Another Alexander

For two years, I have been obsessed with Alexander Hamilton.  (I'm going to see the play FOR THE THIRD TIME on February 6).  So, even hearing the name "Alexander" gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling....

But the Iowa-Alexander we learned about in Muscatine was a different guy...

Alexander Clark.

Who's that, you ask??  Good question....because I live in this state, and I'd never heard this name before....

One of the upstairs rooms in the Musser Museum was devoted to Mr. Alexander Clark, a free black man, who lived in Muscatine during the 1800's, and worked as a barber.

HE CHANGED HISTORY.  But then, history promptly forgot him.

In 1868, he went to court so that his daughter could attend the white high school...and, he won. The case went all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court, where it was declared segregation was illegal...and you could not discriminate against a child because of the color of their skin...any more than you could discriminate against a child because they were Irish, or poor...or orphaned.

THAT LANDMARK RULING HAPPENED IN THE STATE OF IOWA IN 1868...

We watched a brief documentary about Alexander Clark's life. AND IT WAS JAW-DROPPING.

After the Civil War, he was instrumental in getting the State of Iowa to grant the right to vote to black citizens.  He won the first case for de-segregating schools in the United State of America.  His son was the first black student to graduate as a lawyer from the University of Iowa -- and then, Alexander Clark himself went to the University of Iowa and became a lawyer, too.  He was appointed as the Ambassador to Liberia.  He lived this huge, influential life that changed the world he lived in...yet he was very nearly forgotten by history....and the story of why that did NOT happen is truly fascinating.

Really. We walked out of that room, all thinking the same thing -- WHO KNEW??

Hey -- any day you can LEARN SOMETHING NEW...that's a VERY GOOD DAY...!!