May 19, 2025

Two Audio Documentaries on Great African American Speeches

American Public Media’s documentary unit American RadioWorks (now called APM Reports) has produced over 100 high quality audio documentaries on various topics which you can check out on our American Public Media Publisher Page or on their APM Reports Documentaries Podcast. We’ve previously blogged about some of these documentaries:

Free Audio Documentaries from American Public Media

Two of their best audio documentaries cover great African American speeches that are mostly from the 20th century, with excerpts and analysis of these speeches. Listen to these one-hour audio documentaries from American Public Media:

Say It Plain: A Century of Great African-American Speeches

This hour-long audio documentary from American RadioWorks is an excellent introduction to great African American speakers of the last century. In chronological order it covers speeches all the way back to Booker T. Washington’s address at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition up to Barack Obama’s recent speech at the Democratic National Convention. The hour-long documentary features excerpts of the speeches with interviews and commentary on their significance, and if you liked a particular speech American RadioWorks offers each speech individually as streaming audio so you can listen to it in its entirety.

Say It Loud: Great Speeches on Civil Rights & African American Identity

American Public Media presents this follow-up audio documentary to their production Say It Plain: A Century of Great African-American Speeches. In this audio documentary, they present speeches from prominent African-American figures from the 1960s up to the 2000s. They start with Malcolm X’s The Ballot or the Bullet speech, which was critical of the nonviolent protests of the civil rights movement and in support of Black Nationalism. Other speeches in the documentary come from a variety of voices, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., Black Panther founder Bobby Seale, affirmative action critic Ward Connerly, comedian Bill Cosby, and President Barack Obama. In this documentary, you’ll get a wide range of views on the political goals of African-Americans at a time where significant civil rights achievements had been made, but rates of poverty and incarceration among African-Americans are also disproportionately high. Historians and intellectuals chime in with commentary on the speeches presented throughout the documentary. For transcripts of speeches and some audio excerpts of the speeches, check out the American RadioWorks website.

Enjoy these and more excellent audio documentaries from American Public Media!