'How High Is Heaven?' – Discussing COVID, Loss, and Faith with Best-Selling Author, Linsey Davis

(1968) Martin Luther King, Jr., “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”

The following speech, a sermon Dr. Martin Luther King gave at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 3, 1968, was the last public appearance before his assassination the next day. King, in Memphis to support a strike by garbage workers, gives a poignant vision of the victorious future of the

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Source: Black Past

Apr

3

1968

(1906) W.E.B. DuBois, “Men of Niagara”

In 1906, one year after the Niagara Movement was founded, it held its second annual meeting at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. W.E.B. Du Bois, a founding member and its titular leader, gave the address below to the assembled civil rights

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Source: Black Past

(1838) James McCune Smith, “The Abolition Of Slavery And The Slave Trade In The French And British Colonies”

James McCune Smith (1813-1865) was a prominent physician and abolitionist. Smith was educated in the African Free School in New York City. When failing to be admitted to any American college, he enrolled in Glasgow University in Scotland in 1832 and earned three degrees including his medical

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Source: Black Past

Jun

9

1838

(1888) Frederick Douglass On Woman Suffrage

? F.A.Q. Frederick Douglass was one of the few men present at the pioneer woman’s rights convention held at Seneca Falls, New York, in July 1848. His support of women’s rights never wavered although in 1869 he publicly disagreed with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony who called for women

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Source: Black Past

(1857) Abraham Lincoln, “The Dred Scott Decision and Slavery,"

? The Dred Scott Decision handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 6, 1857 was supposed to end the decades-long debate about slavery in the United States. It did just the opposite, inflaming passions particularly in the North. In the follow speech, Abraham Lincoln, then a private citizen, p

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Source: Black Past

Viola Davis

Viola Davis is an actress best known for her award winning performances in the films “Traffic”, “Doubt” and “The Help”. She was born on her grandmother’s farm in St. Matthews, South Carolina. She was the second of six children born to Dan Davis, a horse trainer

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Source: Black History Resources

(1871) Senator Hiram Revels Calls For The End Of Segregated Schools

Hiram Rhodes Revels (1827-1901) of Mississippi was the first African American to serve in the United States Senate when he filled the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis. Revels served just over a year from February 25, 1870, to March 13, 1871. During an 1871 Senate debate over school segregation in

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Source: Black Past

(1963) Josephine Baker, “Speech at the March on Washington”

Josephine Baker is remembered by most people as the flamboyant African American entertainer who earned fame and fortune in Paris in the 1920s. Yet through much of her later life, Baker became a vocal opponent of segregation and discrimination, often initiating one-woman protests against racial

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Source: Black Past

(1963) Lyndon B. Johnson, “Address Before a Joint Session of Congress"

On November 27, 1963 just five days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, newly installed President Lyndon Baines Johnson addresses Congress for the first time. His address appears

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Source: Black Past

Nov

27

1963

(1874) Congressman Richard Harvey Cain, “All We Ask Is Equal Laws, Equal Legislation And Equal Rights”

During an 1874 Congressional debate over the Civil Rights Bill then being considered, South Carolina Representative Richard Harvey Cain responds to attacks on the proposed legislation. His speech appears

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Source: Black Past

(1867) The Reconstruction Acts

Chap. CLIII - An Act to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States [Passed over President Johnsons veto March

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Source: Black Past

(1834) William Whipper, “The Slavery of Intemperance”

? By the 1830s William Whipper was a successful Pennsylvania lumberman. He was also an abolitionist and temperance advocate. Whipper’s interest in temperance reflected a growing concern among African American leaders about the impact of alcohol on the free (and enslaved) African American popula

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Source: Black Past

(1932) Angelo Herndon Addresses His Jury

Gentlemen of the Jury: I would like to explain in detail the nature of my case and the reason why I was locked up. I recall back about the middle of June 1932, when the Relief Agencies of the City of Atlanta, the County Commission and the city government as a whole, were cutting both Negro and

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Source: Black Past

Jan

16

1933

Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey was a prominent figure in the political history of Africans. Besides, he was a journalist, entrepreneur, orator and publisher. Being a strong proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African

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Source: Black History Resources

(1859) William Lloyd Garrison, “On the Death of John Brown”

On December 2, 1859, John Brown was executed by Virginia authorities in Charles Town for his ill-fated raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. Soon after word of his death reached Boston, William Lloyd Garrison, the leading abolitionist in the United States at the time, gave this stirring

