Wikipedia:WikiProject Colored Conventions

About the Colored Conventions
For the thirty years that preceded the American Civil War, free and fugitive Blacks came together in United States national and state political conventions to strategize about how they might achieve educational, labor and legal justice at a moment when Black rights were constricting nationally and locally. The delegates to these meetings included the most well-known, if mostly male, writers, organizers, church leaders, newspaper editors, and entrepreneurs in the canon of early African-American leadership—and many whose names and histories have long been forgotten. Our project seeks to not only learn about the lives of these male delegates, but to account for the crucial work done by the women in the broader social networks that made these conventions possible.

All that is left of this phenomenal thirty-five year effort are the minutes. Even these materials are rare and can only be accessed through out-of-print volumes.

About the project
ColoredConventions.org endeavors to transform teaching and learning about this historic collective organizing effort—and about the many leaders and places involved in it—bringing them to digital life for a new generation of undergraduate and graduate students and researchers across disciplines, for high school teachers, and for community members interested in the history of church and entrepreneurial engagement.

As part of the project, undergraduate and graduate students research the Conventions themselves, and the lives of the delegates, to recreate the lost history of this important movement and its members.

The Colored Conventions project began at the University of Delaware, led by professor Gabrielle Foreman, with support from the University of Delaware Library.

About the team
The Colored Conventions team comprises a diverse group of dedicated and energetic scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and librarians at the University of Delaware. Project members represent a range of academic disciplines, including English, African American History, Art and Education. Our team is committed to generating an online hub that "brings buried history to digital life" and attends to social justice in scholarship and research by offering an in-depth exhibition of Black Americans and political organizing during the nineteenth century.

Goals
As part of Wikipedia GLAM, the Colored Conventions Project hopes to share the images, biographies, and other data it has gathered on Wikipedia. This information is a valuable contribution to the historical knowledge of American history, and especially to the topics of the history of Women and People of Color, topics that are underrepresented on Wikipedia. It represents an important and lost chapter of African American history.

Edit-a-thon
In order to further our goals of collaboration with Wikipedia, and as a response to interest in Wikipedia editing on campus, The University of Delaware History Media Center, The Colored Conventions Project, The University of Delaware Library, and the Graduate Student Senate Diversity Committee organized a "Wikipedia Edit-a-thon for Women + People of Color" at the University of Delaware on Saturday, April 26, 2014.

Related Wikipedia Pages

 * Colored Conventions Movement
 * All articles in Category:Colored Conventions

Sandbox templates to copy and use
For People: Colored Conventions Biography Template

For Conventions: Colored Conventions Convention Description Template