As the pace of ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment grew among the states, the National Convention of Colored Men met in Washington, D.C. on this day. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia were represented, under the chairmanship of John Mercer Langston of Ohio. With the help of U.S. Senator Charles Sumner, its representatives, the majority of them former slaves, made a strong presentation to the Thirty-Ninth Congress that argued their right to the vote based both on simple justice and on their status as citizens, taxpayers, and patriots. (By John Osborne)
National Convention of Colored Men (1867 : Washington, D.C.), “Report on the National Convention of Colored Men, Washington D.C., January 10, 1867,” ColoredConventions.org, accessed January 23, 2017, http://coloredconventions.org/items/show/1062.
"United States," The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1867 ... (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1870), 734-735.
