Rhetoric, religion, and the civil rights movement, 1954-1965
By: Davis W. Houck, David E. Dixon, editors.
Contributors: Houck, Davis W.; Dixon, David E.
Series: Studies in rhetoric and religion -- 1
Publisher: Baylor University Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Waco, Tex
Language: eng
Number of pages: 1002
ISBN-13: 9781932792546
Subjects: African Americans -- Civil rights -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.; Civil rights movements -- United States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.; Civil rights -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.; Race relations -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.; Rhetoric -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.; Speeches, addresses, etc., American.; Sermons, American.; United States -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century -- Sources.
Genres: Sources.
Description: V.1: The Civil Rights Movement succeeded in large measure because of rhetorical appeals grounded in the Judeo-Christian religion. While movement leaders often used America's founding documents and ideals to depict Jim Crow's contradictory ways, the language and lessons of both the Old and New Testaments were often brought to bear on many civil rights events and issues—from local desegregation to national policy matters. This volume chronicles how national movement leaders and local activists moved a nation to live up to the biblical ideals it often professed but infrequently practiced. (Publisher).

V.2: Building upon their critically acclaimed first volume, Davis W. Houck and David E. Dixon’s new Rhetoric, Religion, and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954–1965 is a recovery project of enormous proportions. Houck and Dixon have again combed church archives, government documents, university libraries, and private collections in pursuit of the civil rights movement’s long-buried eloquence. Their new work presents fifty new speeches and sermons delivered by both famed leaders and little-known civil rights activists on national stages and in quiet shacks. The speeches carry novel insights into the ways in which individuals and communities utilized religious rhetoric to upset the racial status quo in divided America during the civil rights era. Houck and Dixon’s work illustrates again how a movement so prominent in historical scholarship still has much to teach us. (Publisher).
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.