State of Iowa and City of Des Moines
Iowa Territory was incorporated into the United States. While slavery was illegal in Iowa, the territorial legislature was dominated by individuals from southern states, whose views were mirrored those devised in the South (Stone, 1990). One member stated The which prohibited African Americans from settling in the territory without filing with a county clerk “a court-attested certificate of freedom.”(Silag, Bridgford, & Chase, 2001: 61)
In 1839, the Iowa legislature inherited the Territory of Michigan's, "An Act to Regulate Blacks and Mulattoes, and to Punish the Kidnapping of Such Persons." One member of the legislature described that " 'no black or mulatto' would be allowed to settle in Iowa without possessing a certificate of freedom and the ability to post a five hundred dollar bond indicating that the black would not become a public charge." This law's primary intent was to restrict the number of runaway slaves other African Americans from moving into the states. This law became what would be known as Iowa's Black Laws. It determined the fate of any African American arriving across its borders.(Stone, 1990)
In 1830, Ralph, an African American born a slave in Virginia, was sold to Jordan J. Montgomery as a field hand and moved with him to Marion County, Missouri. In 1834, Ralph was provided a written contract where Montgomery permitted him to leave Missouri and move to the future Iowa Territory. The agreement stated that Ralph would pay him back $500 for his hire and interest (Silag et al., 2001). However, in 1839, Montgomery sent people to Dubuque where Ralph had been mining for lead, intending to sell him for a profit. Ralph was taken into custody and put on a boat to Missouri. Still, a few of his fellow miners “sought a writ of habeas corpus on Ralph’s behalf” from a member of the Iowa Territorial Supreme Court and were able to get him off the boat and in front of a judge. Ultimately, the Iowa Territorial Supreme Court heard the case and, on the same day, ordered that “Ralph a man of color is free by operation of law.” (AALFDSM, 2017; Silag et al., 2001)
The legislature added to the State’s black laws by passing a law that prohibited interracial marriage. During this time, there were other constitutional restrictions placed into the black laws barring anyone but white males from voting or fighting in the militia. Persons considered “negro, mulatto or Indian” were barred from testifying “in any court or any case against a white person.” Slaveholders visiting the State could bring their slaves only for a short time. (Dykstra, 1982; Stone, 1990)
President James K. Polk made Iowa the 29th State in the United States. Initially, the size of Iowa was much larger, pushing up into Minnesota and the Dakotas. However, representatives from the northern states desired smaller borders for Iowa to leave more land to develop “free” states where freed or runaway slaves would reside. (Morain, n.d.)
Slaves who sought refuge in Iowa did not generally have a smooth transition into free land. Years before the Fugitive Slave Act came into effect, “slave owners from Missouri and Nebraska came to Iowa to reclaim slaves.” In southern Iowa communities like Keokuk, locals became slave catchers who then returned runaway slaves back to their owners. Despite this, slaves kept taking refuge in Iowa, risking their lives to be free. (Hill, 1981)
Des Moines, as part of the Underground Railroad system, provided a network for slaves to flee the south and cross into free states, such as Iowa. An abolitionist by the name of John Brown “escorted a group through the city in 1858” while others housed the slaves as they made their journey to Canada.(Lufkin, 1980)
In 1851, the Iowa legislature enacted the 1851 Exclusionary Law which permitted no free “negro or mulatto” to settle in the state. The legislature did agree to let those African Americans who were living already in the state and law abiding, were granted permission to stay and enjoy their lives. This law, however, was not enforced and in 1864 it was repealed. (Silag et al., 2001; Hill, 1981)
In the 1850s, antislavery Iowans and abolitionists worked to reverse laws and bring more equality to Iowa. However, in 1857, the antislavery movement had not made an impact. Iowa voters rejected “a proposition to strike the word ‘white’ from the state constitutional provision regarding suffrage” as newspapers “had struck fear into the minds of many readers with editorials predicting that blacks would dominate a state with black suffrage.” While those aspects were not favorable, there were other changes in the Iowa bill of rights the gave African Americans some legal status by “expanding the right for blacks to a trial by jury and the right to testify in court.” (Stone, 1990)
The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) started in the south just after the civil war in 1865, as a group of whites wanted to “protect themselves and to terrorize black people.” The primary purpose of organizing this group was because slaves had become free, and former slaveowners were resentful about losing power and feared “retaliation by the newly freed blacks.” The KKK did not have much support and only lasted until about 1870. It wasn’t until World War I that the KKK began to reform and organize. (Brigham)
In the 1880s, Iowa’s coal industry boomed, drawing a large black population to work in the mines across the state. Instead of being concentrated to a few bigger cities, they were spread across rural Iowa. An increase of close to 4,000 African-Americans between 1870-80 throughout the state.
Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1884 “forbade segregation in such places as inns, public conveyance, barbershops, theatres, and other places of amusement.” Iowa was one of thirteen states in the United States to pass a law like this in the 1800s. (Lufkin, 1980; Stone, 1990)
The concept of a sundown town came into practice in the 1890s and lasted until the 1980s. These were towns that either legally or illegally told African Americans that they should not be in their town after dark or bad things would happen to them. Interestingly, this type of racism was assumed by Midwesterners to be a product of the South; however, “it was actually rare.” James Loewen, author of Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, traveled around Iowa to search for potential sundown towns and cities. While unable to research all municipalities across the state, he studied census numbers and used local histories to figure out if these places could have been sundown towns. Based on his research, there are approximately 44 possible sundown towns in Iowa. A rural town, New Market, has been said to be a sundown town by locals and James Loewen when he visited Taylor County for his book research. A Des Moines Register article from 2006, notes that “other communities, including at least two in Taylor County, had city ordinances barring blacks from the town after dark.” New Market is said to have had a sundown ordinance in place until the 1980s and is believed that “it wasn’t until 1985 when they finally took the signs down, because it was on the books”. Iowa has always been predominately white, and it is clear that many towns in Iowa restricted the number of blacks that lived within their communities. Part of this may have been racial, but it should not be forgotten that rural Iowa was not a place for African Americans to be successful between the 1930s and 1990s. (Kilen, 2006; Rudison, 2019)
The Iowa State Bystander was a black-owned newspaper founded in 1894. This newspaper was a display of black pride and ethic awareness among the African-American community in Des Moines.
Buxton was a small mining town in Southern Iowa, with a population of around 6,000 and established around 1900. The community was integrated. Both groups, white and black, lived together from 1900 to 1924, when the mine closed (Stone, 1990). The town of Buxton is an excellent example of how a small town could provide “racial harmony and integration” despite discriminatory state and federal laws. With a “unique multi-ethnic community” and equal wages for all miners, no matter the color of their skin, Buxton thrived (“Buxton: Iowa’s Black Utopia”). This rural Iowa town shows that while Jim Crow Laws were being put into effect across the nation, Buxton did not succumb to those laws or beliefs. They were able to have equal access to all public accommodations and “did not have to settle for the worst living conditions or undesired residence.” (Stone, 1990;"Buxton: Iowa's Black Utopia;Gray, 1984)
More than 1,600 African Americans residents made up close to 3% of the Des Moines’ total population. Three percent was a very high percentage compared to other midwestern cities during the time which was a high percentage compared to other midwestern cities and by 1915, those numbers rose to 3.8% (4,062). (Lufkin, 1980)
During World War I, there was a scarcity of white labor throughout the United States. Black migrants from the South, moved into Iowa as there was an unprecedented number of job opportunities in the industries within the state. Many blacks moved “steadily from the predominant menial and janitorial occupations into the ranks of semi-skilled and skilled labor.” (Hill, 1981)
In 1915, Iowa's first National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) branch was established in Des Moines. One of the NAACP's primary purposes was to address the struggles African Americans face in the United States. The Des Moines branch addressed various issues in the city, including advocating for housing equality, better employment options for black residents, and more. In the 1940s, when the organization looked back at their achievements, they found that "separate bathing beaches had ended," of three public schools, "two frequently predominantly by whites were open to blacks and the third predominantly black, had black lifeguards," an "African American served on the Polk County Grand Jury" and "black employees worked for the county, the city and the state in more than just menial positions." (Silag et al., 2001)
The Great Migration was an exodus of 6 million African Americans from the rural areas of the south to the larger cities of the north starting in 1917. They desired to leave the south because of poor economic opportunities, segregationist laws, and discrimination. The North provided industrial jobs not available or accessible in the South.(“Great Migration - HISTORY”)
The first training corps for black officers in the United States was at Fort Des Moines, which significantly increased migration to Iowa. And, because of the war, greatly impacted the number of jobs available for African Americans. Between 1910-1920, the state's Black Population saw a 29% increase.
