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Greater Des Moines Civil Rights Tour

Come take a tour of the many civil rights events that have helped shape Greater Des Moines! Iowa’s capital city has made an important impact on America’s civil rights history, and this tour will spotlight the milestones and Iowans who played an integral role in moving civil rights forward in our nation. Celebrate diverse Des Moines with this unique look back on a history of progress!

If you would like to jump directly to the map of the tour, click here.

1839

A fitting ruling for Independence Day, and seven years before the Iowa Territory would become a state, its newly formed Supreme Court ruled that a slave was a person, not property, and could not be returned to his “master” in Missouri. “Shattering Silence,” (2009 by James Ellwanger) a sculpture outside the Iowa Supreme Court, commemorates Ralph Montgomery’s case. 

1851

Iowa legalized interracial marriage more than a century before the U.S. Supreme Court guaranteed this right for all Americans in the 1967 landmark case Loving v. Virginia.  

1855

The University of Iowa became the first state university in the nation to admit men and women on an equal basis.  

1869

Long before women had the right to vote, Iowa’s Julia C. Addington became the first woman elected to public office in Iowa (Superintendent of Schools for Mitchell County in 1869), and she is believed to be the first woman elected to public office in the United States.  

1869

Iowan Arabella A. Mansfield was the first woman admitted to the practice of law in any state in the nation.  

1917

Fort Des Moines became the country’s first officer training school for African Americans.  

1925

At a time when the American Bar Association and other national legal associations denied membership to African Americans, 12 attorneys founded the National Bar Association (NBA) in Des Moines. A sculpture at the corner of Grand and 2nd Avenues, entitled “A Monumental Journey” (July 2018 by Kerry James Marshall) pays tribute to the NBA’s founders.  

1934

The Mother Mosque of America is completed in Iowa, and the first building designed and constructed as a house of worship for Muslims in America.  

1942

During World War II, Fort Des Moines was selected as the site of the first Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps training center.  

1970s

Robert D. Ray, Iowa governor from 1969 to 1983, was the first public official anywhere in the United States to offer a safe haven for the endangered Vietnamese “Boat People.” The Robert D. Ray Asian Gardens, located downtown along the Des Moines River, are a tribute to Ray’s work and a celebration of diversity within the community.  

2007

Iowa outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  

2009

In a unanimous decision for the Varnum v. Brien case, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld the right of same-sex couples to marry, six years before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, Obergefell v. Hodges, would do the same. 

Visit the following civil rights monuments, memorials, and museums that celebrate Greater Des Moines’ and Iowa’s civil rights past and learn the stories and historical importance of each landmark. 

Iowa State Capitol Grounds:

Shattering Silence Civil Rights Memorial

Dedicated to the Iowa Supreme Court’s historic civil rights decisions, including its 1839 In re Ralph, which rejected the claim that Ralph was a “fugitive slave” who should be returned to Missouri and held that “no man in this territory can be reduced to slavery.” 

  • Location: 1111 E Court Avenue, Des Moines.
    West grounds of the Judicial Building 

  • Latitude & Longitude: 41.588363, -93.60321 

  • When to visit: Self-guided tours of the Capitol and Capitol grounds are available anytime during normal business hours.

Resources: 

Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil War Monument 

The State of Iowa erected this monument, funded partially by refunded war taxes, which commemorates the Iowans who fought during the Civil War. The monument was approved in 1888, the cornerstone was laid in 1894, and the structure was completed two years later.  

  • Location: 1001 E Walnut Street, Des Moines
    South side of Iowa State Capitol 

  • Latitude & Longitude: 41.589733, -93.603466 

  • When to visit: Self-guided tours of the Capitol and Capitol grounds are available anytime during normal business hours. 

Resources: 

Holocaust Memorial Park 

This memorial is in memory of the victims, in gratitude to the Iowans who were part of the armed forces who liberated the prisoners of the concentration camps, and to the survivors who came and made their lives here in Iowa. 

