CALL FOR A STATE CONVENTION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE OF

THE STATE OF NEW YORK

SEPTEMBER, 1855

The undersigned, regarding the present as a favorable time for pressing the claims of the colored citizens of this State upon the consideration of State Government, with a view to the removal of the odious and invidious disabilities imposed therein, and to gain equal political rights, take the liberty to invite their colored fellow-citizens to assemble, in State Convention, in the city of TROY, on the FIRST TUESDAY of SEPTEMBER, 1855. There is a sacred obligation resting upon the colored citizens of this State, to give the ear of our Legislature no rest till every legal and political disability, with all its depressing and degrading tendencies, shall be swept from the Empire State. The undersigned express the hope that measures will be early taken to have every part of the State represented in the Convention.

P. A. Bell, New York

Thomas L. Jennings, "

Edward V. Clark, "

Rev. Charles B. Ray, "

Dr. Jas. McCune Smith, "

John J. Zuille, "

J. J. Simons, "

Jacob Gibbs, "

Joseph Smith, "

Dr. McDonald, "

Dr. J. W. Pennington "

Dr. Peter Ray, Williamsburgh

Lewis Nelson, "

Wm. J. Wilson, Brooklyn

J. N. Still, "

Martin Cross, Catskill

Jacob Schemerhorn, Kingston

Joseph Dell, Hudson

Chauncy Van Hussen "

Peter Van De Zee New Baltimore

Lewis Jackson, "

John Jones, Sandy Lake

Francis Thompson, Schenectady

Peter Hornbeck, Utica

George Brown, "

James Collins, Ithaca

James Lewis, "

Rev. J. W. Loguen, Syracuse

James W. Randolph, Albany

Wm. Gardiner, "

Richard Wright, "

Stephen Myers, "

Joseph Newit, "

Benj. Bourman, Troy

Wm. Rich, "

Jonathan C. Gibbs, "

James H. Davis, "

Uriah Boston, Poughkeepsie

Frederick Douglass, Rochester

Wm. J. Watkins, "

Frederick Douglass' Paper, July 27, 1855.