Over seven decades, from 1830 until 1900, tens of thousands of Black men and women from different walks of life attended meetings publicly advertised as “Colored Conventions.”
At these political gatherings, free-born and formerly enslaved African Americans organized and strategized for racial justice.
Providing a powerful structure and platform for Black organizing, more than 200 state and national Colored Conventions were held between 1830 and the 1890s; Massachusetts held five state conventions.
Professor Sarah Lynn Patterson will discuss the rise and the fall of the Colored Conventions movement as a way of understanding dialogues about progressive politics at the turn of the twentieth century. Professor Patterson will explore how conflict within the organization gave the oppressed their bearings to become torches for social reform.
