California State Convention of Colored Citizens

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California State Convention of Colored Citizens
DateNovember 20, 1855 – December 31, 1902 (1855-11-20 – 1902-12-31)
LocationVarious cities, California, U.S.
Site of the first CSCC, Saint Andrews A.M.E. Church (c. 1926), Sacramento
Site of the first CSCC, Saint Andrews A.M.E. Church (c. 1926), Sacramento

The California State Convention of Colored Citizens (CSCCC) was a series of colored convention events active from 1855 to 1902.[1][2][3] The convention was one of several social movement conventions that took place in the mid-19th century in many states across the United States.[4][5]

Description[edit]

These events were composed of individuals such as Peter Lester, Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, Thomas Marcus Decatur Ward, Edward Duplex, Peter William Cassey, George Washington Dennis,[6] and Jeremiah Burke Sanderson; as well as organizations including churches, literary societies, and social groups from across the state.[5][7][8][9] The goal of these events included the abolishment of slavery, the right to Black testimony, to gain voting rights for Black men, and Black access to public education and public accommodations.[5][10][11]

History[edit]

1855 Sacramento[edit]

The first CSCCC event was held on November 20–22, 1855 at Saint Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church (St. Andrews A.M.E. Church) in Sacramento.[9][5][12] The event had 49 delegates that represented 10 counties (out of 27 total counties).[13][14] In the mid-1850s after the first CSCC, Jonas H. Townsend and Mifflin Wistar Gibbs founded the Mirror of the Times, an African American weekly newspaper in San Francisco; which was financially supported by the CSCC.[15][16] Edward Duplex served as a delegate from Yuba County for the first event.[7]

1856 Sacramento[edit]

The second CSCCC event was held on December 9–12, 1865 at the same St. Andrews A.M.E. Church in Sacramento.[17] The 1865 event was shaped by the American Civil War ending and the political issues in the state including Governor Leland Stanford's repeal of California’s testimony ban in 1863.[5][18][12] Edward Duplex served as the state executive committee member during the second event.[7]

1857 San Francisco[edit]

The third CSCCC event was held on October 13–?, 1857 at St. Cyprian's African Methodist Episcopal Church in San Francisco, a church led by Rev. Thomas Marcus Decatur Ward.[3][9]

1865 Sacramento[edit]

The CCSCC event held on December 11–?, 1865 in Sacramento came to a resolution to tax each Black person in order to support and fund Black education, and at the time there was only one secondary school in the state accepting Black students, the Phoenixonian Institute (opened in 1861) in San Jose, California.[8][19] Rev. Peter William Cassey had helped organize the 1865 event.[8][14]

List of events[edit]

  • 1855 California State Convention of Colored Citizens, Sacramento[1][20][21]
  • 1856 California State Convention of Colored Citizens, Sacramento[1][20]
  • 1857 California State Convention of Colored People, San Francisco[1]
  • 1863 California State Convention of Colored People, San Jose[8]
  • 1865 California State Convention of Colored Citizens, Sacramento[1]
  • 1880 California State Convention of Colored People, San Francisco[22][23]
  • 1889 State Convention of the California Afro-American League[1]
  • 1902 State Convention of the California Afro-American League, Oakland[2]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Herron, Paul E. (April 2022). ""This Crisis of Our History": The Colored Conventions Movement and the Temporal Construction of Southern Politics". Studies in American Political Development. 36 (1): 21–40. doi:10.1017/S0898588X21000122. ISSN 0898-588X. S2CID 246985506.
  2. ^ a b "Afro-Americans to Meet". San Francisco Chronicle. 1902-08-08. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  3. ^ a b Lapp, Rudolph M. (1977-01-01). Blacks in Gold Rush California. Yale University Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-300-06545-9.
  4. ^ "State Conventions". Colored Conventions Project, University of Delaware.
  5. ^ a b c d e Ruffin II, Herbert G. (February 4, 2009). "The Conventions of Colored Citizens of the State of California (1855-1865)". BlackPast.
  6. ^ Hudson, Lynn Maria (2003). The Making of "Mammy Pleasant": A Black Entrepreneur in Nineteenth-century San Francisco. University of Illinois Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-252-02771-0 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ a b c Gardner, Eric (May 31, 2013). "Duplex, Edward P.". Oxford African American Studies Center. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.36744. ISBN 978-0-19-530173-1.
  8. ^ a b c d Five Views. State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, Office of Historic Preservation. 1988. p. 78.
  9. ^ a b c Taylor, Martha C. (2016-06-24). From Labor to Reward: Black Church Beginnings in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond, 1849-1972. Wipf and Stock Publishers. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-1-4982-3281-4.
  10. ^ Beasley, Delilah Leontium (1919). The Negro Trail Blazers of California: A Compilation of Records from the California Archives in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, in Berkeley; and from the Diaries, Old Papers, and Conversations of Old Pioneers in the State of California ... R. and E. Research Associates. p. 62.
  11. ^ "Broke up in a Row". Oroville Daily Butte Record. 1857-10-15. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  12. ^ a b Taylor, Quintard (1999-05-17). In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West 1528-1990. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 90–92. ISBN 978-0-393-31889-0.
  13. ^ "Proceedings of the First State Convention of the Colored Citizens of the State of California. Held at Sacramento Nov. 20th 21st, and 22d, in the Colored Methodist Chuch [sic]". Colored Conventions Project, University of Delaware. Samuel May Anti-Slavery Collection, Cornell University. 1855. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  14. ^ a b "Proceedings of the California State Convention of Colored Citizens, held in Sacramento". The Elevator. Vol. 1, no. 32. November 10, 1865. p. 3.
  15. ^ Snorgrass, J. William (1981). "The Black Press in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1856-1900". California History. 60 (4): 306–317. doi:10.2307/25158067. ISSN 0162-2897. JSTOR 25158067.
  16. ^ Bell, Howard H. (1967). "Negroes in California, 1849-1859". Phylon. 28 (2): 151–160. doi:10.2307/273555. ISSN 0031-8906. JSTOR 273555.
  17. ^ "Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention of the Colored Citizens of the State of California, Held in the City of Sacramento, Dec. 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th, 1856". Colored Conventions Project, University of Delaware. 1856.
  18. ^ Chandler, Robert J. (1982). "Friends in Time of Need: Republicans and Black Civil Rights in California during the Civil War Era". Arizona and the West. 24 (4): 319–340. ISSN 0004-1408. JSTOR 40169219.
  19. ^ Carter, Jennie; Gardner, Eric (2007). Jennie Carter: A Black Journalist of the Early West. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-60473-313-6.
  20. ^ a b Junne, George H. (2000). Blacks in the American West and Beyond--America, Canada, and Mexico: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 259. ISBN 978-0-313-31208-3.
  21. ^ Bell, Howard Holman (1953). A Survey of the Negro Convention Movement, 1830-1861. Tsinghua University Press Co., Ltd. p. 297.
  22. ^ "San Francisco Items". Mendocino Coast Beacon. 1880-10-16. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  23. ^ "San Francisco Items". Cloverdale Reveille. 1880-10-21. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-01-13.

Further reading[edit]

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