Last featured in the 2-12-2016 Scout Report, the Colored Conventions Project has continued to add new material. Recent additions include several new exhibitions, an academic journal article by David A. Joens entitled "Illinois Colored Conventions of the 1880s," and an excerpt from the Cincinnati Convention Proceedings of 1858.
This fascinating project from scholars, students, librarians, and researchers at the University of Delaware chronicles the efforts of African Americans in the years before and after the Civil War, as they convened to discuss justice in education, work, and law at what were called "Colored Conventions." Readers may like to begin with the conventions tab to explore the primary documents at the heart of the collection: convention minutes beginning in 1830 and continuing all the way through 1888. These documents, which are still in the process of being preserved and are therefore not quite complete, have been diligently digitized, transcribed, and cataloged. For instance, readers will find that the minutes from September 24, 1883, feature an address from Frederick Douglass, while the minutes from 1830 include ideas for establishing a settlement for Black Americans in Canada. In addition to the documents featured here, the exhibits section is well worth a visit, offering details on several online exhibitions that have drawn upon the Colored Conventions Project's collection. These include "A Brief Introduction to the Colored Conventions Movement, 1830-1890s," and "Black Wealth and the 1843 National Colored Convention."
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