History's Greatest Speeches: Black Voices

Written by Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells and 4 more

Narrated by Rochelle Young, Will Chris, Casaundra Freeman and 2 more

This is a special production from SoundCraft Audiobooks and is Volume 9 in the "History's Greatest Speeches" series.

The struggle for human rights, emancipation, civil rights, social justice, voting rights and freedom from discrimination and tyranny is captured here in this volume of speeches by some of the most influential and brilliant black orators in history.

From Sojourner Truth (Rochelle Young) questioning society's role in subjugating black women to Nelson Mandela (Amir Abdullah) facing a life sentence in prison with dignity and unequaled poise, this collection of speeches highlights the contributions of these unique speakers, who stood up to prejudice, violence, prison and even death itself to assert their rights as human beings.

This volume also features Booker T. Washington's (Will Chris) "Atlanta Compromise" speech, Mary E. Church Terrell (Casaundra Freeman) opining on what it means to be a black woman in the nation's capitol, Ida B. Wells' (Devereau Chumrau) condemnation of the scourge of lynching in America, W.E.B. Du Bois (Rosney Mauger) famous "A Negro Nation Within a Nation" speech to the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall's (AK Murtada) historic argument for fairness in education before the United States Supreme Court in the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education.

The importance of the contributions of these great speakers to the fight for basic human rights cannot be overstated. We are proud to be able to present these breathtaking and stirring orations highlighting the voices of black speakers throughout history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SoundCraft Audiobooks
• Release date: May 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662192043

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth, born into slavery in the late 1790s as Isabella Baumfree, was the first African-American woman to win a court case when she reclaimed her son from the man who sold him back into slavery after his emancipation. After changing her name, Truth travelled as a Methodist preacher and spoke out regularly on behalf of the abolitionist cause. In 1851, at the Ohio’s Women Rights Convention, Truth delivered her most well-known speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” During her lifetime, Truth spoke out about many causes, including women’s suffrage, prison reform, property rights for former slaves, and she encouraged African-Americans to enlist in the Union Army. Her activism led her to make connections with many of her contemporary abolitionists such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frances Gage. In 1850, Truth’s dictated her memoir, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, to her friend Olive Gilbert and the title was soon met with acclaim by abolitionist readers and supporters. Truth died in 1883 and was buried alongside her family in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Reviews for History's Greatest Speeches

[clairemays · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Magnificent
What intelligence and eloquence.
Gives incredible insight into both the existence of inequality and its perfect recognition already generations ago. Highlighting that systems of dominance have been actively turned to maintaining that inequality.
Little wonder that white supremacists and hopelessly corrupt politicians do all they can to mute these voices: because anyone with any intelligence who hears them will understand within minutes the existence of systemic racism.

I did not completely appreciate all the readers because several seemed to be reciting instead of communicating the speeches as they might have been communicated directly by the authors. But as a US person I am very grateful to have had the privilege of hearing a ZA accent I believe to be very similar to Madiba's.
I appreciate the production with its short bio intros and light recreation of public speaking soundscapes.
Thank you for this series.