Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction

by Kate Masur

connection. In the summer of 1834, James Birney suggested that Ohio abolitionists focus on “the elevation of the Col’d people to civil privileges” rather than pressing for African Americans’ “social” equality at the same time. Birney, a former slaveholder from Kentucky, had begun his antislavery work as a colonizationist but had declared himself an abolitionist amid the ferment of the Lane debates. Birney was concerned that the Lane students’ commitment to racial equality in their private lives made them vulnerable to attack and could prevent them from reaching their larger goals. He suggested that if “civil privileges” could be gained, “it would be a long stride” toward equality in social life. Weld readily agreed. Echoing Birney but using the term rights instead of privileges, Weld recommended that “we should make it our great object to put our colored brethren in possession of their civil rights—social rights will follow naturally in their wake.”