Evelyn K. Davis’ legacy of helping working-class Iowans

If you’re from the Des Moines area, you probably know the name Evelyn K. Davis. There’s a park named after her, a community center, and more.

But who was Evelyn K. Davis, and why does her legacy still matter for working Iowans today?

Back in the 1960s, more middle-income women were entering the workforce. That’s because of a push for workplace equality and the growing need for families to have dual incomes.

But childcare options didn’t keep up. Low-income women, particularly Black women, struggled to find adequate childcare while they worked.

Evelyn K. Davis, who had briefly been a single mother and worked low-paying jobs herself, knew something needed to be done.

In 1966, she opened Tiny Tot Family Outreach Center in Des Moines. It was Iowa’s first day care that specifically provided educational childcare and services for low-income families.

Evelyn K. Davis, surrounded by young children, at Tiny Tot Family Outreach Center in this undated photo.

She helped the working poor in other ways: Davis developed the state’s first day care certification program, partnering with Iowa State University, which literally set the standard of child care across Iowa.

She also opened a free medical clinic at Mercy Hospital in 1970, and advocated through the decades for the city’s low-income workers—both by meeting with elected leaders and through her work on community boards.

Davis retired in 1990 and died in 2001. But her legacy of helping workers lives on.

In 2013, the Evelyn K. Davis Working Families Center opened in Des Moines, and it still helps unemployed and under-employed Iowans access education, job training, and career services.

And her namesake 10-acre park on Forest Avenue, which she lobbied to build in 1993, hosts a summer program that provides free lunch and daily activities for neighborhood children.

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