The house is associated with Alexander Clark (1826–1891), an African American civil rights pioneer and US Minister to Liberia.

The case went to the Iowa Supreme Court, which resulted in the integration of all schools in the state.

[2] He was an associate of Frederick Douglass, helped to establish Iowa's only Colored regiment during the American Civil War, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Muscatine.

[3][4] Clark was named the Minister to Liberia in 1890 by President Benjamin Harrison, where he died a year later.

It was moved 200 feet (61 m) from its original location in 1975,[2] The house was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.