The Colored Convention Movement, Citizenship, and Education Perspectives in the 19th Century

• In Event: 45.031 - Community Preservation and Historical Memory: Education and Resistance Unveiled

Abstract

In The Colored Conventions Movement that lasted from the 1830s to the 1890s, Blacks explored various educational perspectives. The Conventions illustrated the that delegates’ educational philosophies arose from their claim to American citizenship. Despite America’s exploitative legal and social relationship to Black citizenship in the 19th century, Convention members noted that the actions of Blacks in America already equated with American citizenship. Thus, in the 19th century when the common school movement sought to empower whites of various religious and ethnic backgrounds to claim citizenship, African Americans, as observed in the Conventions proceedings primary documents, were already utilizing their own claims to American citizenship to support their educational inclusion.

Author

• Dellyssa Edinboro, The University of Iowa