STAKE CLAIM OR TAKE FLIGHT: THE BIRTH OF SOUTHERN CONVENTIONS AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
PROMINENT DELEGATES
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- Hon. Pinckney B. S. Pinchback, United States Senator. Source: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. New York Public Library Digital Collections.
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- John Sella Martin. Source: The Massachusetts Historical Society.
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- George Thomas Downing, businessman and civil rights leader. Source: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division.
The majority of attendees to southern conventions only ever attended one convention. The delegates featured on this page are among the most active in the Colored Conventions movement. For this reason, it is important to see their various roles at each convention. While these men represent the minority of convention attendees, examining their travel and convention attendance patterns allows us to gain a clearer picture of delegates’ activities.
Browse the visualization below to get a better sense of these five delegates’ mobility. We have included each convention they attended in chronological order. Please click on the title of the convention to go to the minutes. Unfortunately, we do not have access to the minutes from the 1872 New Orleans, Louisiana, Colored Convention. This is the only convention we are aware of where all five of the delegates featured here attended.
Credits
Researched by Eileen Moscoso. Edited by Dr. P. Gabrielle Foreman. Table rendered by Samantha de Vera.