Tracing the struggle for freedom and civil rights across a century and a half, this anthology features speeches by Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other influential figures in the history of African-American culture and politics. -- From publisher's description.

An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America (1843), /Henry Highland Garnet -- I am a Fugitive Slave (1850), / Jermain Wesley Loguen -- Ain't I a Woman? (1850), / Sojourner Truth -- What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?(1852), / Frederick Douglass -- A Deep and Cruel Prejudice (1862), / John Sweat Rock -- Equality before the Law (1874), / John Mercer Langston -- The Civil Rights Bill(1875), / James T. Rapier -- The Black Woman of the South: Her Neglects and Her Needs (1883), / Alexander Crummell -- Atlanta Exposition Address (1895), -- Booker T. Washington -- To the Nations of the World (1900), / W.E.B. Du Bois -- What it Means to be Colored in the Capital of the United State (1906), / Mary Church Terrell -- Equality of Rights for All Citizens: Black and White, Alike (1909), / Francis J. Grimke -- This Awful Slaughter (1909), / Ida B. Wells-Barnett -- The Principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1922), / Marcus Garvey -- What Does American Democracy Mean to Me?(1939), / Mary McLeod Bethune -- I have a Dream (1963), / Martin Luther King, Jr. -- The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), / Malcolm X -- The Black Woman in Contemporary America (1974), / Shirley Chisholm -- The Constitution: A living Document (1987), / Thurgood Marshall -- Knox College Commencement Address (2005), / Barack Obama.