History, Reference, African-American Studies 

A century of riveting public speeches by leading African American orators, assembled for the first time, in a handsome boxed set of a hardcover book with 2 one-hour CDs. From Marcus Garvey to Maya Angelou, Say It Plain gives listeners a vivid, moving portrait of how black Americans have sounded the charge against injustice, exhorting the country to live up to its democratic principles. Most of these actual recordings of speeches by the 20th Century's leading African American cultural, spiritual, and political figures have been tucked away in archives and libraries, and are presented here for the first time. Together, the set captures an incomparable tradition of oratory, and includes some of the most powerful public speeches of the past century. Here can be found the only known recordings of speeches by Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey; Mary McLeod Bethune answering the question, "What does Democracy Mean to me?"; Dick Gregory describing his experience of being locked in a Birmingham jail; Barbara Jordan's unforgettable defense of the U.S. Constitution during Nixon's impeachment hearings; Julian Bond's sharp assessment of school segregation on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board, and much more. Riveting in their power to convey the black freedom struggle—from the back to Africa movement to the civil rights era and the rise of black nationalism and beyond—Say It Plain is a remarkable historical record of African American life, and a moving portrait of black Americans fighting for a better nation. This set contains two 80-minute compact discs with digitally re-mastered, recorded speeches by: Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey , Mary McLeod Bethune, Walter White, Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, Howard Thurman, Dick Gregory, Fannie Lou Hamer, Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Hope Franklin, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, Benjamin L. Hooks, Joseph Lowery, Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Johnetta Cole, Lani Guinier, Clarence Thomas, Randall Robinson, and Julian Bond. The set also contains a hardcover book that includes: acomprehensive introductory essay on the African American tradition of oratory by noted George Washington University historian James Oliver Horton, and complete transcripts of the speeches with historical introductions. - from Amzon