Angelo Herndon was an African-American Communist organizer who, after working on behalf of poor and unemployed blacks and whites in Atlanta, Georgia, was charged with “insurrection” in 1932. In his defense, Herndon spoke directly to the all-white jury and, though he was found guilty, the … Read More(1932) Angelo Herndon Addresses His Jury
In 1950 Ralph Bunche, a political scientist by training and then an official of the United Nations, became the first African American to win the Nobel Peace Prize. His brief acceptance address delivered on December 10, 1950 in Oslo, Norway appears below. Your Majesty, Your Royal … Read More(1950) Ralph Bunche, “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech”
W.E.B Du Bois, a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) through most of his life was a staunch integrationist. In 1934 however he advanced the argument that since integration would not happen in the nation any time soon, … Read More(1934) W.E.B. Du Bois, “A Negro Nation Within a Nation”
By the early 1960s, Bayard Rustin emerged as a major strategist for the civil rights movement and adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King. In 1948, however, he was less well known among the American population, but most of his political and economic views were well-developed. … Read More(1948) Bayard Rustin, “Jim Crow Army”
Hubert Humphrey Speaking at the 1948 Democratic Convention Image: Public Domain In 1948 Hubert H. Humphrey, then Mayor of Minneapolis, was named one of the 119 members of the Platform Committee at the 1948 Democratic National Convention held in Philadelphia. Humphrey, a relatively unknown figure … Read More(1948) Hubert Humphrey, “No Compromises”
In 1923 Marcus Garvey was convicted on federal charges of mail fraud in connection with the sale of stock in the Universal Negro Improvement Association’s Black Star Line. Sentenced to prison, Garvey delivered his last address before a crowd at Liberty Hall in New York … Read More(1923) Marcus Garvey, “A Last Word Before Incarceration”
In this 1903 article published in The Outlook, a New York magazine, W.E.B. Du Bois, then teaching at Atlanta University, describes his educational philosophy and in the process, contrasts his views with those of the Tuskegee educator Booker T. Washington who was then at the … Read More(1903) W.E.B. Du Bois, “Training Negroes for Social Power”
Very little is known about Henry F. Coleman including the actual date of his 1928 speech which appears below. Nonetheless, it is included because it is a good example of the “defense of the race” speech so common in the late 19th and early 20th … Read More(1928) Henry F. Coleman, “The Philosophy of the Race Problem (From a Negro’s Viewpoint)”
By 1921 the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was well on its way to becoming the largest predominately black organization in the world. Marcus Garvey, the UNIA’s founder, however, already recognized W.E.B. Du Bois and the NAACP as its chief rival. In his closing night … Read More(1921) Marcus Garvey “Address to the Second UNIA Convention”
When the Democratic National Convention met in Philadelphia in July, 1948, Minneapolis, Minnesota’s 37 year old mayor, Hubert H. Humphrey, was a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Humphrey was chosen to give one of the speeches at the convention and used the opportunity to propose … Read More(1948) Hubert Humphrey, “Speech at the Democratic National Convention”
