Readings. Academic Articles. Speeches. Civil Rights
Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement “Partial” Reading List of Academic Articles
A Representative List compiled by Dr Patricia Comeaux
Copies on our Blackboard Site under the following code:
CODE is A = Assigned Readings; R = Resources
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
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(A)The Rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail. By Wesley T. Mott;
Phylon, Vol. 36, No. 4, 4th Qtr., 1975, pp. 411-421.
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(A) Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Quest for Nonviolent Social Change by Adam Fairclough.
Phylon: The Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture. First Quarter (Spring) 1986, Vol 47,
No 1.
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(R)The Rhetoric of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Comedy and Context in Tragic Collision by Edward
C. Appel; Western Journal of Communication, 61(4), Fall 1997, pp 376-402.
Several critics of the rhetoric of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have noted changes in the content and style of
his address toward the end of his career. None, though, have made a systematic generic assessment of those
changes, nor have they linked such generic transformations to King’s altered situation, the new type of
movement he was then leading, the diminished state of his leadership as his efforts turned northward, nor the
salutary and lasting effect King’s rhetoric has had on America. This study examined the changes in King’s public
communication during the last year of his life by contrasting it, as drama, with public communication from his
earlier reformist period. The study concluded that King moved from a mostly comic style, in 1955-1966, to a
mostly tragic style, in 1967-1968, in selected major speeches. The analytical tools used were drawn from
Kenneth Burke’s pentad, his terms for order, and his theory of dramatic genres, as supplemented by the work of
some of his interpreters.
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(R) The “Integrative” Rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech by Mark Vail;
Rhetoric and Public Affairs, Vol 9, No 1, 2006, pp 51-78.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech exhibits an “integrative” rhetorical style that mirrors and
maintains King’s call for a racially integrated America. Employing the theoretical concepts of voice merging,
dynamic spectacle, and the prophetic voice, this essay examines how text and context converge to form a
rhetorical moment consonant with the goals of the speech, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and
the nonviolent direct-action civil rights movement.
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(A) Martin Luther King, The American Dream and Vietnam: A Collision of Rhetorical Trajectories
by George N. Dionisopoulos, Victoria J. Gallagher, Steven R. Goldswig and David Zarefsky.
Western Journal of Communication, 56 (Spring 1992). 91-107.
This essay explores the rhetorical complexity of Martin Luther King’s dual role as political and moral leader,
particularly during his last years when we was attacked for his opposition to the Vietnam War. By 1) discussing
and developing the theoretical value and critical possibilities associated with the term “rhetorical trajectories,” 2)
tracing the trajectories present in King’s rhetoric in order to set the context for a speech he gave in 1967 at
Riverside Church, and 3) analyzing the text of that speech, the essay offers insight into King’s rhetorical impact,
and, as a result, into the possibilities and limitations for combining pragmatic and moralistic discourse in
American society.
Speeches by MLK:
(A) Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963)
(R) I have a Dream (1963)
(A) Beyond Vietnam (1967)
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Malcolm X
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(A) Engaging Parrhesia in a Democracy: Malcolm X as a Truth-teller by David R. Novak; Southern
Communication Journal, Vol.71, No. 1, March 2006, pp. 25-43.
To engage in parrhesia is to function as a truth-teller. While Foucault (2001) outlined different types of
parrhesia identified by the Greeks, the five elements of parrhesia remain constant yet context-specific: frankness,
danger, criticism, duty and truth. Foucault (2001) argued that “real parrhesia, in its positive critical sense does
not exist where democracy exists” (0. 83). I claim that parrhesia can exist in democratic institutions and, in fact,
is a process that members of the public should demand from public actors. To illustrate this claim, I analyze
three Malcolm X speeches, “Black Man’s History,” “The Ballot or the Bullet,” and “After the Bombing” and argue
that while he did not start out as a parrhesiastes, he ended his life as one who spoke the truth in a democratic
society.
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(R) Malcolm X and the Mass Media: Creation of a Rhetorical Exigence by Kimberly Powell and
Sonja Amundson; North Dakota Jounral of Speech and Theatre, Vol. 15, Sept. 2002, pp. 31-46.
It has been argued that perhaps the most powerful creator of rhetorical exigence is the media. While most
studies on rhetorical situations focus on the response to an exigence, this essay examines the exigence that
called for the responses of Spike Lee’s 1992 film X and Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X. In
researching printed press coverage of Malcolm X from 1963 through 1965, this study argues that the media
played a large and important role in consistently creating a negative public image of Malcolm X that is still
connected with him. The mass media in essence created an exigence, a rhetorical defect, that demanded a
response. This analysis uses Kenneth Burke’s cluster analysis.
