Using rhetorical and historical approaches, this paper examines speech excerpts of four speakers active during the civil rights movement in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The paper's first section discusses Malcolm X and a speech delivered two months before his assassination; the second section studies James Allen speaking on…

Examines Western films in context of post-World War II attitudes regarding racial equality. Film "Broken Arrow" and Eliott Arnold's novel "Blood Brother," both recounting story of Apache chief Cochise, examined as benchmark works in national racial attitudes. Films generally seen as supporting Indian assimilation into White…

This monograph examines the way in which ideas emerged and grew in the rhetorical process of creating an American people, and the ways in which the ideas were transformed into fundamental symbols that have exerted their influence throughout United States history. The first chapter analyzes certain discourses of the American Revolution to show the…

In their new roles as congressmen after the Civil War, blacks, for the first time in American history, advanced views of civil rights that reflected black perspectives. One scheme for analyzing black rhetoric suggests that black congressmen did not share the perspective held by many whites--that blacks were inept individuals. Rather, the black…