Book of Speeches Edited by Faculty Member Called “Canon of African-American Eloquence”

Richard Leeman, communication studies, co-edited The Will of a People: A Critical Anthology of Great African American Speeches, published in February by Southern Illinois University Press.

The anthology draws upon nearly 200 years of recorded African-American oratory, presenting some of the most important speeches from this tradition. Leeman and his co-editor/author Bernard K. Duffy pair each oration with an introductory essay highlighting critical elements of the speech and providing historical context.

The 22 speeches address key themes and events in American history and race relations and include President Obama’s 2009 inaugural address. Included also are speeches by Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Booker T. Washington, Mary Church Terrell, W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Barbara Jordan, Jesse Jackson, and Marian Wright Edelman.

Reviewer Andrew King, Hopkins Professor of Communication at Louisiana State University, says the anthology is “nothing less than the canon of African-American eloquence. They reveal much about America’s changing conceptions of hierarchy, equality, caste and class and our national obsession with race.”

Leeman is author or editor of five books. Duffy is faculty at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and author or editor of six books.