The Negro Convention Movement (1830–1893) not only advocated slavery abolition but also helped sustain struggles for citizenship. The post-Reconstruction era saw African Americans’ freedom diminish amid segregation, suffrage restriction, and lynching. In 1883 the US Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which granted all citizens the “full and equal enjoyment” of public accommodations.

African Americans called a national convention in Louisville, Kentucky to protest the Court's action. State delegates met in advance to draft statements, one of the most crucial being drafted in Texas. That statement, which has been preserved, testified powerfully against Jim Crow. It condemned the “bitter hatred and fixed prejudice” of caste laws and mob violence; sexual exploitation “of our most promising females”; state neglect of Negro education; and an inhumane convict-lease system. Finally, it demanded a restoration of blacks’ civil rights, including the right to serve on juries.