Where the sacred and secular harmonize : Birmingham mass meeting rhetoric and the prophetic legacy of the Civil Rights Movement / David G. Holmes ; foreword by Keith D. Miller.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-183) and index.
Contents:
Framing the fragments : remembering the Civil Rights Movement and recovering mass meeting prophetic rhetoric -- Prophecy, poetry, and hermeneutics : Fred Shuttlesworth's presidential mass meeting rhetoric -- "Do you want to be free?" : James Bevel, black prophetic rhetoric, and grassroots agency -- Between prophecy and pedagogy : Ralph Abernathy's rhetoric of instruction and critique -- Minor prophets and major politics: James Farmer, Roy Wilkins, and the secular prophetic stance -- Between prophecy and the presidency : King, Obama, and the contested legacy of the Civil Rights Movement -- Birmingham on my mind : personal reflections on teaching, scholarship, and vocation.
Summary:
Among pivotal historical moments in the United States, the civil rights movement stands out. In Where the Sacred and Secular Harmonize: Birmingham Mass Meeting Rhetoric and the Prophetic Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, David G. Holmes offers an original rhetorical analysis of six speeches delivered during the 1963 civil rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. Holmes frames his analysis within the biblical concept of prophecy. However, he stresses the idea of prophecy as sociopolitical forth-telling, rather than mystical foretelling. Based on his own transcriptions from rare recordings, Holmes examines how these orations, which clergy and laypeople delivered, address enduring themes such as the role of religion and politics, black leadership and black activism, and the political and popular legacies of the civil rights movement. Drawing upon American history, politics, hermeneutics, homiletics, and rhetoric, Holmes's discussion ranges from civil rights prophets to contemporary politicians, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. Where the Sacred and Secular Harmonize illustrates how the Birmingham mass meeting oratory of 1963 represented a quality of democratic discourse desperately needed today.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.