THE “CONVENTIONS” OF THE CONVENTIONS:
THE PRACTICES OF BLACK POLITICAL CITIZENSHIP
This exhibit takes as its focus the rituals of the conventions—the carefully crafted actions repeated by delegates and audience members again and again over years, and sometimes decades. By identifying moments throughout the conventions in which delegates, speakers, and audience members perform these actions, this exhibit traces the rituals—or conventions—of the conventions.
Curated and Written by Carolyne King, PhD Candidate in English at the University of Delaware, and Erica L. Ball, Professor of American Studies at California State University, Fullerton. Created for Dr. P. Gabrielle Foreman’s History/English 641 class, Spring, 2016.
Edited by P. Gabrielle Foreman and Sarah Patterson.
Special thanks to Gale, a Cengage Company, and Accessible Archives Inc.® for granting permission for the use of the materials from 19th Century U.S. Newspaper and African American Newspapers: The 19th Century.
The Colored Conventions Project works with teaching partners and their students to create digital content on the rich history of Black political organizing in the nineteenth-century. Visit our Teaching Partners page to browse the curriculum and find information on becoming a teaching partner.