The Voice of a People

Description

The Voice of a People: Speeches from Black America is a collection of speeches from some of the leading African American intellectuals, artists, activists, and organizers of the past three centuries.

While many of their names―such as Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Frederick Douglass―will be familiar to most readers, some―such as Jermain Wesley Loguen, Randall Albert Carter, and Samuel H. Davis―are less well known, but no less important to the history of Black America.

The individuals whose voices make up this collection come from a range of professional and personal backgrounds. Many of them were born into slavery. Some escaped. Some were poets, preachers, ministers, and bishops. Some were educators, activists, academics, abolitionists, and suffragists. All of them, despite their differences, contributed to the vibrant, invaluable history of a people who first built this nation before fighting to reclaim its soul for future generations.

Sujets

• Histoire
• African-American history
• History of the United States
• Human rights
• African American
• History
• Black

Informations

• Publié par: Mint Editions
• Date de parution: 21 juin 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781513298535
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Voice of a People
Speeches from Black America
 
The Voice of a People: Speeches from Black America contains speeches first given between 1787 and 1923.
This edition published by Mint Editions 2021.
ISBN 9781513297033 | E-ISBN 9781513298535
Published by Mint Editions®
minteditionbooks.com
Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Design & Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger
Project Manager: Micaela Clark
Typesetting: Westchester Publishing Services
 
N OTE FROM THE P UBLISHER
The idea for this book was conceived at a particularly difficult time in our country’s history. Wherein accountability does not always feel like justice and a system continues to show the ugliness of its prejudice—unhidden and unashamed—to the rest of the world.
The speeches contained in this collection speak to the voice of a people who built a nation—their struggles and adversities, but also their hopes for a better future, generations down the line.
M. Clark
Mint Editions
Berkeley, CA
 
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won
Stony the road we trod
Bitter the chastening rod
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died
Yet with a steady beat
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast
God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way
Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light
Keep us forever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee
Shadowed beneath Thy hand
May we forever stand
True to our God
True to our native land
Our native land
 
C ONTENTS J UPITER H AMMON , “A N A DDRESS TO THE N EGROES IN THE S TATE OF N EW Y ORK ” 1787 African Society, New York M ARIA W. S TEWART , “W HY S IT Y E H ERE AND D IE ” September 21, 1832 Franklin Hall, Boston M ARIA W. S TEWART , “E DUCATION FOR A FRICAN A MERICAN W OMEN ” September 1832 Franklin Hall, Boston M ARIA W. S TEWART , “A N A DDRESS AT THE A FRICAN M ASONIC H ALL ” February 27, 1833 African Masonic Hall, Boston T HEODORE S. W RIGHT , “P REJUDICE A GAINST THE C OLORED M AN ” September 20, 1837 New York State Anti-Slavery Society, Utica S AMUEL H. D AVIS , “W E M UST A SSERT O UR R IGHTFUL C LAIMS AND P LEAD O UR O WN C AUSE ” August 15–19, 1843 The National Convention of Colored Citizens, New York H ENRY H IGHLAND G ARNET , “A N A DDRESS TO THE S LAVES OF THE U NITED S TATES ” 1843 The National Negro Convention, New York F REDERICK D OUGLASS , “M Y S LAVE E XPERIENCE IN M ARYLAND ” May 6, 1845 New York City F REDERICK D OUGLASS , “O N W OMAN S UFFRAGE ” July 1848 Pioneer Women’s Rights Convention, New York L UCY S TANTON , “A P LEA FOR THE O PPRESSED ” August 27, 1850 Oberlin Commencement, Ohio R EV . J ERMAIN W ESLEY L OUGEN , “I W ON ’ T O BEY THE F UGITIVE S LAVE L AW ” October 4, 1850 Town Hall, New York S OJOURNER T RUTH , “A R ’ NT I A W OMAN ?” May 29, 1851 Women’s Rights Convention, Ohio F REDERICK D OUGLASS , “W HAT , T O THE S LAVE , I S THE F OURTH OF J ULY ?” July 5, 1852 New York F REDERICK D OUGLASS , “I F T HERE IS N O S TRUGGLE , T HERE IS N O P ROGRESS ” August 3, 1857 New York F RANCES E LLEN W ATKINS H ARPER , “L IBERTY FOR S LAVES ” 1857 Anti-Slavery Society, Maine F REDERICK D OUGLASS , “T HE M ISSION OF THE W AR ” January 13, 1864 Woman’s Loyal League, New York City F REDERICK D OUGLASS , “W HAT D O B LACK M EN W ANT ” 1865 Anti-Slavery Society, Massachusetts F RANCES E LLEN W ATKINS H ARPER , “W E A RE A LL B OUND U P T OGETHER ” May 1866 National Women’s Rights Convention, New York City F REDERICK D OUGLASS , “A PPEAL TO C ONGRESS FOR I MPARTIAL S UFFRAGE ” January 1867 Washington, D.C. H ENRY M C N EAL T URNER , “I C LAIM THE R IGHTS OF A M AN ” September 3, 1868 Georgia F ERDINAND L. B ARNETT , “R ACE U NITY ,” May 6, 1879 National Conference of African American Men, Tennessee L UCY E. P ARSONS , “I A M A N A NARCHIST ” December 21, 1886 Kansas City Journal I DA B. W ELLS , “L YNCH L AW IN A LL I TS P HASES ” February 13, 1893 Tremont Temple, Boston A NNA J ULIA C OOPER , “W OMEN ’ S C AUSE IS O NE AND U NIVERSAL ” May 18, 1893 World’s Congress of Representative Women, Illinois F RANCES E LLEN W ATKINS H ARPER , “W OMAN ’ S P OLITICAL F UTURE ” May 20, 1893 World’s Congress of Representative Women, Illinois J OSEPHINE S T . P IERRE R UFFIN , “A DDRESS TO THE F IRST N ATIONAL C ONFERENCE OF C OLORED W OMEN ” July 29, 1895 Charles Street Church, Boston B OOKER T. W ASHINGTON , “D EMOCRACY AND E DUCATION ” September 30, 1896 Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York M ARY C HURCH T ERRELL , “I N U NION T HERE IS S TRENGTH ” September 15, 1897 National Association of Colored Women, Tennessee A LEXANDER C RUMMELL , “T HE A TTITUDE OF THE A MERICAN M IND T OWARD THE N EGRO I NTELLECT ” December 28, 1897 American Negro Academy, Washington D.C. R EV . F RANCIS J. G RIMKE , “T HE N EGRO W ILL N EVER A CQUIESCE ” November 20, 1898 Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, Washington D.C. I DA B. W ELLS , “T HE P ROGRESS OF C OLORED W OMEN ” 1898 National American Woman’s Suffrage Association, Washington D.C. L UCY C RAFT L ANEY , “T HE B URDEN OF THE E DUCATED C OLORED W OMAN ” July 1899 Hampton Negro Conference, Virginia I DA B. W ELLS , “L YNCH L AW IN A MERICA ” January 1900 Chicago W.E.B. D U B OIS , “T O THE N ATIONS OF THE W ORLD ” July 25, 1900 Westminster Hall, London M ARY C HURCH T ERRELL , “W HAT IT M EANS TO B E C OLORED IN THE C APITAL OF THE U.S.” October 10, 1906 United Women’s Club, Washington D.C. I DA B. W ELLS , “L YNCHING , O UR N ATIONAL C RIME ” May 31, 1909 National Negro Conference, New York City W ILLIAM P ICKENS , “T HE K IND OF D EMOCRACY THE N EGRO E XPECTS ” May 30, 1918 Maryland A RCHIBALD G RIMKE , “T HE S HAME OF A MERICA , O R THE N EGRO ’ S C ASE A GAINST THE R EPUBLIC ” 1920 J AMES W ELDON J OHNSON , “O UR D EMOCRACY AND THE B ALLOT ” March 10, 1923 Hotel Pennsylvania, New York City B ISHOP R ANDALL A LBERT C ARTER , “W HENCE AND W HITER ” May 30, 1923 Paine College, Georgia P ROFILE OF THE S PEAKERS
 
