The black Iowa newspaper is for those times.

You read a news story and felt excluded or othered.

It's for the Times.

You wondered why blacks dominate crime coverage, but little else is for the Times.

Our stories simply weren't covered or they got it wrong.

Again, this is for the times.

You want it to read something positive or nuanced but couldn't find it or couldn't afford it.

On top of everything else.

This is for all of those times.

People ask, Are there black people in Iowa?

My name is Dana James, and I'm founder and publisher of Black Iowa News.

blacks make up 4% of Iowa's population.

were existing within this framework that has us in a corner, has us in a box.

we know people are being facetious when they say, are there black people in Iowa, but we are here and many of us are doing great things.

We're helping our communities, It's not always seen.

And so a lot about what I do a black Iowa news is that being her piece like we we need to be her we need to be seen There's too much talent in this state for us not to have our own newspaper.

there's plenty of things that say, you know, the industry is talking about, you know, the decline of newspapers, We already know that's bad for our democracy, but it's also bad for us as black people, because now there are the even fewer opportunities for our stories to be told I started it just, you know, with friends and family and journalists, people that I knew.

It was really to keep us safe.

I was noticing what was happening with the pandemic.

And I'm reading stories from all across the country about how black families, you know, are just getting decimated, here in Iowa, the news really wasn't doing a great job of telling me how many black Iowans were being affected, So I started trying to dig through the numbers and find the numbers.

I studied Substack platform and I was like, You know what?

I can do this.

But at the same time, I'm doing it kind of in this part time way because I'm still working for this insurance company.

So then George Floyd gets murdered the protest movements and everything started.

And the CEO of that company, he sent out an email and it said, all people matter.

And I well, I cry for a long time on my husband's shoulder because I was so angry, And so that is really what I want is to go to new heights, because I knew in my heart I could not continue to work there just cranked out story after story people just started to, you know, tossed me like $75 here, hundred dollars here, and kind of cheer me on and say, keep going.

Okay.

Okay.

There she go.

Yes.

I really want black Iowa news to be that unifying force within the black community to be a way to bring us all together I want to give black Iowans opportunity to really be seen and for the stories to really be stories that can help them improve, help elevate them, help their issues be seen.

it's just a joy working on it.

You know I could be very tired and it could be 2:00 in the morning and I'm writing stories or I'm doing layout, and I still have that giddy feeling I want to put out the most high quality, best paper that I can for black Iowans because we really deserve it.

We deserve that representation and we deserve great, high quality journalism.

And that's what it's about.