Fannie Lou Hamer's Audiences and AAVE
After her 1964 DNC testimony was televised, Fannie Lou Hamer finally had access to speak at mass meetings (Brooks and Houck 46) which...
"What Have We to Hail?" The One Speech We Should Study
Fannie Lou Hamer’s “What Have We to Hail?” delivered in Kentucky during the Summer of 1968 would be the speech I would choose as a...
Fannie Lou Hamer
The Prompt (containing background information) Hamer would seem to be the opposite of King. He grew up in Atlanta; his parents were...
We, the Disinherited of This Land
“We, the disinherited of this land, we who have been oppressed so long, are tired of going through the long night of captivity. And now...
Sojourner Truth: Fully Human
Sojourner Truth does not need to be a mythical woman, created whole the moment she left slavery, an ex-slave whom whites can accept. Her...
Douglass’ “The Lessons of the Hour”, Part II
“But my friends, I must stop. Time and strength are not equal to the task before me. But could I be heard by this great nation, I would...
"Ain't I a Woman" and Historical Revision
By the time Frances Dana Gage created “Ain’t I a Woman?” she was years removed from the original incident. Her writing competitor,...
Douglass' "Lessons of the Hour"
In the first three paragraphs of his last speech, “Lessons of the Hour (1894),” Frederick Douglass, already well known, introduces...
Frederick Douglass
Like other slaves, Douglass had no knowledge of his birthday, and while this made him unhappy because he did not see that he should be so...