Great Speeches by African Americans: Marcus Garvey and Mary McLeod Bethune
Founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA), Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) delivered "The Principles of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1922. The speech states the objectives of the UNIA, "the movement through which the new and rising Negro would give expression of his feelings." The association "adopts an attitude not of hostility to other races and peoples of the world, but an attitude of self-respect, of manhood rights."
The UNIA represents: "peace, harmony, love, human sympathy, human rights and human justice" and finds a cause anywhere these are denied. Garvey doesn't care whether the association's stance is considered advanced or reactionary, but its goal is "the kind of government that will place our race in control, even as other races are in control of their own governments." He advocates a return to Africa.
We shall march out, yes, as black American citizens, as black British subjects, as black French citizens, as black Italians or as black Spaniards, but we shall march out with a greater loyalty, the loyalty of race. We shall march out in answer to the cry of our fathers, who cry out to us for the redemption of our own country, our motherland, Africa.
We shall march out, not forgetting the blessings of America. We shall march out, not forgetting the blessings of civilization. We shall march out with a history of peace before and behind us, and surely that history shall be our breastplate, for how can man fight better than knowing that the cause for which he fights is righteous? How can man fight more gloriously than by knowing that behind him is a history of slavery, a history of bloody carnage and massacre inflicted upon a race because of its inability to protect itself and fight? Shall we not fight for the glorious opportunity of protecting and forever more establishing ourselves as a mighty race and nation, never more to be disrespected by men[?] Glorious shall be the battle when the time comes to fight for our people and our race.
We should say to the millions who are in Africa to hold the fort, for we are coming 400,000,000 strong.
Founder of the institution later named Bethune-Cookman College and director of the Office of Minority Affairs in the National Youth Administration, Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) delivered What Does American Democracy Mean to Me? during a panel discussion on NBC radio. Note: Site has audio link.
Democracy is for me, and for 12 million black Americans, a goal towards which our nation is marching. It is a dream and an ideal in whose ultimate realization we have a deep and abiding faith . . . As we have been extended a measure of democracy, we have brought to the nation rich gifts. We have helped to build America with our labor, strengthened it with our faith and enriched it with our song . . . But even these are only the first fruits of a rich harvest, which will be reaped when new and wider fields are opened to us.
Bethune cites increased literacy rates and farm and home ownership as proof of progress. She uses Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, Marian Anderson and George Washington Carver as examples of contributors to strengthening America. She points out continuing problems with limited access to education, housing, work, and voting and the scourge of lynching to show that "[t]he democratic doors of equal opportunity have not been opened wide" to her race.
She closes with
Our faith envisions a fundamental change as mutual respect and understanding between our races come in the path of spiritual awakening. Certainly there have been times when we may have delayed this mutual understanding by being slow to assume a fuller share of our national responsibility because of the denial of full equality. And yet, we have always been loyal when the ideals of American democracy have been attacked. We have given our blood in its defense-from Crispus Attucks on Boston Commons to the battlefields of France. We have fought for the democratic principles of equality under the law, equality of opportunity, equality at the ballot box, for the guarantees of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We have fought to preserve one nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Yes, we have fought for America with all her imperfections, not so much for what she is, but for what we know she can be.
Perhaps the greatest battle is before us, the fight for a new America: fearless, free, united, morally re-armed, in which 12 million Negroes, shoulder to shoulder with their fellow Americans, will strive that this nation under God will have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, for the people and by the people shall not perish from the earth. This dream, this idea, this aspiration, this is what American democracy means to me.
The UNIA represents: "peace, harmony, love, human sympathy, human rights and human justice" and finds a cause anywhere these are denied. Garvey doesn't care whether the association's stance is considered advanced or reactionary, but its goal is "the kind of government that will place our race in control, even as other races are in control of their own governments." He advocates a return to Africa.
We shall march out, yes, as black American citizens, as black British subjects, as black French citizens, as black Italians or as black Spaniards, but we shall march out with a greater loyalty, the loyalty of race. We shall march out in answer to the cry of our fathers, who cry out to us for the redemption of our own country, our motherland, Africa.
We shall march out, not forgetting the blessings of America. We shall march out, not forgetting the blessings of civilization. We shall march out with a history of peace before and behind us, and surely that history shall be our breastplate, for how can man fight better than knowing that the cause for which he fights is righteous? How can man fight more gloriously than by knowing that behind him is a history of slavery, a history of bloody carnage and massacre inflicted upon a race because of its inability to protect itself and fight? Shall we not fight for the glorious opportunity of protecting and forever more establishing ourselves as a mighty race and nation, never more to be disrespected by men[?] Glorious shall be the battle when the time comes to fight for our people and our race.
We should say to the millions who are in Africa to hold the fort, for we are coming 400,000,000 strong.
Founder of the institution later named Bethune-Cookman College and director of the Office of Minority Affairs in the National Youth Administration, Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) delivered What Does American Democracy Mean to Me? during a panel discussion on NBC radio. Note: Site has audio link.
Democracy is for me, and for 12 million black Americans, a goal towards which our nation is marching. It is a dream and an ideal in whose ultimate realization we have a deep and abiding faith . . . As we have been extended a measure of democracy, we have brought to the nation rich gifts. We have helped to build America with our labor, strengthened it with our faith and enriched it with our song . . . But even these are only the first fruits of a rich harvest, which will be reaped when new and wider fields are opened to us.
Bethune cites increased literacy rates and farm and home ownership as proof of progress. She uses Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, Marian Anderson and George Washington Carver as examples of contributors to strengthening America. She points out continuing problems with limited access to education, housing, work, and voting and the scourge of lynching to show that "[t]he democratic doors of equal opportunity have not been opened wide" to her race.
She closes with
Our faith envisions a fundamental change as mutual respect and understanding between our races come in the path of spiritual awakening. Certainly there have been times when we may have delayed this mutual understanding by being slow to assume a fuller share of our national responsibility because of the denial of full equality. And yet, we have always been loyal when the ideals of American democracy have been attacked. We have given our blood in its defense-from Crispus Attucks on Boston Commons to the battlefields of France. We have fought for the democratic principles of equality under the law, equality of opportunity, equality at the ballot box, for the guarantees of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We have fought to preserve one nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Yes, we have fought for America with all her imperfections, not so much for what she is, but for what we know she can be.
Perhaps the greatest battle is before us, the fight for a new America: fearless, free, united, morally re-armed, in which 12 million Negroes, shoulder to shoulder with their fellow Americans, will strive that this nation under God will have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, for the people and by the people shall not perish from the earth. This dream, this idea, this aspiration, this is what American democracy means to me.