Ripples Of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches - Softcover

Gottheimer, Joshua

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465027539 ISBN 13: 9780465027538

Publisher: Civitas Books, 2004

Synopsis

Including a never-before published speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., this is the first compilation of its kind, bringing together the most influential and important voices from two hundred years of America's struggle for civil rights, including essential speeches from leaders, both famous and obscure. With voices as diverse as Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk, Betty Friedan, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth, this anthology constitutes a unique chronicle of the nation's civil rights movements and the critical issues they've tackled, from slavery and suffrage to immigration and affirmative action.This is an indispensable compilation of the words --the ripples of hope--that, collectively, have changed American history.

About this title

About the Author:

Josh Gottheimer was a speechwriter to President Bill Clinton and a senior advisor to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a Thouron Fellow at Oxford, he is now at Harvard Law School. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

From Publishers Weekly:

Despite its uplifting title, this wide-ranging anthology admirably includes both the most famous civil rights speeches of American history and lesser known, often angrier voices. Organizing the speeches chronologically, editor Gottheimer, who was one of President Clinton's speechwriters, delves as far back as 1789, when "a free Negro," name unknown, eloquently lamented the fact that "there are men who will not be persuaded that it is possible for a human soul to be lodged within a sable body." The second chapter, "Measured Gains: Two Steps Forward, One Step Backward," covers the period from 1866 to 1949, and encompasses voices as diverse as Marcus Garvey, Eleanor Roosevelt and Alonso Perales ("Defending Mexican Americans"). Although Gottheimer has limited the collection to speeches about African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, gays and lesbians and women, the astounding variety of rhetorical and political strategies enlisted by the speakers are not only instructive but make for engaging reading. In speeches from the civil rights era, for example, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" appears with Howard "Judge" Smith's "Sex Discrimination in the Civil Rights Act," Malcolm X's "The Ballot or the Bullet," and Stokely Carmichael's "Black Power." As Gottheimer acknowledges, the pickings among present-day civil rights speeches are slim and acidic (ACT UP pioneer Larry Kramer rails against his own audience in 1987, for example), but the selection is never less than judicious, revealing and notably authoritative. 8 pages of photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Civitas Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0465027539
• ISBN 13: 9780465027538
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 568