The Sioux City Negro Year Book [Cover title]

Sioux City, Iowa: James Ruffin, 1962. Very good -. 10 " x 8½". Stapled pictorial wrappers. Pp. [24]. Very good minus: moderate staining and scrawling to wrappers, which are split below bottom staple; some faint creasing, stray ink and light soiling, with one brief inked notation and a few small spots.

This is a rare, heavily photographically illustrated tribute to African American residents and businesses of Sioux City, Iowa.

Black migration to Sioux City grew in earnest during both World Wars, as residents of the South sought work in the meatpacking and railroad industries. While still facing discrimination and systemic challenges like redlining and segregation, the community took root, and roughly 4,500 African Americans now reside in the metropolitan area.

Our research suggests that this was the first of a smattering of annual books edited and published by James Ruffin, who by 1973 was residing in Omaha and also issued The South Dakota Negro Yearbook, The Nebraska Afro-American Yearbook, The Black Athlete and Everyone Magazine. With a tagline of "A Progressive Age for A Progressive People," the book reveals Ruffin's aim "to record and emphasize some of Sioux City's most outstanding Negro institutions and citizens." It lauds the achievements of "dedicated community leader" Mrs. Elzona Trosper, Helen Kendrick ("one of the few Negro dieticians in the middlewest"), local tv news personalities, Federated Club women and "the first Negro student to ever be crowned king of a homecoming event . . . in any Sioux City high school." There are bios with fantastic images of local restaurateurs, beauticians, athletes, printers, churches and their leaders, along with the nurse, lawyer, barber and "outstanding mother" of the year. It profiles Black families, "popular musicians," community news and social events like "1962's most elegant birthday party." The book also holds an original poem and 42 ads, many of them illustrated, for local shops and services, presumably Black-owned.

Fantastic visual coverage of an African American community in Iowa. OCLC shows two holdings, at the Sioux City Public Library and the State Historical Society.