Shattering Silence

The Shattering Silence monument stands on a hill near the Iowa Judicial Building in Des Moines. It was designed by artist James Ellwanger and installed in 2009 to honor a key moment in Iowa’s early legal history — the 1839 In re Ralph decision.

The case centered on a man named Ralph, who had once been enslaved in Missouri. He was brought to Iowa and allowed to work to pay off the cost of his freedom. But when he fell behind on payments, his former enslaver tried to capture him and return him to slavery.

The case went to the Iowa Territorial Supreme Court, which ruled in Ralph’s favor. The court said that once Ralph had set foot in Iowa — a free territory — he could not be legally forced back into slavery. This decision came nearly 20 years before the Civil War and set an early legal precedent for Iowa’s position against slavery.

Over time, Iowa continued to take steps that advanced racial justice. The state supported abolitionist activity, hosted stops along the Underground Railroad, and allowed Black men to vote before many other parts of the country. In 1868, Iowa's courts also ruled in favor of school desegregation in the Clark v. Board of Directors case, after Alexander Clark sued for his daughter’s right to attend a local public school.

The Shattering Silence monument reflects these legal milestones. The sculpture is made of large steel plates that rise skyward with an open space in the center — a design meant to represent both struggle and movement toward freedom.

The name "Shattering Silence" refers to the many people who spoke out against injustice — from the judges who made early rulings to the activists who pushed for change. The monument serves as a reminder of the legal and moral decisions that shaped Iowa’s civil rights legacy.