IA SR109

Recognizes February 25, 2026, as the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Clark, born in 1826 in Washington, Pennsylvania, who settled in Muscatine, Iowa, in 1842

Clark won the landmark Iowa Supreme Court case Clark v. Board of School Directors (1868) on behalf of his daughter Susan, integrating Iowa's public schools 86 years before Brown v. Board of Education

Served as primary recruiter and honorary sergeant major for the First Iowa Infantry of African Descent (60th United States Colored Troops) during the Civil War, donating his recruiting fees for uniforms and supplies

Helped found Iowa's first African Methodist Episcopal congregation in 1848, led efforts to repeal discriminatory "Black laws" at the 1857 Iowa Constitutional Convention, and helped amend the Iowa Constitution in 1868 to secure voting rights for Black men

Graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1884 at age 58 and concluded his career as United States Minister to Liberia, appointed by President Benjamin Harrison