Alexander Clark emerged as the key black leader in the advocacy for civil rights in Iowa in the early years of Iowa as a territory and then its first decades as a state. Alexander Clark was born in Pennsylvania in 1826 and moved to Muscatine in 1842, establishing a barber shop and becoming an advocate for civil rights for African Americans. He quickly became a leader in the African American community in Muscatine, working to establish the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Muscatine in 1849. Alexander Clark served as delegate to the first national “colored convention” in Rochester, New York, in 1853, worked with white leaders to repeal discriminatory laws and wording, convened the first state colored convention in Muscatine in 1857, encouraged and recruited African American soldiers for the Civil War, and advocated for civil rights and voting rights for African Americans throughout the 1860s. Education was the key for the elevation of the African American race according to Alexander Clark, and he fought to ensure that his three children had equal opportunities for education as white students. As his daughter Susan V. Clark was denied admission to School No. 2 in September 1867, Alexander Clark filed a lawsuit on her behalf, with Muscatine County District Court ruling in his favor. The case was appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s decision in April 1868 that Clark had the right to send his children to the public school. The case stands out as one of the largest successes for Alexander Clark in his fight for civil rights, as well as receiving national attention that further made his name known outside of Iowa. The Clark case was nationally significant as the first successful legal challenge to the doctrine of separate but equal, which would ultimately be further challenged. The Clark case would be cited in subsequent rulings on questions of equal rights in Iowa and other states as well as in the briefs for the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas case in 1954, which challenged the same question and resulted in the Supreme Court ruling for the nation that all children, regardless of color, have equal access to schools.
The national prominence and influence of Alexander Clark increased through the 1860s and 1870s. Advocacy at the state level launched Alexander Clark into advocacy and recognition at the national level by the end of the 1860s. Iowa adopted black male suffrage as part of its state constitution in November 1868, permitting Alexander Clark to finally become an official part of the political process. Within the year, he became a leading voice in the Republican party in Iowa, serving as a vice president at the state convention and stumping for Republican candidates. At the same time, Alexander Clark traveled extensively through the Midwest and South as the Most Worshipful Grand Master for the Grand Lodge of Missouri of the Free and Accepted Ancient York Masons, the leading fraternal organization for African Americans in the United States. His contributions to the Republican party and influence throughout the Midwest and South was recognized as he was elected as a delegate-at-large for the State of Iowa to the National Republican Convention in 1872, among the first African American delegates in the nation. His eloquence and persuasion at the Republican State Convention in 1870 earned him the title of “colored orator of the West.” In this aspect, he was regarded by the end of the 1870s as second only to Frederick Douglass (The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men, 1878, 539). Throughout the 1870s, Alexander Clark focused on his influential role as an orator, speaking on various platforms that included political meetings, African American conventions, emancipation celebrations, Masonic ceremonies, and general lectures. Alexander Clark was well-known as the “colored orator” from Muscatine by 1878, with his prominence and influence extending well beyond the state of Iowa. He financially supported his advocacy for civil rights through his speaking engagements and real estate investments in Muscatine, which included an Italianate brick double house built at the corner of W. 3rd St and Chestnut St on his residential property in 1878.
His longstanding advocacy for civil rights, belief in the importance of education, and desire for the elevation of the African American race defined the addresses and activities of Alexander Clark at the state and national levels through the 1880s, culminating in his appointment as Consul General and Minister Resident to Liberia in fall 1890. Alexander Clark entered and graduated from law school, became partner and editor of The Conservator in Chicago, served as a leader in the National Colored Press Association, organized the Hiram Grand Lodge of Iowa for the York Masons, represented in the African M.E. Church in general conferences in the United State and abroad, and remained a national leader and advocate for civil rights for African Americans. National biographies of this “remarkable man” from Muscatine were published in the late 1880s, noting his litany of accomplishments. The leadership and prominence of Alexander Clark in the Republican party was recognized by his appointment by President Benjamin Harrison as Minister Resident and Consul General to Monrovia, Liberia, in fall 1890. Alexander Clark would only serve a short term, as he died in Monrovia on May 21, 1891, at age 65. While he was initially buried in the country, his body was later sent to Muscatine for burial in Greenwood Cemetery on February 16, 1892.
Profiles and obituaries for Alexander Clark appeared in newspapers across the nation at the time of his death in Liberia in 1891 and the time of his funeral in Muscatine in 1892, noting the influential life of this prominent African American man from Muscatine, Iowa. The Chicago Tribune compiled a lengthy obituary and portrait of Alexander Clark for their issue on February 20, 1891, recalling the activities and career of “a really remarkable man.” The newspaper stated that “Alexander Clark was the most distinguished, as he was the most forceful and wealthiest, colored man in Iowa. He was a leader and inspiration to his race, and his successes serve to accentuate the obstacles he surmounted. He was known as ‘the colored orator of the West,’ he had taken high rank in the Masonic order, he had dabbed actively and influentially in politics, and he had risen to a position of influence.” The article concluded: “the predominating characteristic of the man was his indomitable determination not to be thwarted in the achievement of any end by age. He wanted to fill every sphere open to him – to blaze out the way that other members of his race coming after might find the struggle not so hard. In this he was largely successful, for he will be remembered as a most upright man and citizen and his example long remain to afford encouragement to other self-reliant, ambitious members of his race.” (A Remarkable Iowa Colored Man,” Chicago Tribune, February 20, 1892, 9). This obituary and tribute to Alexander Clark was then reprinted in newspapers across the country over the next two months under the title of “A Remarkable Man.”
Above information contributed by Rebecca Lawin McCarley, SPARK Consulting, July 2025
Additional information and resources related to Alexander Clark are listed below.
Alexander Clark Foundation
Lost in History: Alexander Clark, Documentary, Iowa PBS, February 2012
Meet Alexander Clark, an unsung hero for civil rights who lived Muscatine, WQAD News 8, February 2024
Clark Decision: Celebrating 150 Years of Iowa School Desegregation, Drake Law School, 2018
Alexander Clark – Celebrate Muscatine
Alexander Clark – Visit Muscatine
Alexander Clark: A Bigger-Than-Life Iowan, Teaching Iowa History, Iowa Museum Association