The African-American population hit its first peak with a 29% increase from 1910; 14,972 to 19,005 in the state. After the war, when white soldiers returned, African-Americans “in Iowa, as in other states, found themselves in intense competition with whites for jobs.” They lost economic and occupation progress. When the Great Depression hit, the black population was struck hard with a 50% unemployment rate and a lack of migration to the state. They were also one of the first to experience the initial stages leading up to the Great Depression. (Hill, 1981)
Around 1920, the KKK gained strength in Iowa as the Klan appealed “to people who believed their beliefs were superior to the beliefs of immigrants, Catholics, Jews, or ‘colored people.’” In places like Davenport, Waterloo, Sioux City, Ottumwa, and Des Moines, as well as smaller communities across the state, the KKK assembled many followers. Des Moines resident, Mr. Clair Rudison, Jr., recalls his parents talking about a parade where KKK members marched through Windsor Heights right down University”. He added that it was a 4th-of-July style parade where “everyone having a good time, hamburgers, hot dogs, apple pie America.” The peak of KKK activity in Iowa was in 1924 when “many towns and cities experienced cross-burnings, Klan parades, and political activism.” Mr. Clair Rudison, Jr. recalled his father telling him that when he lived in Marshalltown, “when they had church service, the Klan came in. Right while they had church. Night service, and here’s a cross burning in the yard of the church.” The KKK had a prominent influence on white society in Iowa. While the KKK did not last long in Iowa, dying down around the 1930s, the impact it had on both black and white communities was evident. (Rudison, 2019)
Between the two World Wars, Iowa lost “thousands of African-Americans due to economic hardship,” while the rest of the state’s white population increased by 66,000. In 1930, only about one half of the around 14,500 African-Americans living in the largest cities in Iowa were employed, and about one-fourth of the hired men worked in domestic services.
In 1933 the Home Owners Loan Corporation was created to help with the distribution of loans to families after the Great Depression. In the process, they developed racially discriminatory financial risk maps, now commonly known as redlining maps.
Read MoreThe Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was created in 1934 to aid Americans after the Great Depression. Its primary purpose was “to facilitate home financing, improve housing standards, and increase employment in the home-construction industry.” Its primary focus was to make sure banks and other private lenders provided mortgage loans to prospective home buyers. While the FHA is deemed to be successful in expanding homeownership and providing loans, the programs it ran did not equally benefit all populations. The FHA’s mortgages “favoured the construction of new single-family homes rather than multifamily units,” which dramatically and adversely impacted low-income families, single-parent families, the elderly, and racial minorities.(Fritz, 2016)
Read MoreOn June 22, 1944, President Roosevelt signed the GI Bill into law in preparation for soldiers returning from WWII. The GI Bill provided a variety of benefits for servicemen and women, including “$20 weekly unemployment benefits for up to one year”, and guaranteed loans by the government to “purchase a home, business or farm.” Veterans also received continuing education for college or vocation school was “tuition-free up to $500 while also receiving a cost of living stipend.” They also received medical benefits, as well as specific hospitals built just for veterans. While the GI Bill served almost 10 million veterans by 1956, its benefits were not equally distributed. While the bill itself provided benefits to all veterans, it was easier for white men to receive those benefits compared to women and African Americans. When African Americans did earn tuition money, their choices were not significant as “many colleges were segregated.” When looking to buy houses, local banks refused to provide loans to African Americans. Similarly, “many of America’s new, suburban neighborhoods prohibited African Americans from moving in,” causing African Americans to live concentrated in urban areas while whites fled to the suburbs.
Read MoreAfter the Great Depression and World War II, in the 1950s, the African American population in Iowa increased to around 19,692 or 0.8% of the total population in Iowa. (Hill, 1981)
Robert Spiegel, a reporter for the Des Moines Tribune, “wrote a series of stories on segregated housing, which he felt was the most important writing of his career.” His articles were done at a time when discussing race and the quality of life for African Americans was not seen positively by white Iowans. However, he knew how important this topic was and that stories about the discrimination of black families in Des Moines needed to be heard. In 1956, Spiegel received the Sidney Hillman Foundation award for this work. ("Robert Spiegel Obituary", 2009)
White flight was the movement of white families and residents from urban areas with predominately minority populations to suburban areas. This rose from fear facilitated by the FHA and lenders about decreasing property values in mixed neighborhoods.
Read MoreThe rise in urban renewal projects across the entire came to Des Moines around 1957 when discussions about new highways and the clearing of "blighted" areas for new developments arose. In Des Moines, the urban renewal process worked its way through predominately low-income and African-American neighborhoods. The neighborhoods scheduled for renewal were those once redlined and had been disinvested in for decades. The displaced residents of color were treated without much respect, particularly in communication, and aid in finding new housing.