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(R) Rhetoric and Autobiography: The Case of Malcolm X by Thomas W. Benson; The Quarterly
Journal of Speech, Vol 60, No 1, February 1974, pp 1-13.
Focuses on the concept behind the rhetoric way of life taking autobiography of leader Malcolm X. Definition
of rhetoric actions in life; Outline of Malcolm’s life; Establishment of his credibility and the explanation of his
program by audiences; Presence of opportunisms in his debate; Difficulties faced by Malcolm in his life;
Conversion of religion by Malcolm in prison.
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(R) The Intellectual Creativity and Public Discourse of Malcolm X; A Precursor to the Modern
Black Studies Movement by Andrew P. Smallwood; Journal of Black Studies, Vol 36, No 2,
November 2005, pp 248-263.
This article seeks to explore the education and public dialogue of Malcolm X, a major African American
leadership figure of the 1950s and 1960s. It is the author’s intent to explore an aspect of Malcolm X’s leadership
not addressed in much of the current literature, his educational attainment leading to his role as the intellectual
and pedagogical antecedent to the modern Black studies movement of the 1960s. This article examines his
educational and intellectual development, his role as a public activist and debater, and his contribution to
curricular reform in his public rhetoric. In a review of the current literature on Malcolm X and adult education,
there is evident congruence of the two areas, offering new insight into the contributions and legacy of a
significant historical figure for African Americans. Malcolm X associate A. Peter Bailey has referred to him as a
“master teacher” whose contributions go beyond the conventional Black leadership.
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(R) Who Owns Identity? Malcolm X, Representation, and the Struggle Over Meaning by Bill
Yousman; Communication Quarterly, Vol 49, No 1, Winter 2001, Pages 1-18.
This paper examines the powerful signifying force that Malcolm X continues to possess a generation after
his death by assassination. The case of Malcolm X is used to explore how ideological battles are fought in the
arenas of representation and claims of truth about identity. This struggle over meaning is examined through a
rhetorical analysis of the dialogical relationship between Malcolm X’s autobiography and Perry’s (1991)
controversial biography.
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(R) Colonizing the Borderlands: Shifting Circumference in the Rhetoric of Malcolm X by Robert E.
Terrill; Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol 86, No 1, February 2000, pp 67-85.
In the last year of his life, Malcolm X was faced with the task of crafting a viable public voice while remaining
unfettered by existing ideologies. In a speech he delivered less than a week before he died, Malcolm addresses
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this task by repeatedly shifting the scene within which he asks his audience to define themselves. He explores
the possibilities and the limitations of both the domestic and international scenes, and finally invites his audience
to position themselves at the border between the two. There, he and his African-American audience might take
advantage of the redefinitional potential of international identification without abdicating their rightful domestic
position.
Speeches by Malcolm X:
(R) Black Man’s History (1962)
(R) Message to the Grass Roots (1963)
(R) Ballot or the Bullet (1964)
(R) After the Bombing (1965)
(R) Not Just an American Problem but a World Problem (final speech; 1965)
Stokely Carmichael
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(R) Black Power in Berkeley: Postmodern Constructions in the Rhetoric of Stokely Carmichael by
Victoria J. Gallagher. Quarterly Journal of Speech. Vol 87, No 2, May 2001, pp 44-157.
In the speech at Berkeley, Carmichael revealed a potential in discourse that enabled him to develop, from
out of the confines of a tactical rhetoric, a strategic rhetoric of blackness. Close analysis of Carmichael’s speech,
grounded in Burke’s paradox of purity, illuminates the internal logic of Black Power, as well as Carmichael’s use
of reflexivity, reversal, deconstruction and re-construction of dialectical terms and relationships. Contemporary
discursive practices addressing issues of civil rights and race are then examined in light of the principles and
purposes developed by Carmichael. The results challenge rhetorical scholars and critics to disrupt reliance on
dialectical constructions within discourses of race.
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(A) The Evolution of a Revolution: Stokely Carmichael and the Rhetoric of Black Power by
Charles J. Stewart. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 83 (1997): 429-446.
The unrealistic dreams of perfect social orders that permeate social movement rhetoric heighten
expectations and demands that remain only dreams after years of struggle and suffering. Frustration builds
within new generations of activists who become increasingly disaffected with social movement establishments
which preach un-institutionalized versions of patience and gradualism. The evolution of a revolution may await
leaders who can take advantage of opportunities, recreate and redefine social reality, offer new dreams, and
energize a new generation of true believers. Stokely Carmichael ‘s rhetoric of black power can best be
understood as a striving for evolutionary changes within the civil rights movement that would replace integration
with black power and a passive, common ground rhetoric with a militant, confrontational rhetoric better suited to
his generation, growing disaffection with the movement, and the search of black Americans for their African
roots. The result would be a more perfect social order for black Americans.
