On November 20, 1898, Reverend Francis J. Grimke, pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C., delivered a sermon in which he denounced those African Americans who called for conservatism and accommodation. Grimke vowed that as long as African Americans were deprived of … Read More(1898) Rev. Francis J. Grimke, “The Negro Will Never Acquiesce As Long As He Lives”
Image Ownership: Public Domain Alexander Crummell’s remarkable career spanned much of the 19th Century. Before the Civil War Crummell had established his credentials as an abolitionist, educator and lecturer in England as well as the United States. In the 1850s he was a member of … Read More(1898) Alexander Crummell, “The Attitude of the American Mind Toward the Negro Intellect”
On May 17, 2004, the NAACP staged a gala celebration at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Comedian, actor, and philanthropist Bill Cosby was asked to deliver the main … Read More(2004) Bill Cosby, “The Pound Cake Speech”
Texas Congresswoman Barbara Jordan was selected to give the Opening Statement to the House Judiciary Committee on July 25, 1974, as it began its momentous proceedings on the Impeachment of President Richard Nixon. Her statement appears below: Mr. Chairman, I join my colleague Mr. Rangel … Read More(1974) Congresswoman Barbara Jordan’s Statement: The Richard Nixon Impeachment Hearings
In January 1901, at the beginning of a new century, George H. White was ending his term as a Congressman from North Carolina’s Second Congressional District. Realizing that he was bringing to a close a thirty two year period when nearly forty Southern African Americans … Read More(1901) Congressman George H. White’s Farewell Address To Congress
Frederick Douglass was one of the few men present at the pioneer woman’s rights convention held at Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848. His support of women’s rights never wavered although in 1869 he publicly disagreed with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony … Read More(1888) Frederick Douglass On Woman Suffrage
Between 1879 and 1880, six thousand Exodusters left Louisiana and Mississippi for Kansas. Their migration, prompted by the end of racially-integrated Reconstruction governments, by anti-black violence and by sharecropping and tenant farming, brought national attention including a Congressional hearing, and generated a national debate about … Read More(1879) Robert J. Harlan, “Migration is the Only Remedy for Our Wrongs”
Senator Blanche K. Bruce, “Speech Before The Senate to Introduce a Resolution Appointing a Committee to Investigate Election Practices in Mississippi,” 1876 Blanche K. Bruce (1841-1898) was the first African American to serve a full term as a United States Senator. In February 1874, the Mississippi legislature elected … Read More(1876) Senator Blanche K. Bruce, “…Appointing a Committee to Investigate Election Practices in Mississippi”
Born enslaved in Louisiana in 1847, John Roy Lynch eventually served as a U.S. Congressman from Mississippi from 1873 to 1877 and during an abbreviated term of one year in 1882-1883. Prior to his term in Congress he had served as Speaker of the Mississippi … Read More(1875) Congressman John R. Lynch, “Speech on the Civil Rights Bill”
During an 1874 Congressional debate over the Civil Rights Bill then being considered, South Carolina Representative Richard Harvey Cain responds to attacks on the proposed legislation. His speech appears below. Mr. Speaker, I feel called upon more particularly by the remarks of the gentleman from … Read More(1874) Congressman Richard Harvey Cain, “All We Ask Is Equal Laws, Equal Legislation And Equal Rights”
