African American History: Major Speeches

“If I had a thousand tongues and each tongue were a thousand thunderbolts and each thunderbolt had a thousand voices, I would use them all today to help you understand a loyal and misrepresented and misjudged people.” These were the words of Joseph C. Price, founder and President of Livingston College in North Carolina, who in 1890 delivered an address to the National Education Association annual convention held in Minneapolis. Price’s words reflect on the long tradition of African American oratory. Listed below are some of the most significant orations by African Americans with links to the actual speeches.

To 1800:


(1789) An Unknown Free Black Author Describes Slavery In 1789
(1792) Prince Hall, “A Charge Delivered to the Brethren of the African Lodge”
(1797) Abraham Johnstone, “Address To The People Of Color”
(1797) Prince Hall Speaks To The African Lodge, Cambridge, Massachusetts

1801-1860:


(1808) Rev. Peter Williams, “An Oration On The Abolition Of The Slave Trade”
(1809) William Hamilton, “Mutual Interest, Mutual Benefit and Mutual Relief”
(1817) J. Forten & Russel Perrott, “An Address To The Humane And Benevolent Inhabitants Of The City And County Of Philad
(1826) John B. Russwurm, “The Condition and Prospects of Haiti”
(1827) Rev. Nathaniel Paul Hails The End Of Slavery In New York
(1828) David Walker, “The Necessity of A General Union Among Us“
(1830) Rev. Peter Williams, Jr. “Slavery and Colonization”
(1832) Maria W. Stewart Advocates Education for African American Women
(1832) Maria W. Stewart, “Why Sit Ye Here and Die?”
(1832) Sarah Mapps Douglas Urges Support for the Anti-Slavery Cause
(1834) William Whipper, “The Slavery of Intemperance“
(1836) James Forten, Jr. “Put on the Armour of Righteousness“
(1837) Theodore S. Wright, “Prejudice Against the Colored Man“
(1837) William Whipper, “Non-Resistance to Offensive Aggression“
(1838) James McCune Smith, “The Abolition Of Slavery And The Slave Trade In The French And British Colonies“
(1839) Andrew Harris, “Slavery Presses Down Upon the Free People of Color“
(1839) Daniel A. Payne, “Slavery Brutalizes Man“
(1839) Peter Paul Simmons, “We Must Remain Active"
(1841) Charles Lenox Remond, “Slavery and the Irish“
(1841) Charles Lenox Remond, “Slavery As It Concerns The British”
(1842) Charles Lenox Remond, “The Rights Of Colored Citizens In Traveling”
(1843) Henry Highland Garnet, "An Address To The Slaves Of The United States"
(1843) Samuel H. Davis, “We Must Assert Our Rightful Claims and Plead Our Own Cause“
(1844) Charles Lenox Remond, “For the Dissolution of the Union“
(1845) Frederick Douglass, “My Slave Experience in Maryland“
(1846) Lewis Richardson, “I am Free From American Slavery“ 1846
(1849) Charles Sumner, “Equality Before the Law: Unconstitutionality of Separate Colored Schools in Massachusetts”
(1849) Frederick Douglass, “On Mexico“
(1850) John S. Rock, “Address to the Citizens of New Jersey”
(1850) Lucy Stanton, “A Plea for the Oppressed”
(1850) Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen, “I Won't Obey the Fugitive Slave Law”
(1850) Samuel Ringgold Ward, “Speech on the Fugitive Slave Bill“
(1851) Sojourner Truth “Ar'nt I a Woman?“
(1852) Frederick Douglass, “What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July”
(1855) William C. Nell, “The Triumph Of Equal School Rights In Boston“
(1856) Sara G. Stanley Addresses The Convention Of Disfranchised Citizens Of Ohio
(1857) Charles Lenox Redmond, “An Anti-Slavery Discourse“
(1857) Frances Ellen Watkins, “Liberty For Slaves“
(1857) Frederick Douglass, “If There Is No Struggle, There Is No Progress“
(1858) John S. Rock, “I Will Sink or Swim with My Race”
(1860) H. Ford Douglas, “I Do Not Believe in That Antislavery of Abraham Lincoln”

1861-1877:


