Iowa desegregated schools 86 years before Brown v. Board of Education

Iowa schools desegregated 86 years prior to the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

Driving the news: Susan Clark, a 12-year-old African American student, wasn't allowed to attend her neighborhood school in Muscatine because it was for "whites only."

• In 1867, her father, civil rights activist Alexander Clark, filed a lawsuit against the school on behalf of his daughter.
• He argued the all-white school was next to their home, while his children had to walk over a mile to attend the Black school, PBS reports .

The bottom line: Clark won the case, but it was appealed by the Muscatine school board. It rose to the Iowa Supreme Court who ruled in 1868 that racial segregation was unconstitutional .