[2] The Colored Conventions Movement included a long series of national conventions held by free "people of color" going back decades before the American Civil War.
Conventions were held in Philadelphia, New York City, Buffalo, Rochester (New York), Syracuse, Cleveland and (after the war) Washington D.C., St. Louis, New Orleans, and Cincinnati.
[4][5] Conventioneers were welcomed by Charles Sumner, supported by members of the Republican party and President Ulysses Grant.
Attendees included John Mercer Langston, P. B. S. Pinchback, Stuart Ellison, Robert Harlan, Daniel Straker, John Hyman, Frederick Douglass, and all seven African American congressmen.
[6] President Grant received attendees at the White House's Blue Room.