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Colored Conventions Movement
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Colored Conventions Movement
The Colored Conventions Movement, or Black Conventions Movement, was a series of national, regional, and state conventions held irregularly during the decades preceding and following the American Civil War. The delegates who attended these conventions consisted of both free and formerly enslaved African Americans, including religious leaders, businessmen, politicians, writers, publishers, editors, and abolitionists. The conventions provided "an organizational structure through which black men could maintain a distinct black leadership and pursue black abolitionist goals." Colored conventions occurred in thirty-one states across the United States and in Ontario, Canada. The movement involved more than five thousand delegates[page needed] and tens of thousands of attendees.
The minutes from these conventions show that Antebellum African Americans sought justice beyond the emancipation of their enslaved countrymen: they also organized to discuss labor, health care, temperance, emigration, voting rights, the right to a trial by jury, and educational equality.[page needed] The Colored Conventions Movement antedated the founding of any formal anti-slavery movement in the United States.[page needed]
The conventions significantly increased in number following the Civil War. The Antebellum and postwar colored conventions were the precursors to larger, 20th-century African-American organizations, including the Colored National Labor Union, the Niagara Movement, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).[page needed]
In the early 19th century, national and local conventions involving a variety of political and social issues were pursued by increasing numbers of Americans. In 1830 and 1831, political parties held their first national nominating conventions. Historian Howard H. Bell notes that the convention movement grew out of a trend toward greater self-expression among African Americans and was largely fostered by the appearance of newspapers such as Freedom's Journal, and was first suggested by Hezekiah Grice[where?]. The first documented convention was held at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia in September 1830. Delegates to this convention discussed the prospect of emigrating to Canada to find refuge from the harsh fugitive slave laws and legal discrimination under which they lived. The first convention elected as president Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first independent black denomination in the United States. The idea of buying land in Canada quickly gave way to addressing problems they faced at home, such as education and labor rights.
Philadelphia was the hub of the Colored Conventions movement for several years before nearby cities such as New York City, Albany, and Pittsburgh also started hosting conventions. By the 1850s, the conventions were extremely popular and multiple national, state, and local conventions were held every year. Although the majority of these antebellum conventions were held in northern, particularly New England states, conventions are documented[where?] as taking place in Kansas, Louisiana, and California. The conventions attracted the most prominent African-American leaders from across the country, including Frederick Douglass, Charles Bennett Ray, Lewis Hayden, Charles Lenox Remond, Mary Ann Shadd, and William Still.
Following the Civil War, Colored Conventions began to appear in the Southern states as well, with one author noting that "we can not deny that the various conventions of the colored people in the late insurrectionary States compare favorably with those of their white brethren...their resolutions are of an elevated humanity and common sense to which those of the other Conventions make no pretension." More Colored Conventions took place in the South during the late 1860s than the entire antebellum period.
The post-war conventions culminated with the 1869 National Convention of Colored Men in Washington, D.C. The convention delegates wrote a letter congratulating General Ulysses S. Grant for being elected President of the United States, to which Grant responded, "I thank the Convention, of which you are the representative, for the confidence they have expressed, and I hope sincerely that the colored people of the Nation may receive every protection which the laws give to them. They shall have my efforts to secure such protection."
During Reconstruction the national, state, and local Colored Conventions evolved into other kinds of state and national organizations. Delegates at the National Convention of Colored Men in Syracuse, NY founded the National Equal Rights Leagues and attempted to form state-level Equal Rights League chapters across the United States. In response to a denial of African American admittance to the National Labor Union, community leaders formed the Colored National Labor Union (CNLU) in December 1869. Many former Colored Convention delegates, including Isaac Myers and Frederick Douglass, were instrumental in organizing the CNLU.
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Colored Conventions Movement
The Colored Conventions Movement, or Black Conventions Movement, was a series of national, regional, and state conventions held irregularly during the decades preceding and following the American Civil War. The delegates who attended these conventions consisted of both free and formerly enslaved African Americans, including religious leaders, businessmen, politicians, writers, publishers, editors, and abolitionists. The conventions provided "an organizational structure through which black men could maintain a distinct black leadership and pursue black abolitionist goals." Colored conventions occurred in thirty-one states across the United States and in Ontario, Canada. The movement involved more than five thousand delegates[page needed] and tens of thousands of attendees.
The minutes from these conventions show that Antebellum African Americans sought justice beyond the emancipation of their enslaved countrymen: they also organized to discuss labor, health care, temperance, emigration, voting rights, the right to a trial by jury, and educational equality.[page needed] The Colored Conventions Movement antedated the founding of any formal anti-slavery movement in the United States.[page needed]
The conventions significantly increased in number following the Civil War. The Antebellum and postwar colored conventions were the precursors to larger, 20th-century African-American organizations, including the Colored National Labor Union, the Niagara Movement, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).[page needed]
In the early 19th century, national and local conventions involving a variety of political and social issues were pursued by increasing numbers of Americans. In 1830 and 1831, political parties held their first national nominating conventions. Historian Howard H. Bell notes that the convention movement grew out of a trend toward greater self-expression among African Americans and was largely fostered by the appearance of newspapers such as Freedom's Journal, and was first suggested by Hezekiah Grice[where?]. The first documented convention was held at Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia in September 1830. Delegates to this convention discussed the prospect of emigrating to Canada to find refuge from the harsh fugitive slave laws and legal discrimination under which they lived. The first convention elected as president Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first independent black denomination in the United States. The idea of buying land in Canada quickly gave way to addressing problems they faced at home, such as education and labor rights.
Philadelphia was the hub of the Colored Conventions movement for several years before nearby cities such as New York City, Albany, and Pittsburgh also started hosting conventions. By the 1850s, the conventions were extremely popular and multiple national, state, and local conventions were held every year. Although the majority of these antebellum conventions were held in northern, particularly New England states, conventions are documented[where?] as taking place in Kansas, Louisiana, and California. The conventions attracted the most prominent African-American leaders from across the country, including Frederick Douglass, Charles Bennett Ray, Lewis Hayden, Charles Lenox Remond, Mary Ann Shadd, and William Still.
Following the Civil War, Colored Conventions began to appear in the Southern states as well, with one author noting that "we can not deny that the various conventions of the colored people in the late insurrectionary States compare favorably with those of their white brethren...their resolutions are of an elevated humanity and common sense to which those of the other Conventions make no pretension." More Colored Conventions took place in the South during the late 1860s than the entire antebellum period.
The post-war conventions culminated with the 1869 National Convention of Colored Men in Washington, D.C. The convention delegates wrote a letter congratulating General Ulysses S. Grant for being elected President of the United States, to which Grant responded, "I thank the Convention, of which you are the representative, for the confidence they have expressed, and I hope sincerely that the colored people of the Nation may receive every protection which the laws give to them. They shall have my efforts to secure such protection."
During Reconstruction the national, state, and local Colored Conventions evolved into other kinds of state and national organizations. Delegates at the National Convention of Colored Men in Syracuse, NY founded the National Equal Rights Leagues and attempted to form state-level Equal Rights League chapters across the United States. In response to a denial of African American admittance to the National Labor Union, community leaders formed the Colored National Labor Union (CNLU) in December 1869. Many former Colored Convention delegates, including Isaac Myers and Frederick Douglass, were instrumental in organizing the CNLU.
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