Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom
The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights
By Gary S. Selby
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Subjects: All History, All Religious Studies, All Rhetoric Studies, American History, Church History, Preaching, Rhetoric & Religion |
In this beautifully written book, Gary Selby shows how Martin Luther King, Jr. used the biblical story of Exodus to motivate African Americans in their struggle for freedom from racial oppression. Through an examination of King's major speeches, Selby illuminates the ways in which King drew from the Exodus narrative to offer his listeners a structure that explained their present circumstances, urged united action, and provided the conviction that they would succeed. Selby explains how King constructed a symbolic framework for interpreting the setbacks of the Civil Rights movement, even as he challenged them to remain faithful to the cause.
Preface
Introduction
1 Rhetoric and Social Movements
2 Let My People Go: The Exodus in African American Cultural History
3 The Red Sea Has Opened: King’s “Death of Evil on the Seashore” Sermon
4 Broken Aloose from Egypt: The Exodus in King’s Montgomery Bus Boycott Rhetoric
5 Reaching Out for Canaan: King’s “Birth of a New Nation” Sermon
6 I’ve Been to the Mountaintop: King as the Movement’s Moses
7 Keep the Movement Moving: The Birmingham Protest
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Selby provides an extended rhetorical analysis of how the Exodus narrative informed the Civil Rights Movement, particularly as the narrative was voiced in the rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr... Recommended.
—CHOICE
This book surprises the reader with discoveries that make its theme come alive with a renewed appreciation for how rhetorical subjects are embedded inextricably in the human experience. The writing is simple, clear, engaging, and often even exciting. Gary Selby helps us to grasp the power of rhetoric as a lived, experienced phenomenon. His work draws out King's use of Exodus in a manner that provides unsuspected depth of meaning and understanding.
—Michael Osborn, University of Memphis, Professor Emeritus, Department of Communication
Gary S. Selby is the Blanche E. Seaver Professor of Communication at Seaver College, Pepperdine University.
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Other books by:
Gary S. Selby
Books in Series:
Studies in Rhetoric & Religion
After the Genome - A Language for Our Biotechnological Future
Augustine for the Philosophers - The Rhetor of Hippo, the Confessions, and the Continentals
The Faithful Citizen - Popular Christian Media and Gendered Civic Identities
Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom - The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights
Preaching Politics - The Religious Rhetoric of George Whitefield and the Founding of a New Nation
Preaching the Inward Light - Early Quaker Rhetoric
The Rhetoric of Sir Garfield Todd - Christian Imagination and the Dream of an African Democracy
The Rhetoric of St. Augustine of Hippo - De Doctrina Christiana and the Search for a Distinctly Christian Rhetoric
Rhetoric, Religion, and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965 - Volume 1
Rhetoric, Religion, and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965 - Volume 2
Rhetorical Darwinism - Religion, Evolution, and the Scientific Identity
Romancing the Difference - Kenneth Burke, Bob Jones University, and the Rhetoric of Religious Fundamentalism
Spiritual Literacy in John Wesley's Methodism - Reading, Writing, and Speaking to Believe
Stumping God - Reagan, Carter, and the Invention of a Political Faith
The Politics of Sacred Rhetoric - Absolutist Appeals and Political Persuasion
Words Well Spoken - George Kennedy's Rhetoric of the New Testament