Read MoreIn 1957, as urban renewal began, Interstate 235 broke ground on construction. On December14, 1961, the first segment of the interstate was completed between Cottage Grove Ave. and Keo Way. In November of 1963, the next section was completed between Keo Way and East 6th Street. Between December 1966-December 1967, the segments between 31st T and Cottage Grove Ave, East 6th St. and University Ave, 63rd and 31st St. and University and northeast 1-35/80 interchanges were completed. Finally, by October 1968, the last section was completed between southeast I-35/80 interchange and 63rd Street. (Hancock, 2016)
Read MoreIn 1962, the Des Moines City Council defeated a public housing and low-income housing program bill that would have greatly benefited the city’s poor population and “might have solved the problem of housing for low-income families.” In 1963, the Des Moines City Council defeated yet another positive housing bill, promoting open-occupancy housing in the city. Open-occupancy is defined as “a housing market free of restrictions based on race, religion or national origin.” Interestingly enough, the city had approved a similar open-occupancy bill in 1959 for all of the city’s urban renewal tracts. (Committee, 1962;Boichel, Aurbach, Bakerman, & Elliott, 1969)
Read MoreOn April 29, 1965, the Iowa legislature approved the Iowa Civil Rights Act and Discrimination in Housing Act of 1965. This act created the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, which “was empowered to hold hearings and to rule on complaints of unfair or discriminatory practice in public accommodations and employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, or religion.” While these laws were beneficial, just like the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the real impact and enforcement of such policies were not executed properly.(Silag et al., 2001)
Good Park (1155 17th street, Des Moines, IA 50314) was the main hang out for kids and teenagers since the early 1940s. The park contained a wading pool, shelter, basketball courts, and lots of green space. The young people involved in the riot were triggered by continuous confrontation by the police. When the riot happened in Good Park in July 1966, some of the young people involved told the Des Moines Register reporters that “there was not enough for them to do at night. Some complained of the inability to find jobs; others expressed concern about the rough police treatment”. The riots occurred “at a time when perceptions of police brutality were sparking riots in many American cities. African Americans, many stuck in northern urban ghettos with few economic opportunities, grew impatient with the slow progress of the mainstream civil rights movement”. This riot came at a time when African Americans were starting to be infused by the rhetoric of black power. (Fehn & Jefferson, 2010)
When the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was enacted, it worked to outlaw racially restrictive covenants and discriminatory practices by banks, lenders, and realtors. However, while the law itself banned discrimination in housing, these practices did not just disappear. Discriminatory practices were still used but only in a different, less overt way.
Read MoreMary Rem, who had left Des Moines "in 1967 just after her high school graduation," "headed for Oakland, California," where the Black Panther Party's headquarters was growing. In 1968, she returned to Des Moines and, along with Charles Knox, founded the local Black Panther Party. Their purpose was to promote and develop "black power in the community," which meant "the economic, political, and cultural control of the black community by black people." The Des Moines BBP chapter understood and used the practices established by the national BBP in California, but only addressed the things that were relevant to African Americans in Des Moines. The party only lasted until 1970, but its influence on the Des Moines, both black and white, was evident. It is said that while the broader community was "uncomfortable with black power rhetoric," it acknowledged "that the party's programs, demonstrations, and posturing spurred the city toward more equitable employment of black citizens." (Fehn & Jefferson, 2010)
In 1988, Iowa passed the Iowa Hate Crimes Act, which emphasized the need to educate and challenge people who were practicing racially motivated hate and violence. When it passed, the law committed anyone who participated in a felony or misdemeanor. In 1990, the law was expanded to increase the classes of who was protected under it. (Silag et al., 2001)
Starting in 2007, the United States economy "entered a mortgage crisis that caused panic and financial turmoil around the world." The use of subprime mortgages resulted in massive amounts of borrowing and "flawed financial modeling, largely based on the assumption that home prices only go up." (Pritchard,2019)
In 2010, 65% of cost-burdened renters in Des Moines were African American, while representing only 2.6% of all homeowners in the entire county. In minority census tracts, the median home values were approximately $70,000 compared to the Polk County median value of $140,600. In the county, 4,600 households were waiting for Section 8 vouchers. (AALFDSM,2017)
According to a recent analysis done by Zillow (the online real estate and rental database), 20.9% of black borrowers were “turned down for a conventional loan” while at the same time “just 8.1 percent of white” applicants were denied. (Mikhitarian,2018)
In 2017, Des Moines had the largest African American population in Iowa, with approximately 23,727 individuals, the second highest being Davenport at 11,939. The poverty rate in 2017 for African Americans was 32.3% compared to the state average of 10.7%. The median income of African Americans in Iowa in 2017 was $32,177 compared to the families in Iowa at $75,076. In Iowa, the percentage of renter-occupied housing units with an African American tenant was 71.2% compared to the state, with 28.4% renter-occupied housing.(The State Data Center of Iowa & The Iowa Commission on the Status of African-Americans, 2019)
On November 16, 2018, a USA Today article found that the metro area of Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa was the number 1 worst place for African Americans to live in the United States. The article noted that “No U.S. metro area has larger social and economic disparities along racial lines than Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa. Black metro residents earn just 46.8 percent of what white area residents earn, and are far more likely to be unemployed than white workers in the city”. (Stebbins & Comen, 2018)