A Black neighborhood that was displaced by the construction of an interstate highway through downtown Des Moines is now honored with a marker from the State Historical Society of Iowa.
Center Street was an entertainment and business hub for the Black community in Des Moines through the first half of the 20th century. The area fell into decline in the 1950s and 1960s when Interstate 235 divided the neighborhood. Scores of buildings were demolished under the banner of urban renewal.
A marker was unveiled Thursday in a small park on Center Street at the Iowa Methodist Medical Center in memory of what it describes as “Iowa’s most vibrant Black community.”
“People lived and worked here. They shopped and prayed here. They gathered here to celebrate life,” the marker reads.
Jordan Rabon heard stories from his grandparents of what Center Street was like in its heyday.
“The businesses, the barber shops, the beauty salons, the restaurants, the night clubs. Everything. Center Street was center to life,” Rabon said at the unveiling ceremony.
“Growing up in the 80s and the 90s, all I heard were stories," he said. "Riding with my grandparents and even my parents, they told us what used to be here and what used to be there. It does my heart well to know we’re honoring that today.”
The street was home to some of the city’s best-known nightclubs, like the Sepia Club and the Billiken Ballroom where legendary jazz musicians including Josephine Baker, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald once performed.
Shondalae Johnson grew up in Des Moines and works nearby at a pediatric clinic, but never knew the history of Center Street. She said the marker will help pass on the story.
“I think that’s something important, especially as an African American person who has younger African American children. I think it’s important for them to see things like that and to be able to know, ‘I was part of something big,’” Johnson said.
Jay Singleton, a board member of the Polk County Housing Trust Fund, said the placement of an historic marker is an important step in keeping the story of Center Street alive.
“Don’t let this be one moment for the Center Street marker,” Singleton said. “There’s a lot of people who don’t understand what happened to Center Street. There’s a lot of African Americans, there’s a lot of native Iowans. So I challenge you to tell the story.”
