Alexander Clark to Frederick Douglass, February 19, 1857

LETTER FROM ALEXANDER CLARK.

MUSCATINE, Iowa, Feb. 19th, 1857.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS: DEAR SIR:—I hasten to drop you a few lines to correct an error in your paper of the 13th ult, under the head of "Equal Rights in Iowa," and to do justice to the colored men of Iowa, myself included. We have held several county meetings, and a State Convention on the 5th day of January, the proceedings of which I will send you. The colored people have sent in numerous petitions, praying for the repeal of the odious Black Laws, which then (and a portion now does) disgraced our statute books. We have obtained the right to testify in the courts of justice; but there still remains the law forbidding free blacks and mulattoes to settle in the State. We are refused school privileges and disfranchised; but, thank God! we are able to work and strive against them. We are struggling hard now; our State Constitution is undergoing a revision, and we are petitioning the Constitutional Convention for the restoration of our rights. The question has caused some warm debates. I think the question will be submitted to the people.

Yours, truly,

ALEXANDER CLARK.