Alexander Clark

Who was Alexander Clark?

Alexander G. Clark was an African-American diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Liberia. He was born in 1826 in Pennsylvania to parents who had been freed from slavery. Clark is most famous for suing to allow his Afro-American daughter to attend public school in Iowa.

When Clark was around 13, his family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio for his education and to learn the barbering trade. In 1842 Clark arrived in Muscatine, Iowa where he spent most of the rest of his life. He worked as a barber, orator, entrepreneur, newspaper editor for The Conservator, and as a lawyer. He was very involved in civil rights for the state of Iowa and was involved on a national level.

In 1867 Clark sent his daughter Susan to a local school in Muscatine, where she was refused admittance due to her race. Muscatine had separate schools for blacks, however these schools were not located near where the black children lived, making it difficult to attend and the quality of the instructors was lacking as well.