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In 1918, Joseph Seaman Cotter, Jr., a promising  young African-American poet who later died at the  age of twenty-four, published a poem in which he  prayed, "O God, give me words to make my  dream-children live!" In this collection of some  two thousand quotations, Deirdre Mullane has taken  Cotter's prayer to heart and gathered the most  memorable quotes from a wide range of sources--poetry,  folk songs, political speeches, autobiographies,  stories, novels, interviews, and essays--to  illustrate the amazing richness of the African-American  written and oral tradition. From the earliest  tracts against slavery to the poetry of Maya Angelou,  African-Americans have tumed to language to record  their experience and to sustain their souls.  Barred from education for centuries, they used the  spoken word to hand down their daily wisdom, their  faith in God, and dreams of freedom and justice,  until the establishment and survival of their own  press during the 1800s enabled them to document the  horrors of slavery and discrimination, to name the  political and social realities they faced, as well  as to celebrate the everyday joys of their lives.  An ideal companion to African-American history,  this extensive and varied collection of quotes, from  political figures to poets, from jazz greats to  boxers, will be an important resource for writers,  journalists, public speakers, and parents seeking  an educational gift for their children. The  entries are arranged alphabetically by speaker, along  with a brief biography of each source. Also  included is a subject index that allows a reader to  research quotations on specific topics, such as  "freedom" or "dreams." Encyclopedic  and inspirational, Words To Make My Dream  Children Live represents the living  legacy of the word, both spoken and written, for  African-Americans everywhere.