William Saunders Scarborough, born in 1852 in Macon, Georgia, the son of a free black father and an enslaved mother eventually became the first graduate of Atlanta University and at 23 a professor of Latin and Greek at Wilberforce University in Ohio. In 1908 he … Read More(1894) William Saunders Scarborough, “The Ethics of the Hawaiian Question”
Daniel Webster (80 John) Wallace, born a slave in Victoria County, Texas, on September 15, 1860, did not like farm work, and ran away to become a cowboy. Daniel worked for a number of ranchers in east-central Texas, but it was through his work as … Read MoreDaniel Webster Wallace (1860-1939)
The widely revered African American publisher Carlton Benjamin Goodlett was born in Chipley, Florida on July 23, 1914. He finished his bachelor’s degree in 1935 at Howard University where he was president of the student body and editor of the student newspaper. Goodlett earned a … Read MoreCarlton B. Goodlett (1914-1997)
Abner Hunt Francis was an abolitionist and activist whose life and work spanned both U.S. coasts and Canada. He was born on a farm near Flemington, New Jersey. His father, Jacob, was a Revolutionary War veteran. His mother, Mary, was enslaved when she married Jacob, … Read MoreAbner Hunt Francis (1812?–1872)
Sojourner Truth (c. 1797-1883) was arguably the most famous of the 19th Century black women orators. Born into slavery in New York and freed in 1827 under the state’s gradual emancipation law, she dedicated her life to abolition and equal rights for women and men. … Read More(1851) Sojourner Truth “Ar’nt I a Woman?“
On May 17, 2004, the NAACP staged a gala celebration at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Comedian, actor, and philanthropist Bill Cosby was asked to deliver the main … Read More(2004) Bill Cosby, “The Pound Cake Speech”
On July 27, 2004 Illinois Senatorial Candidate Barack Obama was propelled onto the national stage when he was chosen to give the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention. Obama, then an Illinois State Senator, easily won his campaign the following November and became the … Read More(2004) Barack Obama Keynote Address At The Democratic National Convention, Boston
Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan was selected to give the Opening Statement to the House Judiciary Committee on July 25, 1974, as it began its momentous proceedings on the Impeachment of President Richard Nixon. Her statement appears below: Mr. Chairman, I join my colleague Mr. Rangel … Read More(1974) Congresswoman Barbara Jordan’s Statement: The Richard Nixon Impeachment Hearings
On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his first major public address on the war in Vietnam at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City. In that address, he articulated … Read More(1967) Martin Luther King, Jr., “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”
After World War II organized labor began to penetrate into some industrialized areas of the South where it inevitably confronted the issue of race. Unions such as the Food and Tobacco Workers affiliated with The Congress of Industrial Organizations, promoted racial integration and helped develop … Read More(1947) Moranda Smith Addresses The Congress Of Industrial Organizations Annual Convention, Boston
