The Journey Ends to Begin, VOICES a Century Apart: Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr.: Home

Frederick Douglass's fiery speeches made him one of the most renowned and popular agitators of his age. Now, as a result of ground-breaking research, we can reclaim the ex-slave and abolitionist as a pioneer in photography, both as a subject and as a theorist. Included here are 160 photographs of Douglass--many which have never been publicly seen--combined with previously unpublished writings and speeches on visual aesthetics. The result transforms our understanding of photography and its place in the life and legacy of Douglass.

Frederick Douglass, once a slave, was one of the great 19th century American orators and the most important African American voice of his era. This book traces the development of his rhetorical skills, discusses the effect of his oratory on his contemporaries, and analyzes the specific oratorical techniques he employed. The first part is a biographical sketch of Douglass's life, dealing with his years of slavery (1818-1837), his prewar years of freedom (1837-1861), the Civil War (1861-1865), and postwar years (1865-1895). Chesebrough emphasizes the centrality of oratory to Douglass's life, even during the years in slavery. The second part looks at his oratorical techniques and concludes with three speeches from different periods. Students and scholars of communications, U.S. history, slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and African American studies will be interested in this book.

One of the greatest African American leaders and one of the most brilliant minds of his time, Frederick Douglass spoke and wrote with unsurpassed eloquence on almost all the major issues confronting the American people during his life--from the abolition of slavery to women's rights, from the Civil War to lynching, from American patriotism to black nationalism. Between 1950 and 1975, Philip S. Foner collected the most important of Douglass's hundreds of speeches, letters, articles, and editorials into an impressive five-volume set, now long out of print. Abridged and condensed into one volume, and supplemented with several important texts that Foner did not include, this compendium presents the most significant, insightful, and elegant short works of Douglass's massive oeuvre.

This companion volume to "A Knock At Midnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr". includes the text of his most well-known oration, "I Have a Dream", his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, and "Beyond Vietnam", a powerful plea to end the ongoing conflict. Includes contributions from Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, the Dalai Lama, and many others.

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ideas--his call for racial equality, his faith in the ultimate triumph of justice, his insistence on the power of nonviolence to bring about a major transformation of American society--are as vital and timely as ever. The wealth of his writings, both published and unpublished, are now preserved in this authoritative, chronologically arranged, multi-volume edition. Volume Two begins with King's doctoral work at Boston University and ends with his first year as pastor of the historic Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. It includes papers from his graduate courses and a fully annotated text of his dissertation. There is correspondence with people King knew in his years prior to graduate school and a transcription of the first known recording of a King sermon. We learn, too, that Boston was where King met his future wife, Coretta Scott. Accepting the call to serve Dexter, the young King followed the church's tradition of socially active pastors by becoming involved in voter registration and other social justice issues. In Montgomery he completed his doctoral work, and he and Coretta Scott began their marriage. The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. represents a testament to a man whose life and teaching have had a profound influence, not only on Americans, but on people of all nations. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Project at Stanford University was established by the Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. in 1984.