"We want our freedom" : rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement / [compiled by] W. Stuart Towns.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. "The Whites Have Absolute Control of the State Government, and We Intend at Any and All Hazards to Retain It": Why There Had to Be a Civil Rights Movement. James Clarence Harper, "Separate Schools for White and Colored with Equal Advantages"; Mixed Schools Never! U.S. House of Representatives, May 4, 1872. Benjamin Ryan Tillman, Inaugural as South Carolina Governor, Columbia, South Carolina, December 4, 1890. Wade Hampton, Negro Emigration, U.S. Senate, January 30, 1890. James Mathews Griggs, We Propose to Maintain the Supremacy of the Anglo Saxon Race in the South, U.S. House of Representatives, February 1, 1900 -- 2. The River of Change: Beginning to Question the Racist System, 1920s to 1940s. James Weldon Johnson, Our Democracy and the Ballot, New York City, March 10, 1923. A. Philip Randolph, March on Washington Address, Detroit, Michigan, September 26, 1942. Thurgood Marshall, The Legal Attack to Secure Civil Rights, NAACP Wartime Conference, 1944.

W. E. B. Du Bois, Behold the Land, Columbia, South Carolina, October 20, 1946 -- 3. Black Southerners Challenge the System, the 1950s: The Movement Begins. John Hope Franklin, Desegregation - The South's Newest Dilemma, London, September 8, 1955. Martin Luther King, Jr., Speech at Holt Street Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, December 5, 1955. Roy Wilkins, Remarks at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, Washington, D.C., May 17, 1957. A. Philip Randolph, Remarks at the Prayer Pilgrimage, Washington, D.C., May 17, 1957. Martin Luther King, Jr., Keynote Speech at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, Washington, D.C., May 17, 1957. Daisy Bates, The New Negro, Detroit, Michigan, May 2, 1958. Medgar Evers, Address at a Mass Meeting of the Los Angeles Branch NAACP, May 31, 1959 -- 4. The Movement Hits Full Stride: The 1960s. James M. Lawson, Jr., Speech at SNCC Founding Conference, Raleigh, North Carolina, April 1960.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Speech at a Rally to Support the Freedom Riders, Montgomery, Alabama, May 21, 1961. Diane Nash, Inside the Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides: Testimony of a Southern Student, Detroit, Michigan, August 1961. Martin Luther King, Jr., Speech at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, May 3, 1963. Medgar Evers, Remarks of Mr. Medgar Evers for Delivery over WLBT and WJTV, Jackson, Mississippi, May 20, 1963. Roy Wilkins, Remarks at Funeral Services for Medgar W. Evers, Jackson, Mississippi, June 15, 1963. John R. Lewis, "... A Serious Revolution," Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr., Eulogy to Victims of Birmingham Church Bombing, Birmingham, Alabama, September 18, 1963. Fannie Lou Hamer, Testimony of Fannie Lou Hamer, Ruleville, Miss., Washington, D.C., June 16, 1964. Aaron Henry, Keynote Address to Mississippi State Convention of NAACP, Jackson, Mississippi, November 6, 1964.

Stokely Carmichael, Speech at Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, January 28, 1967 -- 5. "Betrayers of Their Race": Southern White Liberals. Clark Foreman, Keynote Address to Southern Youth Legislature, Columbia, South Carolina, October 19, 1946. Sarah Patton Boyle, Democracy Depends on You, Ashland, Virginia, September 23, 1956. Lillian Smith, The Moral and Political Significance of the Students' Nonviolent Protests, Washington, D.C., April 21, 1960. Anne Braden, Address to Annual Convention of SCLC, Birmingham, Alabama, September 27, 1962 -- 6. "There Always Has to Be a Faubus": White Resistance and the Rhetoric of Fear. James O. Eastland, The Supreme Court, Segregation, and the South, U.S. Senate, May 27, 1954. Thomas Pickens Brady, Segregation and the South, San Francisco, California, October 4, 1957. Orval E. Faubus, Speech of Governor Orval E. Faubus, Little Rock, Arkansas, September 18, 1958. J. P. Coleman, Setting the Record Straight, Jackson, Mississippi, June 29, 1959.