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”
April 23rd, 2011

(1879) John Mercer Langston, “The Exodus: The Causes Which Led The Colored People of the South to Leave Their Homes – The Lesson”
April 23rd, 2011

(1874) John Mercer Langston, “Equality Before the Law”
April 21st, 2011

(1948) Henry A. Wallace, “Radio Address”
February 23rd, 2011

(1948) Hubert Humphrey, “Speech at the Democratic National Convention”
December 14th, 2010

(1963) Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots”
August 16th, 2010

(1867) Thaddeus Stevens, “Reconstruction”
August 16th, 2010

(1849) Charles Sumner, “Equality Before the Law: Unconstitutionality of Separate Colored Schools in Massachusetts”
August 16th, 2010

(1948) Harry S. Truman, “Special Message to the Congress on Civil Rights”
August 14th, 2010