The nation was still recovering from the Civil War when Clark v. Board of School Directors was argued in 1868, and the issue of "Negro suffrage" divided Iowans on party lines.

This started a long string of cases that found loopholes to get around laws against racial segregation in states where it was prohibited.

Iowa’s Constitution stated that, in the words of Judge Chester C. Cole, “Provisions shall be made “for the education of all the youths of the State through a system of common schools,” which constitution declaration has been effectuated by enactments providing for the “instruction of youth between the ages of five and twenty-one years,” without regard to color or nationality, is it not equally clear that all discretion is denied to the board of school directors as to what youths shall be admitted?

[3] This case was about Susan Clark, a 13-year-old African-American girl from Muscatine, Iowa, who was told that she was not allowed to attend the local school in her neighborhood because it was for white children only.

An important thing to note about this case is that on March 12, 1858, it was provided that the district board of directors "shall provide for the education of the colored youths in separate schools, except in cases where, by the unanimous consent of the persons sending to the school in the sub-district, they may be permitted to attend with the white youths."

He believed that this right was recognized by the directors in this case and he stated “ I cannot admit that the refusal to admit this scholar into this particular school was so wrongful as that the courts should interfere by mandamus.” He also made it clear that if Susan was allowed to go to a school that was in the proper district, then he didn't know of any principle in which she could complain about.