(1867) Thaddeus Stevens, “Address to Colored Delegation”
(1862) John S. Rock, “A Deep and Cruel Prejudice”
(1862) William C. Nell Speaks At The Crispus Attucks Commemoration, Boston
(1863) Frederick Douglass, Men of Color, To Arms!
(1863) J. Stanley, “A Tribute To A Fallen Black Soldier“
(1863) Rev. Jonathan C. Gibbs, “Freedom's Joyful Day“
(1864) Arnold Bertonneau, “Every Man Should Stand Equal Before the Law”
(1864) Frederick Douglass On “The Mission Of The War“
(1864) Rev. J. P. Campbell, “Give Us Equal Pay and We Will Go To War“
(1865) Abraham Lincoln, “Second Inaugural Address”
(1865) Henry Highland Garnet, “Let The Monster Perish”
(1865) James Lynch, “Colored Men Standing in the Way of their Own Race“
(1866) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “We Are All Bound Up Together“
(1867) Frederick Douglass, “Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage”
(1867) John Stella Martin, A Speech Before the Paris Antislavery Conference
(1867) Rev. E. J. Adams, “These are Revolutionary Times”
(1867) Thaddeus Stevens, “Reconstruction”
(1868) Francis Cardozo Urges The Dissolution Of The Plantation System
(1868) Reverend Henry McNeal Turner, “I Claim the Rights of a Man“
(1869) Frederick Douglass Describes The "Composite Nation"
(1869) John Willis Menard, “Speech Before the United States House of Representatives”
(1870) Henry O. Wagoner, Jr., Celebrates The Ratification Of The 15th Amendment To The United States Constitution
(1871) Jefferson F. Long, “Speech On Disorders In The South“
(1871) Joseph H. Rainey, “Speech Made in Reply to An Attack Upon the Colored State Legislators of South Carolina..."
(1871) Robert C. DeLarge, “Speech on the Enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment“
(1871) Senator Hiram Revels Calls For The End Of Segregated Schools
(1874) Richard Harvey Cain, “All We Ask Is Equal Laws, Equal Legislation And Equal Rights“
(1875) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “The Great Problem to be Solved“
(1875) John R. Lynch, “Speech on the Civil Rights Bill“
(1875) John Wesley Cromwell, “Address on the Difficulties of the Colored Youth in Obtaining an Education in the Virginias”
(1876) Senator Blanche K. Bruce, “...Appointing a Committee to Investigate Election Practices in Mississippi“
(1877) Alexander Crummell, “Address Before the American Geographical Society”
(1877) John E. Bruce, “Reasons Why the Colored American Should Go to Africa“
(1877) Peter H. Clark, “Socialism: The Remedy for the Evils of Society“

1878-1900:


(1879) Ferdinand L. Barnett, “Race Unity“
(1879) Robert J. Harlan, “Migration is the Only Remedy for Our Wrongs”
(1884) William H. Crogman, “Negro Education: Its Helps and Hindrances”
(1884), Alexander Crummell, “Excellence, an End of the Trained Intellect”
(1886) Alexander Crummell, “Common Sense in Common Schooling”
(1886) Lucy Parsons, “I am An Anarchist“
(1886) T. Thomas Fortune, “The Present Relations of Labor and Capitol“
(1888) Frederick Douglass On Woman Suffrage
(1889) John E. Bruce, “Organized Resistance Is Our Best Remedy“
(1890) Joseph C. Price, “Education and the Problem,“
(1890) T. Thomas Fortune, “It Is Time To Call A Halt,“
(1893) Anna Julia Cooper, “ Women's Cause is One and Universal”
(1893) Ida B. Wells, “Lynch Law In All Its Phases,“
(1894) William Saunders Scarborough, “The Ethics of the Hawaiian Question,”
(1895) Booker T. Washington, The Atlanta Compromise Speech
(1895) John H. Smyth, “The African in Africa and the African in America”
(1895) Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, “Address to the First National Conference of Colored Women,“
(1895) T. Thomas Fortune, “The Nationalization of Africa”
(1896) Booker T. Washington, “Democracy and Education”
(1896) John Hope, “We Are Struggling For Equality,”
(1897) Mary Church Terrell, “In Union There is Strength,“
(1898) Alexander Crummell, “The Attitude of the American Mind Toward the Negro Intellect,“
(1898) Margaret Murray Washington, “We Must Have a Cleaner Social Morality,“
(1898) Rev. Charles S. Morris Describes The Wilmington Massacre of 1898
(1898) Reverend Francis J. Grimke, “The Negro Will Never Acquiesce As Long As He Lives,”
(1899) Lucy Craft Laney, “The Burden of the Educated Colored Woman,“
(1899) Reverend D. A. Graham, “Some Facts About Southern Lynchings,“
(1900) Ida B. Wells, “Lynch Law in America”
(1900) W.E.B. Du Bois, “To the Nations of the World,“

