Despite its vast and abundant farmland, parts of eastern Iowa don't look a lot different during the early summer months than much of the rest of the state or the nation. Cars whiz by on interstate 80. Small towns are clogged with traffic. Even during hard times, consumers crowd shopping malls, buying the latest gadgets that inform and amuse them. But hidden in plain sight are vestiges of another era, not one, but two centuries ago, when abolitionists like John Brown came to what was then the American West and joined Congregationalists and Quakers and progressive lawmakers in a struggle against slavery and for equal rights for African Americans. You have to dig much deeper to discover the critical role one little-known African American played in these parts back then. A man who somehow has been lost from history. His name... Alexander Clark.

Daniel Clark: “Americans should know about Alexander Clark. In his time he was known as the colored orator of the West, and yet we don't know about him. Alexander Clark has simply dropped out of the story.”

Dr. Paul Finkelman: “If we look at America in 1850 or 1860 or 1870 or 1880, he is the most important black person living west of the Mississippi river. He is a very important figure in the history of race relations and law, but he's also a virtually unknown figure. It's kind of an oddity.”