  • Location: 1007 E Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50319
    Located on the Capitol Grounds near E 7th Street and Grand Avenue 

  • Latitude & Longitude: 41.59102704479116, -93.60709485863187 

  • When to visit: Self-guided tours of the Capitol and Capitol grounds are available anytime during normal business hours. 

Resources:

Abraham Lincoln and Tad sculpture

Created by artists Fred Martin and Mabel Landrum Torrey of Des Moines, this sculpture is titled Lincoln and Tad. It was dedicated November 19, 1961 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. 

  • Location: 1007 E Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50319
    West side of Iowa State Capitol building 

  • Latitude & Longitude: 41.591127, -93.604855 

  • When to visit: Self-guided tours of the Capitol and Capitol grounds are available anytime during normal business hours. 

Resources

The Pinnacle Monument 

This piece was created by Marc Moulton and celebrates Iowa's ethnic heritage. It was commissioned by the Civil Rights Commission and funded in part by the Iowa Arts Council. 

  • Location: 400 E 14th Street, Des Moines, IA 50319
    East of the Capitol, located between E 14th Street and the Grimes State Office Building (which houses the ICRC) 

  • Latitude & Longitude: 41°35'33.4"N 93°35'52.4"W 

  • When to visit: Self-guided tours of the Capitol and Capitol grounds are available anytime during normal business hours. 

Resources: 

Downtown Des Moines

National Bar Association Memorial, A Monumental Journey 

At a time when the American Bar Association and other national legal associations denied membership to African Americans, 12 attorneys founded the National Bar Association (NBA) in Des Moines in 1925. A sculpture at the corner of Grand and 2nd Avenues, entitled “A Monumental Journey” (July 2018 by Kerry James Marshall) pays tribute to the NBA’s founders. 

  • Location: Located along the Principal Riverwalk at the corner of Grand & 2nd Avenues in Hansen Triangle Park. 

  • Latitude & Longitude: 41.589397, -93.619668 

  • When to visit: Sunrise to Midnight, every day 

The Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge

The Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge links the east and west sides of Des Moines at the northern edge of the Principal Riverwalk loop. Among the first four women honored is Gertrude Elzora Durden Rush, the first African American woman to practice law in Iowa and a co-founder of the National Bar Association. 

  • Location: Northern edge of the Principal Riverwalk loop 

  • Latitude & Longitude: 41.591870, -93.618668 

  • When to visit: Sunrise to Midnight, every day 

Edna Griffin Building 

Located near 7th and Locust Streets, the downtown Des Moines building honors the African American woman who pioneered Civil Rights protest by leading the lunch counter protest that challenged segregation and serving as the plaintiff in the civil rights case that desegregated Des Moines restaurants in 1948, 7 years before Rosa Parks and MLK utilized similar civil disobedience protest activities in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott. 

  • Location: 319 7th Street, Des Moines, IA 50309 

Edna Griffin Memorial Pedestrian Bridge 

This pedestrian bridge was dedicated in 2004 to honor Des Moines civil rights leader Edna Griffin who lived from 1909 to 2000. Griffin led and participated in a variety of civil rights protests and campaigns, and the dedication of this bridge honors her contributions to securing the legal and civil rights of African Americans in Iowa. 

  • Location: near East 6th Street, crossing the McVicar Freeway (easily accessible from the Botanical Center parking lot) 

  • Latitude & Longitude: 41.595729, -93.613181 

  • When to visit: Year-round 

Robert Ray Asian Gardens and The Chinese Culture Center of America

Governor Ray is often called the Immigration Governor for his leadership in welcoming refugees from southeast Asia to Iowa following the conclusion of the Vietnam War. 

  • Location: Situated on the east bank of the Des Moines River on a 1.7-acre site provided by the City of Des Moines, south of the Botanical Center, across the river from the Iowa Events Center. 

