History's Greatest Speeches: Black Voices

by Nelson Mandela, Ida B. Wells, Thurgood Marshall

Overview

The struggle for human rights, emancipation, civil rights, social justice, voting rights and freedom from discrimination and tyranny is captured here in this volume of speeches by some of the most influential and brilliant black orators in history.

From Sojourner Truth questioning society's role in subjugating black women to Nelson Mandela facing a life sentence in prison with dignity and unequaled poise, this collection of speeches highlights the contributions of these unique speakers, who stood up to prejudice, violence, prison and even death itself to assert their rights as human beings.

In addition to Ms. Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech and Mr. Mandela's address to the court, this volume also features Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta Compromise" speech, Mary E. Church Terrell's opining on what it means to be a black woman in the nation's capitol, Ida B. Wells' condemnation of the scourge of lynching in America, W.E.B. Du Bois famous "A Negro Nation Within a Nation" speech to the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall's historic argument for fairness in education before the United States Supreme Court in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education.

The contributions of these great speakers to the fight for basic human rights cannot be overstated. We are proud to be able to present these breathtaking and stirring orations highlighting the voices of black speakers throughout history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949661484
Publisher:	Ft. Raphael Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/07/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	53
File size:	464 KB

About the Author

A towering figure throughout his entire life and career- even while imprisoned - Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) was a South African civil rights activist and political revolutionary who, upon his release from jail, served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1991 to 1997 and then as the first black President of South Africa following the collapse of apartheid. Years before, however, in the late 1950's Mandela helped co-found the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe movement which led a sabotage campaign against the all-white government of South Africa. For his involvement with Umkhonto, Mandela was arrested and tried for conspiracy. Contained in this volume is Mandela's statement to the court prior to his sentencing, slightly abridged for this presentation. When the speech concluded, Mandela would be sentenced to life imprisonment and would be incarcerated for the next twenty-seven years.
Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was an American journalist, teacher, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and spent her long career fighting against prejudice and promoting women's rights. Born into slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Wells was freed at the end of the Civil War, but at 16, she lost both her parents and her infant brother to the 1878 yellow fever epidemic. She and her grandmother labored to support the family and Wells began work as a teacher, soon afterwards becoming a co-owner and writer for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper. Wells spent much of her career as a reporter writing about the scourge of lynching. She created a widely circulated pamphlet called Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases and became a target for her anti-lynching reporting. Her newspaper office was destroyed by a white mob, but Wells would continue to write, her articles being carried by Black-owned newspapers from coast-to-coast. Wells eventually moved to Chicago and remained an activist, writer, speaker and organizer for women's and civil rights for the rest of her life. The speech in this volume was delivered by Wells at the National Negro Conference, the forerunner to the NAACP, in New York City on May 31-June 1, 1909.
Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) was an American lawyer and civil rights activist who rose to become the nation's first African-American Supreme Court Justice, serving from 1967 until his retirement in 1991. Years earlier, however, Marshall had been the chief legal counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and represented that organization in the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which argued against racial segregation in public schools. Marshall delivered the closing remarks contained in this volume before the court on December 8, 1953. Soon afterwards, the Court would decide in his favor and against the constitutionality of racial segregation in public schools and this decision remains one of the most important and far reaching pronouncements in the history of the Supreme Court.