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Source: Black Past

Dec

2

1859

(1964), Dr. Martin Luther King, “Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize”

On December 10, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King became only the second African American (after Ralph Bunche) to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. His acceptance speech appears

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Source: Black Past

Dec

10

1964

I Remember Madiba: Paul Suzman Eulogizes Nelson Mandela

In the wake of Nelson Mandela’s passing on December 5, 2013, tributes came forth from around the world and more than 100 heads of state attended his memorial service in South Africa. One such tribute, a eulogy to Madiba (his clan name), was paid at the Seattle Rotary Club meeting on December

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Source: Black Past

(2017) New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu's Address on the Removal of Confederate Monuments in New Orleans

On May 19, 2017, New Orleans, Louisiana Mayor Mitch Landrieu addressed an audience in his city as a backdrop and explanation of the city’s recent decision to remove statutes of General Robert E. Lee and other Confederate military and political leaders from public squares in New Orleans. His speech

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Source: Black Past

May

19

2017

(1959) Nnamdi Azikiwe Addresses the NAACP Convention on the Organization's 50th Anniversary

Nnamdi Azikiwe, by now the best know nationalist leader in Nigeria, addressed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at its 50th anniversary celebration at the Polo Grounds, New York City, July 19, 1959. His speech appears

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Source: Black Past

Jul

19

1959

(1868) Rev. Henry McNeal Turner, “I Claim the Rights of a Man”

African Methodist Episcopal minister and later Bishop Henry McNeal Turner emerged immediately after the Civil War as one of the most ardent defenders of African Ameriacn rights. Turner was also among the first group of Reconstruction-era African American elected officials. In July 1868, Turner was

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Source: Black Past

Sep

3

1868

(1862) John S. Rock, “A Deep and Cruel Prejudice”

New Jersey-born John Sweat Rock was one of the first African American dentists in the United States. He was also a medical doctor and in 1861, after studying law, was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1861. On January 23, 1862, Rock addressed the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in

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Source: Black Past

Jan

23

1862

(2004) Al Sharpton, “Speech Before the 2004 Democratic National Convention"

In 2004 Rev. Al Sharpton of New York City, campaigned for the Democratic nomination for President. Sharpton saw himself as the successor to Rev. Jesse Jackson who campaigned for the Presidency on behalf of the impoverished and oppressed. Although he did not garner as much support as Jackson did

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Source: Black Past

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996)

Constitution of the Republic of South Africa

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Source: Black Past

(1965) Lyndon B. Johnson, "The Voting Rights Act"

In early March 1965 much of the nations attention was focused on civil rights marches in and around Selma, Alabama. Activists led by Dr. Martin Luther King used these demonstrations to urge the federal government to act to end the denial of voting rights to tens of thousands of African Americans

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Source: Black Past

Baskett, James (1904-1948)

James Baskett, the first male African American to win an Academy Award, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on February 16, 1904. After high school Baskett planned to study pharmacy, but after he was offered a small part in a show in Chicago, Illinois his career path was forever changed. Baskett

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Source: Black Past

Jul

9

1948

(1865) Abraham Lincoln, “Second Inaugural Address”

On Saturday March 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated and began his second term as President. His address to the audience of thousands of spectators was brief, one of the shortest inaugural addresses on record. The Civil War was drawing to a close as Union Armies were bearing down

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Source: Black Past

(1852) Frederick Douglass, “What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July”

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to address the citizens of his hometown, Rochester, New York. Whatever the expectations of his audience on that 76th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Douglass used the occasion not to celebrate the nation’s triumphs but

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Source: Black Past

Jul

5

1852

(2009) President Barack Obama Inaugural Address

On January 20, 2009, Barack Hussein Obama, became the 44th President of the United States. His inaugural address appears

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Source: Black Past

Jan

20

2009

WGPR-TV (1975–1995)

WGPR-TV (Where God’s Presence Radiates) was the first television station in the United States owned and operated by African Americans. The station, located in Detroit, Michigan, was founded by William Venoid Banks. WGPR-TV marketed toward the urban audience in Detroit, Michigan, which in that

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Source: Black Past

Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne also goes by the nickname Weezy F. Baby, or just Weezy for short… Tha Carter is a reference to his real name, Dwayne Carter… He has the words “Fear God” tattooed over his right and left eyelids, and teardrops inked beneath the corner of each eye, among his many other tattoos.

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Source: Fact Monster - Black History

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