Elite Black Leadership

            Looking through the Colored Conventions website, I was surprised by some of their resolutions on “racial migrations," especially in contrast with Walker’s beliefs and ideas. For example, Walker cites Richard Allen stating, “This land which we have watered with our tears and our blood, is our mother country, and we are well satisfied to stay where wisdom and the gospel is free.”[1] Alternatively however, the minutes from the 1832 National Convention of Free People of Colour resolved –

That in the opinion of this committee, the plan suggested by the first General Convention, of purchasing land or lands in Upper Canada, for the avowed object of forming a settlement in that province, for such colored persons as may choose to emigrate there, still merits and deserves our united support and exertions, and further, that the appearances of the times, in this our native land, demands immediate action on that subject. Adopted.[2]

Even more revealing, this resolution was the first one proposed and passed during this session of the National Convention. Even though David Walker and his contemporary allies in racial justice seem to agree that the United States of America is their mother country, which should not be abandoned, there seems to be an interesting divide in the opinions of the time. Even more curious, Walker and the convention both make adamant remarks against the American Colonization Society trying to accomplish their Back to Africa movement and colony in Liberia. What seems divisive nevertheless, may be each individual’s attachments and connections to the country as a whole. While Walker seems to have this nationalistic type of connection to the Untied States and its black population (free and slave), other free people of color seem to have stronger allegiances towards color and family. While Walker continues to explicate why violence is needed in American society with the aims of changing it from within and providing a future wherein black slaves are freed and equality is a basic concept of American life, other free people of color contrarily believed in saving their own people first rather than the name of a country that holds no meaning but horror and pain. Finally, I think this will become an ever-divisive issue in the evolution of African American Activism such that each individual and organization’s nationalism and the connection to the land and name of the United States of America will continuously be challenged and repositioned.

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[1] David Walker, David Walker’s Appeal (New York, Hill and Wang, 1965), 58.

[2] Minutes and Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Color in these United States, June 4-13, 1832, Colored Conventions, University of Delaware Library, Newark.