Make It Plain: Standing Up and Speaking Out

by Lee A. Daniels (Contributor)

Black Americans have always relied on the oral tradition—storytelling, preaching, and speechmaking—to assert their rights and preserve and pass on their history and culture. In the pulpit, courtroom, or cotton field, they have understood the power of words, distinctively delivered, to educate and inspire. Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., one of the nation’s finest speakers, imbibed this tradition as a young man and has given it his own unique inflection from his work on the civil rights front lines, to the National Urban League, to positions of influence at the highest level of business and politics. A friend and confidant to presidents, Jordan has never forgotten the men and women—from Ruby Hurley to Wiley Branton to Gardner C. Taylor to Martin Luther King, Jr.—whose oratorical skill in service to social justice deeply influenced him. Their examples and voices, reflected in Vernon’s own, make this book both a history and an embodiment of black speech at its Full of emotion, controlled force, righteous indignation, love of country, and awe in front of the God-given challenges ahead.

Genres: History, Biography

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 8, 2008

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I sat with Vernon E. Jordan in our fraternity living room in the early sixties: so persuasive and magnificent to me. These are important speeches from 1971-2008 of the history from a prominent civil rights actor.

Besides loving his rhetoric, I learned that Afro-Americans in South Carolin fro the mid-1520s (a century before the Pilgrims founded the Plymouth Colony in 1620); Ronald Reagan visited Jordan in the hospital where he was recovering from an attempt on his life; and, Barack Obama's road from a state senator in Illinois was paved by court decisions striking down white primaries in several states.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book to fulfil the goal read a book on public speaking. it's mostly copies of this guys speeches mixed with a little background commentary. for a political book it's not that bad. at first, i was a little put off by his strong references to color, but he does have some good points, and isn't a bad speaker. it's not a book i'm likely to read over and over again. didn't mind reading it once however.