Elizabeth Tate

Elizabeth Crawford Tate, also known as Bettye Tate, was a civil rights advocate during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Born on June 22, 1906, she graduated from Fairfield High School in Iowa in 1926. Tate worked at the cardiovascular lab at the University of Iowa hospital until her retirement in 1976. In 1938, she purchased a house in Iowa City for $3,300, which later became a boarding house for African-American students who were not allowed to use the university's regular accommodations. Named Tate Arms, the house provided a 'home away from home' for black students. In 2014, it was designated a historic landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.