Blackbirds Singing: Inspiring Black Women's Speeches from the Civil War to the Twenty-first Century

An uplifting collection of speeches by Black women, curated by the civil and human rights activist, scholar, and author

When Mary Ann Shadd Cary—the first Black woman publisher in North America—declared, "break every yoke . . . let the oppressed go free" to congregants in Chatham, Canada, in 1858, she joined a tradition of African American women speaking for their own liberation. Drawing from a rich archive of political speeches, acclaimed activist and author Janet Dewart Bell, the author o...