John Williamson Kuyé, an early 20th Century advocate of African self-rule was in many respects part of the first wave of African nationalists. Born in Bathurst, Gambia, on November 10, 1894, he attended Stanley Day School and Wesleyan Boys’ High School in Sierra Leone. Kuyé … Read More(1926) John Williamson Kuyé, “Right of the People to Self-Determination”
Orishatuke Faduma, born James Davies in Sierra Leone, was a late 19th and early 20th Century African nationalist. He studied at both London University and Yale University in the 1880s and eventually became a follower of Pan-Africanist Edward W. Blyden. Faduma also helped Chief Alfred … Read More(1919) Orishatuke Faduma, “Not Failure But Low Aim is Crime”
Rev. Dr. Mojola Agbebi, born April 10, 1860 as David Brown Vincent in Western Nigeria, was a leading proponent of “Ethiopianism,” which advocated an African-centered Christianity. In the 1880s, as an indication of his embrace of African culture he changed his name to Mojola Agbebi. … Read More(1902) Rev. Mojola Agbebi, “Inaugural Sermon”
On October 20, 1946, seventy-eight year old W.E.B Du Bois delivered the address at the closing session of the Southern Youth Legislature in Columbia, South Carolina. Although this was one of his last major orations, he used the occasion to inspire his audience to continue … Read More(1946) W.E. B. Du Bois, “Behold the Land”
As the post-World War II campaign for African independence heated up, young leaders such as Nigeria’s Nnamdi Azikiwe (who would eventually become the first President of Nigeria), carried their arguments to Great Britain. On October 23, 1949 Azikiwe spoke at the Plenary Session of the … Read More(1949) Nnamdi Azikiwe, “A Denunciation of European Imperialism”
Pixley Isaka Seme was one of the first western-educated Africans to challenge the European colonialism then sweeping across the continent. Born in Natal, South Africa, Eme was educated at Columbia and Oxford Universities in the United States and Great Britain where he also became an attorney. … Read More(1906) Isaka Seme, “The Regeneration of Africa”
By 1906 Mary Church Terrell of Washington, D.C., had become one of the most prominent African American women in the nation. Ten years earlier she was the first president of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and from 1895 to 1901 she was a … Read More(1906) Mary Church Terrell, “What It Means to be Colored in the Capital of the U.S.”
Image Ownership: Public Domain By 1909 Ida B. Wells was the most prominent anti-lynching campaigner in the United States. From the early 1890s she labored mostly alone in her effort to raise the nation’s awareness and indignation about these usually unpunished murders. In 1909, however, … Read More(1909) Ida B. Wells, “Lynching, Our National Crime”
Without warning, Italian armed forces invaded Ethiopia on October 3, 1935, quickly defeated the Ethiopian Army, and forced Emperor Haile Selassie into exile first in Palestine and eventually in Great Britain. On June 30, 1936, Emperor Selassie came before the League of Nations in Geneva, … Read More(1936) Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, “Appeal to the League of Nations”
When in June 1928, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chose to hold its 19th annual conference in Los Angeles, California, it was the first time the Association’s meeting was held in the West. W.E.B. DuBois was the major speaker. He … Read More(1928) Beatrice Morrow Cannady Speaks to the NAACP
