Community Voices: The Postville Oral History Project Recording with Steve Brackett

Stephen Brackett came to Postville in 2005 to serve as the Pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church. In the interview Pastor Brackett discusses his experiences living and working in Postville as the community adapted to demographic changes and dealt with the aftermath of the May 2008 ICE immigration raid at Agriprocessors. In Postville, churches are centers for social and spiritual interaction, so when the raid threw the town into turmoil, community and church leaders led the way in relief efforts. Pastor Brackett recounts how many community members, himself included, responded to the immigration raid by marching in Postville as well as Waterloo. Also discussed in the interview are the challenges and joys of serving a rural congregation, the evolution of the food pantry in town, and more recent developments in Postville, namely the influx of Somali refugees.https://scholarworks.uni.edu/postville_oralhistory/1007/thumbnail.jp