Gov. Ray Welcomed Asian Refugees to Iowa

Every year, the State Historical Society of Iowa presents the Benjamin F. Shambaugh Awards for the best Iowa history books published during the previous year.

The award’s namesake served for 40 years as the State Historical Society’s superintendent, taught at the University of Iowa, and vigorously promoted the study of state and local history.

This year’s winner was Matthew Walsh for his book, “The Good Governor: Robert Ray and the Indochinese Refugees of Iowa,” which award juror Richard Doak reviewed below.

Perhaps no single action of a governor changed our state more than Robert D. Ray’s decision to make Iowa a haven for Indochinese refugees after the Vietnam War.

It and subsequent resettlements of Bosnians, Sudanese and others altered the ethnic composition of Iowa. More important, Ray’s infectious compassion gave Iowans a proud self-image as a caring, welcoming people.

Now, 40-plus years later, the glow from the good deeds Ray inspired has faded, as have memories of that remarkable era. Fortunately, before living memory is entirely gone, Matthew R. Walsh compiled a book-length account of Indochinese resettlement in Iowa.

Walsh, professor of history at Des Moines Area Community College, tells the stories both of the various refugee groups and of Governor Ray. The book will become an enduring reference for a defining period in recent Iowa history.

Roused by Ray’s Christian conscience, Iowa offered refuge when other states hesitated, and Iowa became the only state to establish a state agency to facilitate resettlement. Iowa also set a model by, at Ray’s insistence, arranging jobs for refugees instead of welfare.

While many Iowans look back on the resettlement era as one of Iowa’s finest hours, there was a hidden dark side. Walsh recalls that a majority of Iowans never really supported the resettlement, and in his private correspondence Ray endured a stream of anti-refugee vituperation.

And in the end, it appears the dark side prevailed. The state office of refugee resettlement no longer exists, and recent governors have shown no interest in reviving it. Iowans showed their present feelings by casting a landslide vote for the anti-immigrant candidate for president in 2016.

So perhaps the Ray era was just one brief, shining moment in Iowa history, not to be repeated anytime soon. At least now there is a book about it.

— Reviewer Richard Doak is a retired opinions editor at the Des Moines Register and teaches a course on Iowa history at Simpson College.