new project, Brothas United For Hope, a which seeks to connect incarcerated men and boys with opportunities to cultivate their artistic gifts. Brothas United connects incarcerated artists with buyers to help cover carceral expenses. In 2023, she won Ward Creative Studio’s 2023 Woman of Vision award for advancing the collective power and creating safe spaces and equitable futures for Black girls and women.

She was a Grinnell Cops Off Campus organizer, and a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow at Grinnell College. Evelynn has been an active member of the college’s Black Student Union and was previously on the advisory board. She grew up in various churches in the South and has a passion for exploring spirituality and social justice through her writing. In her free time, Evelynn likes walking her dogs in the park, reading books, articles, prose pieces, and organizing her clothes. In 2022, Evelynn interned for the Iowa Black History Research Collective, gathering invaluable information on Black life in Central Iowa, with the Black church as a hub.