The Voice of a People: Speeches from Black America is a collection of speeches from some of the leading African American intellectuals, artists, activists, and organizers of the past three centuries.

While many of their names―such as Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Frederick Douglass―will be familiar to most readers, some―such as Jermain Wesley Loguen, Randall Albert Carter, and Samuel H. Davis―are less well known, but no less important to the history of Black America.

The individuals whose voices make up this collection come from a range of professional and personal backgrounds. Many of them were born into slavery. Some escaped. Some were poets, preachers, ministers, and bishops. Some were educators, activists, academics, abolitionists, and suffragists. All of them, despite their differences, contributed to the vibrant, invaluable history of a people who first built this nation before fighting to reclaim its soul for future generations.