In the early days of August 1865, a group of Black men met in the city of Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The men came from a variety of occupations. Most of them were ministers of churches, but others were important Black businessmen from all over the state of Virginia. Some were former slaves. The meeting was not the first Black convention to be held in the United States, and it would not be the last, but the petition it produced became one of the most eloquent appeals for extending civil rights, including the right to vote, to Black Americans.