The Colored Conventions were meetings held by African American men and women between the 1830s and 1890s to discuss various issues, fight for their rights, and discourse. These conventions were held in both the United States and Canada. Although these conventions started by being dominated by men, soon women took influential roles in them. The Colored Conventions Project assembled all the records of the Colored Conventions on their website to make them easily accessible to a wider public. The first visible on their website is a drawing of how one of these conventions would look like. This image although simple is used as a powerful representation of how these conventions were held. It shows the unity of black people in one space with one common goal: civil and human rights. This website has some illustrations that will give the reader a mental image of the importance of the material.
The reader is able to explore all the conventions that have been recorded, and for his or her convenience, they can be searched by year, national conventions, or state conventions. When the specific convention is chosen, the reader will be redirected to a new page that will show a scanned copy of the text published after the convention. On this page, before opening the text the reader can know the subject of the text, the creator, source, publisher, date, type, etc. Once the text has been opened the reader has a detailed description of what happened during the convention. There are not many pictures or visuals of each of these conventions, but the information that is being shared is compelling. In spite of the vast information found on this website, these records are not complete; all the titles appear for all the conventions known to have happened, but a lot of them do not have anything recorded. Since this information is influential in understanding and appreciating the fight for black rights, it is critical that all conventions have their own records.
https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/
When looking at the conventions by the state it is relevant to observe that some states had a myriad of conventions, and a few others only held one or two. For example, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas had the most conventions; on the other hand, Florida and District of Columbia have one each. The first recorded Colored Convention in New York (1840) is a facsimile document that begins with the call that was given to free black residents of the State of New York calling them to meet and discuss their rights. On this call, the invitation is toward every single person that can attend, which shows how important these meetings were for those who were organizing them. Then what proceeded on the meeting is described, everything that was said by the leaders. The list of the people who were appointed to the business committee is on the first pages. Then, the rules ought to be followed during the convention, followed by the names of the men who attended it. And finally, everything else that was said each day of the convention followed by reports. One of the main purposes of this convention was to expand suffrage rights. Each convention had its own purposes.
https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/state-conventions
https://omeka.coloredconventions.org/items/show/620
The Colored Conventions Project website, additionally to records of the conventions, has also some exhibits. One of them is an interactive map of the communities of African Americans in Philadelphia from the 1830s; which showed how connected the community was. Another one is showing schools where African American women attended alongside African American men in the 1850s. There was a strong fight for African Americal women to get an education and in 1853 the Colored Convention in Rochester decided to open the doors of a manual labor school for women to attend. Although the exhibits are significant, if someone is looking for information specifically about them, then, the Colored Conventions Project does not hold enough information.
https://coloredconventions.org/women-economic-power/interactive-map/
https://coloredconventions.org/women-higher-education/introduction/
The Colored Conventions Project is a perfect example of remediation. At first, the documents of the conventions were useful for those who want to know exactly what happened during the convention and to point out critical topics that were discussed for future reference. Now all these documents have been put on one website, more organized and accessible, so the person who reads them today can work with them. Some people may choose to use them to learn, others for small or big projects, and they can even be used for activism. Although all these records are in one place, their authenticity has been kept, they have not been edited or corrected before being put on the website. In a lot of cases, they have been typed out to make them more legible. According to the website, all the original collection is conserved in the University of Delaware Library Institutional Repository.
A lot of times works that are adapted for different purposes and for a different public are misappropriated which can cause conflict to the author, or to anyone who has identified the importance of the original work. However, in the case of the Colored Conventions Project, all the work that has been collected has been well preserved and organized. This project has not changed the original intent of the documents, but it has expanded it. And having it be accessible to a wider public takes away the authoritativeness of them. Because, although not every single person that will come in contact with this project will be an academic, the value of the content of this project will be universally appreciated.
