The American Colonization Society was a national organization founded in 1817. Its purpose was to encourage the migration of free African Americans and formerly enslaved Africans to Africa. Members of the Society saw this plan both as a way to encourage slave owners to free their slaves and to give free black Americans a way to escape the inequality they experienced in the US. The Society was responsible for sending 6,000 black Americans to Liberia between 1821 and 1867. The organization had a permanent office on the Mall from 1860 until the building was razed in 1930.
I. Cranford Nielson
The Historical Society of Washington, DC. View Original.