  • Latitude & Longitude: 41.593256, -93.617249 

  • When to visit: Year-round 

State Historical Museum of Iowa

Discover what inspired more than 76,000 Iowans to fight in the Civil War with galleries featuring life before, during, and after the war. More than 300 artifacts tell the stories of the Iowans who fought and the communities that supported them. 

  • Location: 600 E Locust Street, Des Moines, IA 50319 

  • When to visit: Visit the State Historical Museum of Iowa website for hours of operation

  • Resources: 

Des Moines Fire Department Station House 

The 9th and University Avenue Station House was the firehouse to which in 1968 the first three Black firefighters were assigned a “black bunk” in the dormitory and experienced harassment so severe that two of the three resigned. The two who resigned were so discouraged they left Des Moines. One eventually became an officer in the fire department of Atlanta, and the other became the Battalion Commander of the fire department in Pasadena, California. The racially exclusionary practices of the DMFD did not end until the NAACP civil rights suit achieved a sweeping Federal Court Consent Decree providing systemic affirmative action remedies in 1984. It took 10 years of monitoring by NAACP attorneys to ensure full implementation of the comprehensive Decree, and, at its conclusion, the Des Moines Register praised the progress achieved by averting a “protracted court battle.” The editorial proclaimed: “It’s difficult to over-estimate the significance of the milestone,” pointing out that the culture of exclusion had been broken and African Americans constituted 36 of the 288 DMFD firefighters. 

  • Location: 917 University Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50314

Des Moines South Side & West Des Moines 

Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center 

75 E Army Post Road is a National Historic Landmark often referred to as the “Black West Point,” commemorating the first African American officer candidate school, WWI, and the first Women Army officer candidate school, WWII.

  • Location: 75 E Army Post Road, Des Moines, IA 50315 

  • When to visit: The museum is open on Saturdays, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.  

Historic Jordan House 

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973, the Jordan House is an official site on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The 1850s Victorian located in West Des Moines is one of five preserved underground railroad stops in Iowa. The Jordan House's 16 rooms tell the history of its builder, James C. Jordan, one of Iowa's earliest settlers. 

  • Location: 2001 Fuller Road, West Des Moines 

  • When to visit: Refer to website. 

Drake University Campus

Chester Cole Hall – Admissions Office 

Drake University, the first Law School Building west of the Mississippi and the current Drake Admissions Building. Justice Chester Cole was the author of the Iowa Supreme Court’s landmark opinion in Clark v. Muscatine Schools, which rejected the notion of “separate but equal” and barred racial segregation of Iowa’s public schools in 1868 based on the Equality Clause of the Iowa Constitution, Art. I, §1—86 years before Brown v. Board of Education! 

Clark Sesquicentennial Sculpture - National Bar Association Room

In response to the racially exclusionary practices of the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association was founded in Des Moines in 1925; 1922 Drake Law graduate Charles Howard and Drake law student Gertrude Rush were among the founders; Sculpture Commemorating Clark Sesquicentennial. 

Hope + Elim Church 

(Formerly First Christian Church), 25th and University Avenues, site of Dr. Martin Luther King’s November 13, 1959 civil rights speech asserting the old age of segregation and discrimination is giving way to a new age of “freedom, justice and human dignity.” 

Johnny Bright 

Des Moines NAACP Plaque on the West Side Concourse of Drake Stadium applauds Drake’s courageous stand in 1951 when it resigned from the Missouri Valley Conference in protest of the MVC’s failure to respond to the racial violence visited on Bright, who was a leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy, during Drake’s football game with Oklahoma A & M. 

Check out the 2023 Iowa PBS Documentary “The Bright Path: The Johnny Bright Story”

  • Location: West Side Concourse of Drake Stadium
    2719 Forest Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50311 

  • Resources: 

Greater Des Moines Civil Rights Tour Map

Catch Des Moines would like to recognize and extend thanks to Drake University Law Professor, Russell Lovell, for inspiring this map and conducting vital research to make it happen.

Catch Des Moines

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Des Moines, IA 50309-2350

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