The Voice of a People: Speeches from Black America is a
collection of speeches from some of the leading African American
intellectuals, artists, activists, and organizers of the past three
centuries.
While many of their names―such as Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du
Bois, and Frederick Douglass―will be familiar to most readers, some―such
as Jermain Wesley Loguen, Randall Albert Carter, and Samuel H. Davis―are
less well known, but no less important to the history of Black
America.
The individuals whose voices make up this collection come from a range
of professional and personal backgrounds. Many of them were born into
slavery. Some escaped. Some were poets, preachers, ministers, and
bishops. Some were educators, activists, academics, abolitionists, and
suffragists. All of them, despite their differences, contributed to the
vibrant, invaluable history of a people who first built this nation
before fighting to reclaim its soul for future generations.