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(R) Stokely’s Cool Style by Pat Jefferson, Indiana University. Today’s Speech. Vol 16, No 3, pp
19-24.
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(R)Stokely Carmichael: Jazz Artist by Larry Richardson. Western Speech Summer 1970, pp. 212218.
Speeches by Stokley Carmichael:
(R) Power and Racism (1964)
(R) Black Power (1966)
(R) Speech at Morgan State College (1966)
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Black Power
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(A) The Rhetoric of Black Power: A Moral Demand? By Parke G. Burgess. Quarterly Journal of
Speech Vol 54, Issue 2, pp 122-133. April 1968.
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(R) SNCC, Black Power, and Independent Political Party Organizing in Alabama, 1964-1966 by
Hasan Kwame Jeffries. The Journal of African American History Vol 91, No-2 (Spring 2006), pp.
171-193.
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(A) The Ballot and the Bullet: A Comparative Analysis of Armed Resistance in the Civil
Rights Movement by Akinyele O. Umoja. Journal of Black Studies Vol. 29, No 4. March,
1999; p. 558- 578.
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(R) The NAACP, Black Power and the African American Freedom Struggle, 1966-1969 by Simon
Hall. Historian 2007 69(1): pp 49-82.
Compares and contrasts the views of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) on the issue of Black Power during the
1966-69. The fiery rhetoric of SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael in proclaiming Black Power aroused the
animosity of NAACP director Roy Wilkins who roundly condemned the slogan as counterproductive and
inflammatory. However, many NAACP branches at the grassroots level found Black Power goals similar to the
goals held by the NAACP. Historians who have seen the NAACP as conservative and monolithic should
reexamine the complexities of the organization. Ideologically, the NAACP and SNCC were more similar than
different in urging self-empowerment and equality.
(R) “Black Power”: Public Relations and Social Change in the 1960s by Vanessa D. Murphree.
American Journalism 21(3), pp 13-32, Summer 2004.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC and pronounced “snick”) formed in 1960 to
encourage one of the most important movements in American history—civil rights. This study examines SNCC’s
administrative history during the mid and late 1960s and how the group’s communications messages and public
relations efforts propelled the Black Power movement and simultaneously made a lasting impression on the
social ideologies of the late 1960s that continues today. The research reveals how through the unification of
many blacks, SNCC workers also intimidated many whites and political leaders, leading to the demise of the
organization. Despite the fact that the controversial Black Power movement signaled the downfall of the
organization, it represented a determining and essential component of American public relations historiography.
During this time, the organization combined community organizing with the use of traditional communications
and public relations tactics and strategies to change the racial character of the country, promote cultural unity
and empower black Americans.
(R The Selling of Civil Rights: The Communication Section of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee by Vanessa D. Murphree. Journalism History 29 (1) Spring 2003, pp. 21-31.
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee formed in 1960 to encourage one of the most important
movements in American history—civil rights. With a tremendous human rights mission facing them, the founding
SNCC members included communicatio9n and publicity as part of their initial purpose. These coordinating
activities expanded into a revitalization of the student movement while the initial communication efforts served as
a foundational agent for propelling civil rights. This article examines SNSS’s public relations activities throughout
the organization’s existance and how the organization combined community organizing with the use of traditional
communications and public relations tactics and strategies’ to change the racial character for the country and to
empower black Americans.
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Student Sit-Ins and Activism (SNCC)
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(R) Daskhikis and Democracy: Black Studies, Student Activism, and the Black Power Movement
by Peniel E. Joseph. The Journal of African American History Vol 88, No-2 (Spring 2003), pp182-203.
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(R) Utopian aspirations in the Black Freedom Movement: SNCC and the struggle for Civil Rights,
1960-1965 by F. Shor. Society for Utopian Studies. 15.2, 173-189. 2005.
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(R) Reconstructing Education from the Bottom Up: SNCC 1964 Mississippi Summer Project and
the African American Culture by Joe Street. Journal of American Studies, 38 (2004) ,pp. 273-296.
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(R) The Selling of Civil Rights: The Communication Section of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee by Vanessa Mruphree. Journalism History, 29:1 (Spring 2003), pp. 2131.
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(R) The Launching of the Student Sit-in Movement: The Role of Black Women at Bennett College
by Deidre B. Flowers. The Journal of African American History Vol 90, Nos 1-2 (Winter-Spring
2005), pp. 52-63.