A N A DDRESS TO THE N EGROES IN THE S TATE OF N EW Y ORK
To the Members of the African Society in the city of New York
Gentlemen
I take the liberty to dedicate an address to my poor brethren to you. If you think it is likely to do good among them, I do not doubt but you will take it under your care. You have discovered so much kindness and good will to those you thought were oppressed, and had no helper, that I am sure you will not despise what I have wrote, if you judge it will be of any service to them. I have nothing to add, but only to wish that “the blessing of many ready to perish, may come upon you.”
I am Gentlemen, Your Servant,
Jupiter Hammon
To the Public
When I am writing to you with a design to say something to you for your good, and with a view to promote your happiness, I can with truth and sincerity join with the apostle Paul, when speaking of his own nation the Jews, and say, “That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Yes my dear brethren, when I think of you, which is very often, and of the poor, despised and miserable state you are in, as to the things of this world, and when I think of your ignorance and stupidity, and the great wickedness of the most of you, I am pained to the heart. It is at times, almost too much for human nature to bear, and I am obliged to turn my thoughts from the subject or endeavour to still my mind, by considering that it is permitted thus to be, by that God who governs all things, who seteth up one and pulleth down another. While I have been thinking on this subject, I have frequently had great struggles in my own mind, and have been at a loss to know what to do. I have wanted exceedingly to say something to you, to call upon you with the tenderness of a father and friend, and to give you the last, and I may say, dying advice, of an old man, who wishes our best good in this world, and in the world to come. But while I have had such desires, a sense of my own ignorance, and unfitness to teach others, has frequently discouraged me from attempting to say anything to you; yet when I thought of your situation, I could not rest easy. When I was at Hartford in Connecticut, where I lived during the war, I published several pieces which were well received, not only by those of my own colour, but by a number of the white people, who thought they might do good among their servants. This is one consideration, among others, that emboldens me now to publish what I have written to you. Another is, I think you will be more likely to listen to what is said, when you know it comes from a negro, one your own nation and colour, and therefore can have no interest in deceiving you, or in saying anything to you, but what he really thinks is your interest and duty to comply with. My age, I think, gives me some right to speak to you, and reason to expect you will hearken to my advice. I am now upwards of seventy years old, and cannot expect, though I am well, and able to do almost any kind of business, to live much longer. I have passed the common bounds set for man, and must soon go the way of all the earth. I have had more experience in the world than the most of you, and I have seen a great deal of the vanity, and wickedn