{"id":7021,"date":"2025-05-14T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/?page_id=7021"},"modified":"2026-07-23T16:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:21:10","slug":"1853-convention","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/1853-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"The Illinois Colored Convention of 1853"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"518\" src=\"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2022\/02\/CCP_151_ChicagoBirdsEye-1853-scaled-1-1024x518.jpeg\" alt=\"Bird eye view of Chicago in 1853\" class=\"wp-image-6516\" style=\"width:1200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2022\/02\/CCP_151_ChicagoBirdsEye-1853-scaled-1-1024x518.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2022\/02\/CCP_151_ChicagoBirdsEye-1853-scaled-1-300x152.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2022\/02\/CCP_151_ChicagoBirdsEye-1853-scaled-1-768x388.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2022\/02\/CCP_151_ChicagoBirdsEye-1853-scaled-1-1536x776.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2022\/02\/CCP_151_ChicagoBirdsEye-1853-scaled-1-2048x1035.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bird\u2019s Eye View of Chicago, 1853 (Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:1853_Chicago_Bird%27s_Eye_view.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wikimedia Commons <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/collections.lib.uwm.edu\/digital\/collection\/agdm\/id\/5647\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Libraries<\/a>, American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection, <em>Chicago in early days, 1779-1857 <\/em>[Chicago: Kurz &amp; Allison, 1893]).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-123143e5 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"padding-right:300px\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A repressive new law, passed by the state legislature in winter 1853, galvanized Black Illinoisans to organize their first statewide convention. Illinois leaders pressed Frederick Douglass to call a national convention that summer. Then, in October, delegates from across the state met in Chicago, where they issued a powerful address claiming their rights as citizens and made plans for continuing to fight the Illinois Black laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/1853-convention\/prelude-to-the-convention\/\">Prelude to the Convention<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/1853-convention\/at-the-convention\/\">At the Convention<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/1853-convention\/after-the-convention\/\">After the Convention<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A repressive new law, passed by the state legislature in winter 1853, galvanized Black Illinoisans to organize their first statewide convention. Illinois leaders pressed Frederick Douglass to call a national convention that summer. Then, in October, delegates from across the state met in Chicago, where they issued a powerful address claiming their rights as citizens [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6829,"parent":0,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7021","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7021"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7539,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7021\/revisions\/7539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/black-illinois-organizing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}