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(A) Gym Crow Must Go: Black Student Activism at Columbia University, 1967-1968 by Stefan
Bradley. The Journal of African American History Vol 88, No-2 (Spring 2003), pp. 163-181.
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(R ) Crossing the White Line: SNCC in Three Delta Towns, 1963-1967by Randy Finley. The
Arkansas Historical Quarterly, VOL. LXV, NO 2. Summer 2006, p. 117-137.
MISC
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(A) Means and Ends in the 1960’s by Jerold S. Auerbach. Society, September/October, 2005, pp.
9-13. This essay discusses the formation of the civil rights movement in the U.S. during the 1960’s Civil
rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. understood that disobedience, if it was to be translated into freedom and
equality, must remain non-violent. Non-violent action, King conceded, seeks to create such a crisis and
foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the
issue. In the South, Stokely Carmichael, president of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee,
terminated the organization’s bi-racial commitment, declaring the whites’ role in the movement has ended.
Dismissing white participants as colonizers and insisting that freedom of the African Americans depended on
black power, Carmichael founded the Black Panther Party.
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(A) The “Not-Buying Power” of the Black Community: Urban Boycotts and Equal Employment
Opportunity, 1960-1964 by Stacy Kinlock Sewell. The Journal of African American History Vol 89,
No 2 (Spring 2004), pp. 135-151.
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(A) Working in “Quite Places”: the Community Organizing rhetoric of Robert Parris Moses. By
Richard J. Jensen, John C. Hammerback. The Howard Journal of Communications, Vo. 11, 2000,
pp. 1-18.
This paper argues that communication scholars should broaden their areas of study by focusing on
the community organizing tradition as well as the community mobilizing tradition. In the past scholars have
focused on studies of individuals such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who epitomize the community
mobilizing tradition. This study focuses on Robert Parris Moses and two movements which he ahs led.
Moses’s leadership epitomizes the community organizing tradition. His movements and discourse are
offered as alternative to the community mobilizing tradition
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(R) 1964: The Beginning of the End of the Nonviolence in the Mississippi Freedom Movement by Akinyele
O. Umoja. Radical History Review, Issue 85 (Winter, 2003), pp. 201-226.
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(R) Brown V. Board of Education—Fifty Years of Educational Change in the United States by V.
P. Franklin. The Journal of African American History Vol 90, Nos 1-2 (Winter-Spring 2005), pp. 18.
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(R) The Freedom Vote of 1963: New Strategies of Racial Protest in Mississippi by Joseph A.
Sinsheimer. The Journal of Southern History, Vol 55, No 2, May 1989.
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(R) Planting Seeds of Change: Ella Baker’s Radical Rhetoric by Marilyn Bordwell De Laure.
Women’s Studies in Communication, Vol 31, No 1, Spring 2008.
Ella Baker was a central but largely unknown figure of the American Civil Rights movement. In her
grassroots organizing work, she eschewed the “charismatic orator” model of social movement leadership,
seeking instead to empower ordinary people. This paper argues that Baker’s community organizing rhetoric
offers a valuable contribution to feminism and rhetorical theory, revealing both the promise and limitations of
invitational rhetoric, and pointing the way to a more politically viable practice of invitational principles.
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(R) From Muslim to Mormon: Eldridge Cleaver’s Rhetorical Crusade by Richard J. Jensen and
John C. Hammerback. Communication Quarterly Vol 34, No 1, Winter 1986, pp 24-40.
During his life Eldridge Cleaver has been a member of several very different organizations. His
dramatic changes have caused confusion and even hostility among those who have followed his career.
This paper argues that Cleaver is a religious individual who has remained faithful to his primary concern of
improving the lives of Blacks in the United States. The paper details how Cleaver’s discourse has been
religious in nature and argues that his persuasive tactics have been consistent throughout his life.
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(R) John Lewis’s “Serious Revolution”: Rhetoric , Resistance, and Revision at the March on
Washington by Garth E. Pauley. Quarterly Journal of Speech; 84 (1998): 320-340.
In American memory, the March on Washington is the high-water mark of the civil rights movement.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” oration is so central to the memory of the March that it has
obscured the speeches by other civil rights activists—including John Lewis. Lewis’s prepared speech was
militant, and March organizers pressured him to revise it. Inquiry into Lewis’s speech and the surrounding
controversy permits the recovery of what Lewis actually said—which has not been published—and reveals a
synecdoche struggle over the rhetoric of the civil rights movement and what was sayable in public on August
28, 1963.
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