“Colored Conventions” were political gatherings that addressed a variety of issues regarding civil rights, including citizenship, voting, labor, education, and racial violence. The first “Colored Convention” was organized in 1830 by the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Bishop Richard Allen, for free black men at the Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia. During the next 70 years, over 200 “Colored Conventions” were held. They were advertised publicly and attracted African Americans from all walks of life from prominent intellectuals like Frederick Douglass to ordinary citizens, both men and women. The conventions were held all over the country, including the South, the Northeast (many in upstate New York), the “emerging West” (five in California, many in Texas), and Canada. These conventions were held in churches, city hall buildings, courthouses, lecture halls, and theaters. “Colored Conventions” served as important meetings for fundraising campaigns to benefit black schools, newspapers, and community institutions. And, from the meeting minutes I read, they served as vibrant forums for debates about many issues relevant to African Americans. At the Colored People's Educational Convention held in Jefferson City, Missouri, January, 1870, one resolution called for schools to be established for black students that were equal in quality and resources as those for whites, and if there was not a large enough black population in the town, for the black students to be allowed to attend the white school. Significant legacies of the “Colored Conventions” include their role as a political training ground for black politicians and their influence in the founding of prominent African American organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Association of Colored Women. “Colored Conventions” actively and powerfully worked against the repression of African Americans as they claimed and assert their civil and human rights.