Skip to main content

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 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.

Creator

Clark, Alexander

Date

February 19, 1857

Description

Alexander Clark to Frederick Douglass. PLSr: Frederick DouglassP, 6 March 1857. Updates readers on the rights and struggles of free blacks in Iowa.

Publisher

This document was calendared in the published volume and has not been published in full before.

Collection

Frederick Douglass' Paper, March 6, 1857

Type

Letters

Publication Status

Unpublished