The Morris Family Papers collection in the University of Iowa Libraries – University Archives follows the academic and professional lives of two generations of Iowans. James B. Morris, Sr. was one of the first African American officers during World War I through the Colored Officers Training Program at Fort Des Moines. Later, he served as editor and publisher of Iowa’s oldest black newspaper, The Iowa Bystander, from 1922-1972. Morris Elementary School in Des Moines, Iowa is named after him.
![James B. Morris Jr. photo album, 1937-1941, page 10](https://dsps.lib.uiowa.edu/atiowa/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/morris-jr-crop-178x300.jpg)
Georgine Morris founded the Iowa State Conference of the NAACP in 1939. Their son, James B. Morris, Jr. attended the University of Iowa from 1937-1941, and went on to practice law. The archival collection includes scrapbooks devoted to the family’s leadership in the NAACP, as well as the younger Morris’s college experience at UI.
![Arlene Roberts Morris and friends, University of Iowa](https://dsps.lib.uiowa.edu/atiowa/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/02/arlene-crop-300x300.jpg)
Arlene Roberts Morris graduated from the University of Iowa in 1946, and later earned an M.A. in psychology from Drake University in Des Moines. She worked as a clinical psychologist at Broadlawns Medical Center from 1967 to 1991. She was the first African-American woman psychologist to be licensed by the Iowa State Board of Psychology. She and James B. Morris, Jr. were married in 1948.