Samuel B. Cornish & John Russwurm: from the editorial in the first edition of Freedom's Journal, 1827
David Walker: from Walker's appeal in four articles, 1829
Dred Scott: Dred Scott's petition to sue for his freedom, 1847
Sojourner Truth: an address to the Ohio women's rights convention, 1851
Frederick Douglass: from a speech to the Rochester antislavery sewing society, 1852
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: "Bury me in a free land" from the book Poems on miscellaneous subjects, 1854
Henry Highland Garnet: from a speech delivered in the hall of the United States House of Representatives, 1865
Blanche K. Bruce: from a speech to the United States Senate on the Mississippi election, 1876
Ida B. Wells Barnett: from A red record, 1895
Mary Church Terrell: from an address delivered to the National American women's suffrage association, 1898
Booker T. Washington: from a speech delivered at the Cotton state and International exposition, 1895
W.E.B. DuBois: from the souls of black folks, 1903
James Weldon Johnson & J. Rosamond Johnson: "Lift ev'ry voice and sing", 1900
Marcus Garvey: from a speech delivered at Liberty hall, 1922
Mary McLeod Bethune: from "Faith that moved a dump heap", 1941
Langston Hughes: "The negro speaks of rivers", 1921
Zora Neale Hurston: From their eyes were watching God, 1937
Thomas A. Dorsey: "Take my hand, Precious Lord", 1938
Richard Wright: From Native son, 1940
Paul Robeson: from and address at a public meeting sponsored by the Council of African Affairs, 1946
George Washington Carver: From The man who talked with flowers, 1939
Thurgood Marshall: From the summary of argument, Brown v. Board of Education, 1953
Rosa Parks: From Rosa Parks, my story, 1992
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: from a speech delivered at Lincoln University, 1961
Malcolm X: from an address delivered at the Hotel Theresa, 1964
Stokeley Carmichael: from a speech delivered at the University of California at Berkley, 1966
Alex Haley: from Roots: the saga of an American family, 1976
Barbara Jordan: From the keynote address, National Democratic convention, 1976
Reverend Jesse Jackson: from an address to the National Democratic convention, 1988
Marian Wright Edelman: From a speech delivered at the Congressional black caucus conference, 1987
Toni Morrison: from the Nobel lecture in literature, 1993
Lauryn Hill: "The miseducation of Lauren Hill", 1998.
