“The most disrespected person in America, is the black woman. The most un-protected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America, is the black woman.” - Malcolm X One hallmark of this type of disrespect is the post-Civil war custom of refusing Black women any sort of honorific. “Auntie” or “Girl” rather than “Miss”, “Misses” This disrespect bleeds into historic newspaper coverage of Black women in the most unexpectedly delightful way. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, white women were generally written about as “Mrs. [Husband’s First Name]+[Last Name].&nb ..read more

Established in 1890, Highland Park College was located at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Euclid in Des Moines. In 1908 the college made the front page of the Des Moines Register, lamenting the loss of a (white) star football player found himself unable to compete, on or off the field, with newly admitted Black student, Archie Alphonso Alexander.  Several (white) students also threatened to withdraw in response to the admission of a handful of Black students.  Another incident occurred when a Black student declined to share a table at meals with the Black custodial staff. The college ad ..read more

When I started planning 2024’s Black History month content, I had aspirations of featuring a minister every Monday…because Minister Monday is catchy, right? Despite having a notebook full of names, I got really hung up on initials. Almost all Iowa’s late 19th century/early 20th century ministers went by their first and middle initials in newspaper articles as well as handwritten census and military records. I was able to crack the code of three ministers’ initials using records from Ancestry.com databases. Trying to figure out first names turned out to be pretty time consuming, which meant les ..read more

Reverend T.L. Griffith of Corinthian Baptist Church delivered an address to “almost all of the city’s approximately 600 negroes” in response to the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906. In his address, he acknowledged the wrongs to the Black community and called on the audience to stand for the betterment of the community, urging restraint in the face of terrible news emerging from Atlanta. Griffith called out the lack of protection for Black women and the evil of denying Black children an education. Reverend Griffith maintained that Black citizens were victims of taxation without representation, paying ..read more

In December of 1908, Corinthian Baptist’s minister TL Griffith announced his resignation. His plan was to move to Denver, Colorado, and pastor Zion Church, which was, at the time, the largest Black church in the US. In January, 1909, the Register reported that the congregation passed a resolution (including a letter to Zion Church’s congregation) refusing Griffith’s resignation. Instead, the good people of Corinthian Baptist offered Reverend Griffith two weeks of vacation to visit Denver so that he could un-do his moving preparations. In corporate speak, we talk a lot about metrics: how do we ..read more

The Church has always been the cornerstone of Black communities.  The Church is a place where people have gathered to celebrate, grieve and support one another.  The Church is where our stories are rooted and where we will find our history. In his 2021 book, The Black Church, This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr describes the Black Church as its own cultural system, requiring its own set of cultural proficiencies (Gates, 2021). While Black worship was tightly controlled and monitored during the antebellum period, newly emancipated enslaved persons were m ..read more

At the beginning of December, I was invited to return to my alma mater, Grinnell College, for the Digital Liberal Arts Collaborative (DLAC) Teaching with Technology Fair. The program connects students with opportunities to apply technology within the Humanities discipline. Last fall, our board member and affiliated researcher, Sarah Purcell, was able to hire a research assistant to work on mapping Iowa’s Black Churches. She recruited Ellen Hengesbach, a fourth year Political Science major from the Chicago area. Ellen is also pursuing an interdisciplinary concentration (sort of like a minor) in ..read more

Today I want to talk about modern voter suppression and the importance of staying vigilant. Shortly ahead of the 2016 presidential election a friend in St. Louis had her voter registration purged, despite having never missed an election. Until this point, it hadn’t occurred toma me that someone like me, who carries the privileges of birthright citizenship, a masters degree, and zero interactions with the criminal justice system, could be disenfranchised. I started checking my registration regularly – sort of like I check my credit report. Fast forward to 2023: I had just moved. I updated my dr ..read more

Des Moines native, Dana James, is an alumna of East High School and Grand View University and founder of Black Iowa News. Ms. James founded Black Iowa News in 2020 after noticing gaps in news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically, the severe impacts of the virus on the Black community. Having worked for the Des Moines Register, as well as other publications, Dana knew she had the skills to make a difference. In 2020, she founded Black Iowa News. Black Iowa News was initially delivered in the form of an email letter subscription. From 2020 to 2022, Black Iowa News’s readership continu ..read more

Evelyn K. Davis is best known for her tireless and unwavering advocacy for Black children and families in the Des Moines metro. In the 1960s. Evelyn K. Davis was the director of the Oakridge Opportunity Center. The Oakridge Opportunity Center offered high school equivalency courses, as well as instruction in music, art, and sewing. The Center also partnered with Planned Parenthood to provide education on birth control and family planning for anyone interested or in need. During this time, Ms. Davis was also on the board at Wilkie House. She was an active member of the NAACP, earning a committe ..read more