With the recent inauguration of President Barack Obama, the country's first black president, we thought we would take a look at great speeches made during the past 100 years by prominent African-Americans.
One thing we realized while looking through old speeches was that while words and phrases may change over time, the topics do not. Democracy, fairness and freedom for all have been common themes.
William Pickens, ""The Kind of Democracy the Negro Expects," 1919
Pickens served as dean at Morgan State University in Baltimore and was involved in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People since its inception in 1918.
The speech challenged people of the United States to envision a democracy that included African-Americans, even as the country promoted the concept around the world.
Read the full text of "The Kind of Democracy the Negro Expects."
Charlotta Bass, "Acceptance Speech for Vice Presidential Candidate of the Progressive Party," 1952
Charlotta Bass ran as vice president on the Progressive Party’s ticket. By doing so, she became the first African-American woman to carry a political party’s nomination for the second-highest office in the country.
A former newspaper owner and political activist, Bass began her career as a conservative republican, but by the 1940s her politics had shifted left. She gave this acceptance speech at the Chicago convention of the Progressive Party on March 30, 1952.
Read the full text of "Acceptance Speech for Vice Presidential Candidate of the Progressive Party"
Barbara Jordan, "Who, Then, Will Speak for the Common Good," 1976
Barbara Jordan became the first black member of Congress elected from Texas in 1972. Two years later, she found herself in the national spotlight in her prominent role as a member of the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment hearings of President Richard Nixon.
Two years later she delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in New York City, and in doing so became the first African-American and the first woman to do so.
Read the full text of "Who, Then, Will Speak for the Common Good"