This anthology comprises speeches by influential figures in the history of African-American culture and politics. Contents include the famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech by Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass' immortal "What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?" Martin Luther King, Jr., 's "I Have a Dream," Barack Obama's "Knox College Commencement Address," and many others.

James Daley is the editor of several Dover editions, including The World's Greatest Short Stories, Classic Crime Stories, Favorite Christmas Poems, and Great Writers on the Art of Fiction.

Henry Highland Garnet An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America (1843)
Jermain Wesley Loguen I Am a Fugitive Slave (1850)
Sojourner Truth Ain't I a Woman? (1851)
Frederick Douglass What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July? (1852)
John Sweat Rock A Deep and Cruel Prejudice (1862)
John Mercer Langston Equality Before the Law (1874)
James T. Rapier The Civil Rights Bill (1875)
Alexander Crummell The Black Woman of the South: Her Neglects and and Her Needs (1883)
Booker T. Washington Atlanta Exposition Address (1895)
W. E. B. Du Bois To the Nations of the World (1900)
Mary Church Terrell What It Means to be Colored in the Capital of the United States (1906)
Francis J. Grimké Equality of Rights for All Citizens: Black and White, Alike (1909)
Ida B. Wells-Barnett This Awful Slaughter (1909)
Marcus Garvey The Principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1922)
Mary McLeod Bethune What Does American Democracy Mean to Me? (1939)
Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have a Dream (1963)
Malcolm X The Ballot or The Bullet (1964)
Shirley Chisholm The Black Woman in Contemporary America (1974)
Thurgood Marshall The Constitution: A Living Document (1987)
Barack Obama Knox College Commencement Address (2005)