AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY
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.
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(1947) Henry A. Wallace, “Ten Extra Years”
Henry A. Wallace, the Vice President of the United States from 1941 to 1945 and the future candidate for the...
(1879) John Mercer Langston, “The Exodus: The Causes Which Led The Colored People of the South to Leave Their Homes – The Lesson”
In 1879 an unanticipated migration of nearly seven thousand African Americans from Mississippi and Louisiana to Kansas prompted a debate...
(1874) John Mercer Langston, “Equality Before the Law”
John Mercer Langston, a prominent abolitionist and civil rights activist, was one of the earliest African American officeholders in the...
(1948) Henry A. Wallace, “Radio Address”
Former Vice President Henry A. Wallace, Jr., in 1948 became the Presidential nominee of the Progressive Party. Wallace ran a...
(1948) Hubert Humphrey, “Speech at the Democratic National Convention”
When the Democratic National Convention met in Philadelphia in July, 1948, Minneapolis, Minnesota’s 37 year old mayor, Hubert H. Humphrey,...
(1963) Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots”
On December 10, 1963, while still the leading spokesman for the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X gave a speech at...
(1867) Thaddeus Stevens, “Reconstruction”
In 1867 Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner led the campaign for full voting rights for African...
(1849) Charles Sumner, “Equality Before the Law: Unconstitutionality of Separate Colored Schools in Massachusetts”
In 1848 Benjamin Roberts filed a lawsuit against the city of Boston on behalf of his five year old daughter,...
(1948) Harry S. Truman, “Special Message to the Congress on Civil Rights”
By 1947 the question of black civil rights in the South had become a national issue when a committee President...
