About this item
An uplifting collection of speeches by African American 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 of Lighting the Fires of Freedom, which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, explores this tradition in Blackbirds Singing, a soaring new collection of African American women's speeches, gorgeously packaged to make it the perfect gift. Gathering an array of recognized names as well as some new discoveries, in this stunning compilation Bell curates two centuries of stirring public addresses by Black women, from Harriet Tubman and Josephine Baker to Barbara Lee and Barbara Jordan.
About the Author
Janet Dewart Bell is a social justice activist with a doctorate in leadership and change from Antioch University. She founded the Derrick Bell Lecture on Race in American Society series at the New York University School of Law in honor of her late husband and is the author of (The New Press) . An award-winning television and radio producer, she lives in New York City.
