In 1839, roughly 25 years before the end of the Civil War, Iowa’s Territorial Supreme Court declared Ralph, an enslaved person from Missouri, a free man. “No man in this territory can be reduced to slavery,” the court said. The “Shattering Silence” sculpture on the Iowa Capitol grounds honors the story of Ralph, and “celebrates the tradition in Iowa’s courts of ensuring the rights and liberties of all the people of the state.” The Iowa Art Council called the piece a commemoration of “those moments when Iowa has been at the forefront of breaking the silence of inequality and commemorates those Iowans who refused to stand by silently when they saw injustice.” The illustration was created from the shape of the art piece.
Illustration by Kate Meyer