Bringing 19th-Century Black Organizing to Digital Life
From 1830 until well after the Civil War, African Americans gathered across the United States and Canada to participate in political meetings held at the state and national levels. A cornerstone of Black organizing in the nineteenth century, these “Colored Conventions” brought Black men and women together in a decades-long campaign for civil and human rights.
Featured Exhibits
Our interactive, digital exhibits use historical images and documents to provide further insight into the Colored Conventions and expand our understanding of early Black organizing.
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper at 200
This exhibit examines the work of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was an author and activist whose groundbreaking legacy has been foundational for Black women writers and organizers alike.
The Meeting that Launched a Movement:
The First National Convention
The gathering of African American leaders from various regions of the antebellum north, held at Philadelphia’s Mother Bethel AME church in 1830, is universally considered to be the inaugural national Colored Convention. For several reasons, the 1830 convention eludes simple categorization.
Black Organizing in Pre-Civil War Illinois:
Creating Community, Demanding Justice
Black residents of Illinois faced repressive laws designed to marginalize and exclude them. Black people fought back. They insisted on their right to remain where they were, and they organized their first statewide conventions.
What Did They Eat? Where Did They Stay?
Black Boardinghouses and the Colored Conventions Movement
This exhibit prompts us to look beyond the convention hall and to consider a broader spectrum of political engagement encompassing the work of women within home.
The Colored Conventions Digital Records
Documents Spanning Seven Decades of Black Political Organizing
Starting in 1830 and continuing until well after the Civil War, free, freed and self-emancipated Blacks gathered for in state and national political conventions. The convention minutes collected here illustrate the immense struggles and the profound courage of those who insisted on organizing and standing for what was rightly theirs.
Colored Convention Project
Principles
At the core of CCP, we endeavor to incorporate these principles in all facets of our work.
About the Colored Conventions Project
The Colored Conventions Project (CCP) is an interdisciplinary research hub that uses digital tools to bring the buried history of nineteenth-century Black organizing to life. Mirroring the collective nature of the nineteenth-century Colored Conventions, CCP uses inclusive partnerships to locate, transcribe, and archive the documentary record related to this nearly forgotten history and to curate engaging digital exhibits that highlight its significant events and themes.
