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Return to California Transformed, 2. Defining a New California: The Constitution of 1849.
View Large Image of Colored Citizens' Convention document.
From Colored Citizens’ Convention, Proceedings, 1856
Mr. President and gentlemen–I am happy to meet with you today on this occasion, and to respond to the call on behalf of Nevada county. The object for which we have met is a good one, and I feel deeply my want of language to express my feelings in relation thereto; but I will endeavor, briefly, to present a few facts respecting the condition of our people in my county. There are about five hundred colored people residing there, variously employed. A few are farmers and mechanics, a small number are engaged in trading, but the majority of them are miners. It is with pride I say it, we are showing to our white fellow-citizens that we have some natural abilities; we are resolved to let them see that all we want is an equal chance, an open field, and a fair fight… Why have we convened together? Because the law, relating to our testimony in the Courts of California, is but a shadow. It affords no protection to our families or property. I may see the assassin plunge his dagger to the vitals of my neighbor, yet, in the eyes of the law, I see it not. I may overhear the robber or incendiary plotting the injury or the utter ruin of my fellow citizen, and yet, in the judgment of the law, I hear it not. The robbery may follow, the conflagration may do its work, and the author of the evil may go unpunished, because only a colored man saw the act or heard the plot. Under these circumstances who are really injured and losers by the law? It deprives colored men from testifying in cases where white persons are parties. Is it not evident that the white citizen is an equal sufferer with us? When will the people of this State learn that justice to the colored man is justice to themselves?…I do not believe this state of things can last; the people of this State cannot be interested in upholding and continuing an act which never has been and never can be made compatible with the safety and security of the lives and property of those whom, by a gross sophism, it assumes to benefit and protect. It is an act alike disgraceful to the intelligence of this State, and a foul blot upon the pages of her Statute Book. Friends, let is feel assured that a brighter day is opening, the public mind is awakening, let is continue to hope and work for this change, and may heaven crown our efforts with success.
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