The Spirit of Freedom and Justice: Orations and Speeches

Nashville, TN: A. M. E. Sunday School Union, 1926. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. A collection of speeches by a leading bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the editor of the A.M.E. Church Review, and a tireless campaigner for social justice. "Ransom was torn between two concepts of Christianity: Christianity as an instrument of (possibly bloody) revolution, and Christianity as the means by which the Negro would save democracy and the white man's soul."*

This volume of secular speeches, which are influenced by Ransom's Christian beliefs, includes many of his notable orations, including "The Reno Prize Fight," a critique of the white race riots that erupted in response to the black boxer Jack Johnson's defeat of avowed racist James Jeffries in a heavyweight match in 1910. Other speeches include "The Spirit of John Brown", "Martyrdom of John Brown", "Crossing the Color Line", "The Negro As a National Business Asset", and Lynching and American Public Opinion."

175, [1], pages, plus a frontispiece portrait of the author.

* "Racial Christianity" by S. P. Fullinwider, in African American Religious Thought, edited by Cornel West, p. 489. First edition (first printing). Red cloth scuffed at edges, but a very good or better copy overall.