Rhetoric, Writing, and Public Discourse 353: The Rhetoric of the Black Freedom Struggle

This course examines the rhetoric of the Black freedom struggle in the US, beginning with African Americans’ efforts to survive and resist slavery and culminating in contemporary struggles for social, political, and economic justice. We will explore the birth of 20th century struggles for civil rights in the radical left of the 1930s, and chart the continuation of these struggles through the lunch counter sit-ins, marches and bus boycotts of the mid-1950s, struggles for voting rights and political representation in the 1960s, and community organizing and advocacy for Black power in the late 1960s and early 70s, as well as examining the ways that all of these movements inform present-day struggles for social change. Assignments will include short analytical essays centered on primary texts, and a final rhetorical criticism paper on a topic of the student’s choice. May be taken for credit toward the Indigeneity, Race, and Ethnicity Studies major or minor or the Gender Studies major or minor.