(1865) Frederick Douglass, “What the Black Man Wants”

In the 1950s and 1960s during the height of the civil rights movement when African American activists articulated their grievances against American society, those outside the community often pose the question, “What do black men want?”  Apparently that question was raised in the 1860s as … Read More(1865) Frederick Douglass, “What the Black Man Wants”

(1865) Henry Highland Garnet, “Let The Monster Perish”

On February 12, 1865, Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, a former slave who was pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., became the first African American to speak in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. His sermon was delivered on Sunday, February 12, … Read More(1865) Henry Highland Garnet, “Let The Monster Perish”

(1865) James Lynch, “Colored Men Standing in the Way of their Own Race”

When James Lynch gave the speech that appears below, his great achievements lay in the future. Born in Baltimore in 1839, Lynch at the age of 24 went to South Carolina as one of the first A.M.E. missionaries to the freedmen and women. From 1866 … Read More(1865) James Lynch, “Colored Men Standing in the Way of their Own Race”

(1866) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “We Are All Bound Up Together”

Voices of Black Suffragists   A free-born native of Baltimore, Maryland, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper gave her first anti-slavery lecture in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1854.  Her books of poetry enhanced her prominence but when she in 1859 wrote an open letter to the condemned … Read More(1866) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “We Are All Bound Up Together”

(1867) Frederick Douglass Describes The “Composite Nation”

In an 1867 speech in Boston, Frederick Douglass challenged most social observers and politicians (including most African Americans) by advocating the acceptance of Chinese immigration. His argument is presented below. As nations are among the largest and the most complete divisions into which society is … Read More(1867) Frederick Douglass Describes The “Composite Nation”

(1867) Frederick Douglass, “Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage”

In 1867 Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist and civil rights leader, weighed in on one of the most contentious issues of the day, suffrage for black men following the Civil War.  His address, given in January 1867 in Washington, D.C., during the Congressional debate on black … Read More(1867) Frederick Douglass, “Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage”

(1867) Rev. E. J. Adams, “These are Revolutionary Times”

On March 2, 1867, Congress overrode President Andrew Johnson’s vetoes and passed a series of Reconstruction acts which would, among other things, establish new governments in the ex-Confederate states based for the first time on universal male suffrage. The first step in this process involved … Read More(1867) Rev. E. J. Adams, “These are Revolutionary Times”

(1867) Thaddeus Stevens, “Reconstruction”

In 1867 Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner led the campaign for full voting rights for African Americans across the nation.  In the speech below which Stevens gave in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 3, 1867 supporting the Reconstruction bill … Read More(1867) Thaddeus Stevens, “Reconstruction”

(1867) Thaddeus Stevens, Address to Colored Delegation”

Thaddeus Stevens was one of the most influential congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives in the late 1860s.   Considered a leader of the Radical Republicans, he was an early advocate of full civil rights for African Americans.  In 1867 he gave a brief address … Read More(1867) Thaddeus Stevens, Address to Colored Delegation”

(1868) Francis Cardozo Urges The Dissolution Of The Plantation System

Francis Louis Cardozo, the freeborn son of an African American woman and a Jewish economist, was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1837. Through his personal savings and a thousand dollar scholarship, Cardozo attended the University of Glasgow and later a theological school in London. … Read More(1868) Francis Cardozo Urges The Dissolution Of The Plantation System