1901-1950:


(1901) George H. White's Farewell Address To Congress
(1903) Capt. Charles Young Speaks At Stanford University
(1905) Roscoe Conkling Bruce, “Freedom Through Education“
(1906) Mary Church Terrell, “What It Means to be Colored in Capital of the U.S."
(1906) W.E.B. DuBois, “Men of Niagara”
(1909) Ida B. Wells, “This Awful Slaughter”
(1914) John Edward Bruce, “Sons of Africa”
(1916) Robert R. Moton, “A Life of Achievement“
(1918) Rev. Francis J. Grimke, “Victory for the Allies and the United States a Ground of Rejoicing, of Thanksgiving”
(1919) William Pickens, “The Kind of Democracy the Negro Expects”
(1920) Archibald Grimke, “The Shame of America, or the Negro’s Case Against the Republic”
(1922) Marcus Garvey, "The Principles of The Universal Negro Improvement Association"
(1922) Wyatt Mordecai Johnson, “The Faith of the American Negro“
(1923) Bishop Randall Albert Carter, “Whence and Whither“
(1923) James Weldon Johnson, “Our Democracy and the Ballot“
(1928) Beatrice Morrow Cannady Speaks to the NAACP
(1946) W.E. B. DuBois, “Behold the Land”
(1947) Moranda Smith Addresses The Congress Of Industrial Organizations Annual Convention, Boston
(1948) Harry S. Truman, “Special Message to the Congress on Civil Rights”
(1949) Nnamdi Azikiwe Addresses Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity at its 35th Annual Convention in Washington, D.C.
(1949) Ralph J. Bunche, “The Barriers of Race Can be Surmounted”

1951-2000:


(1952) Charlotta Bass, “Acceptance Speech for Vice Presidential Candidate of the Progressive Party”
(1955) Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Speech on Civil Rights
(1957) Roy Wilkins, “The Clock Will Not Be Turned Back”
(1959) Nnamdi Azikiwe Addresses the NAACP Convention on the Organization's 50th Anniversary
(1963) Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots”
(1963) Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream”
(1963) Robert C. Weaver, "The Negro as an American"
(1964) Fannie Lee Chaney, “Meridian Awakened”
(1964) Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
(1964) Malcolm X’s Speech at the Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity
(1965) Bayard Rustin, “From Protest to Politics: The Future of the Civil Rights Movement”
(1965) Malcolm X, “Speech at Ford Auditorium”
(1966) Stokely Carmichael, “Black Power”
(1966) Stokely Carmichael, “Definitions of Black Power”
(1967) Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”
(1968) Martin Luther King, Jr., “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”
(1970) Shirley Chisholm, “I Am For the Equal Rights Amendment.”
(1974) Barbara Jordan's Statement: The Richard Nixon Impeachment Hearings
(1976) Barbara Jordan, “Who, Then, will Speak for the Common Good?”
(1984) Jesse Jackson, “The Rainbow Coalition”
(1988) Jesse Jackson, “Keep Hope Alive.”
(1994) General Colin Powell Urges African American Students to Reject Racial Hatred

2001 to present:


(2001) Diahann Carroll, “Keeping Up the Good Fight, Winning the Crusade Against Cancer”
(2003) Rev. Jeremiah Wright, “Confusing God and Government”
(2004) Barack Obama Keynote Address At The Democratic National Convention, Boston
(2004) Bill Cosby, “The Pound Cake Speech”
(2007) Barack Obama “Voting Rights March Commemoration Speech”
(2008) Barack Obama's Election Night Victory Speech, Nov. 4th, 2008
(2008) Barack Obama's Speech on Race
(2009) Barack Obama Inaugural Address

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