Richard Duncan grew up in Des Moines' Center Street neighborhood. He can still remember music coming from clubs and patrons walking down the street in tuxedos and gowns.
"The business district itself was composed mostly of Black owners and patrons," Duncan said. "And one thing that was so good about that community: everyone knew one another. if I went through Center Street, people would know, 'That's Ted son.'"
He moved to the area at five years old. Now, Duncan is a historian and the narrator and co-director of the documentary The Center Street Story: Urban Renewal Retrospective.
Center Street was one of many of the most successful Black neighborhoods in the country that were wiped out to make room for highways in the middle of the 20th century.
I-235 was constructed in the 1950s, dividing the streets of a thriving Black neighborhood in Des Moines that used to be connected. Madison DeShay-Duncan, co-director of the documentary and wife of Richard Duncan, said that was the start of the demise of the community, and that the Oak Ridge Urban renewal project finished the job.
"People would have owned their businesses, and when you go through and you disrupt that, and you pay them less than what their businesses or their homes are worth, then they have to move to another area, or they get pushed to another area," she said. "Those families and those business owners end up going back into debt."
That neighborhood destruction and accumulated debt shifted those residents from decades of ownership and a spirit of entrepreneurship to that of survival. That included going from owning property to renting, which impacted those residents' descendants' wealth for generations.
This story isn't unfamiliar, and is part of a larger landscape of economic inequality among all Americans, but that hits people of color disproportionally.
Hear more on Unsettled: From redlining to union busting, economic inequality drives division
According to CBS News, wealth inequality hit its widest gap in three decades. The top 1% of households owned 31.7% of all US wealth in the third quarter of 2025. That's the highest share on record since the Federal Reserve began tracking household wealth in 1989. And according to Pew Research, in 2021 the typical white household in the United States had 9.2 times as much wealth as the typical Black household.
These disparities in wealth and financial security further stoke division, whereas economic opportunity supports a sense of community. Richard Duncan reflected on what was lost with the destruction of Center Street.
"The camaraderie," he said. "That community was lost, and in much respect, it will never be another community such as that. You know that togetherness now is gone, and we hope by this documentary, it will not be forgotten."
To hear this conversation listen to Unsettled, hosted by Charity Nebbe. Dani Gehr produced this episode.
