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Rhetoric, Religion, and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965
Edited by Davis W. Houck and David E. Dixon
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.
1 Mordecai Johnson, Emancipation Day Address
2 Charles P. Bowles, A Cool Head and a Warm Heart
3 A. Powell Davies, The Supreme Court Decision
4 Frank P. Graham, Speech to Council of Christian Relations
5 Mary McLeod Bethune, Full Integration−America's Newest Challenge
6 Benjamin E. Mays, The Church Amidst Ethnic and Racial Tensions
7 J. R. Brokhoff, The Disturbing Christ
8 William Lloyd Imes, The Challenge of Integration . . .
9 Sarah Patton Boyle, Speech to Calvary Christian Church
10 Sarah Patton Boyle, Speech to Covington Ministerial Association
11 William Lloyd Imes, Abraham Then, and Now
12 James Hudson, Toward World Brotherhood
13 Mary McLeod Bethune, Spiritual Rearmament
14 Roy Wilkins, Address at Memorial Meeting for Rev. George W. Lee
15 Albert D'Orlando, Do We Still Need Do-Gooders?
16 T. R. M. Howard, Terror Reigns in Mississippi
17 Mamie Till-Bradley, I Want You to Know What They Did to My Boy
18 Robbins Ralph, I'm Glad I was Born White . . .
19 Sarah Patton Boyle, Feed My Sheep
20 Branch Rickey, One Hundred Percent Wrong Club
21 Paul N. Carnes, Drifting is Dangerous
22 J. R. Brokhoff, A Lesson on Tolerance
23 Horace Mann Bond, A Cigarette for Johnnie Birchfi eld
24 James Hudson, Where to Look for Victory
25 T. R. M. Howard, Mississippi's Challenge in this Grave Hour
26 Roy Wilkins, Speech to National Baptist Convention, Denver
27 D. Perry Ginn, Christians and Desegregation
28 P. D. East, The South, Collectively, is a Patient Most Ill
29 Martin Luther King, Jr., The Role of the Church . . .
30 James A. Pike, Report of the Interracial Leadership Conference
31 Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Address . . .
32 Adam Clayton Powell, Address at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
33 A. Philip Randolph, Address at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
34 Fred L. Shuttlesworth, A Faith for Diffi cult and Critical Times
35 Channing H. Tobias, Address to the 48th Annual NAACP Convention
36 Shad Polier, Walk to Freedom
37 Marion A. Boggs, The Crucial Test of Christian Citizenship
38 A. Powell Davies, The Meaning of Little Rock
39 Marion A. Wright, Integration and Public Morals
40 James R. Bullock, The Ministry of Reconciliation
41 J. R. Brokhoff, Life's Inevitables-Three Things You Cannot Stop
42 Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Meeting of the Fair Share Organization
43 Chester Bowles, A Fresh Look at Race Relations
44 Max D. Davidson, Address at the 50th Anniversary of the NAACP
45 Colbert S. Cartwright, The Ministry of Reconciliation
46 Carlos E. Martin, Of This Gospel I was Made a Minister
47 Edward Hughes Pruden, Christianity and Racial Tensions
48 LeRoy Collins, To the People of Florida on Race Relations
49 James Lawson, Speech at Shaw University
50 Everett Tilson, Segregation and the Ten Commandments
51 Benjamin E. Mays, Challenge to Overcome . . .
52 Frank P. Graham, Students "Standing Up" for the American Dream
53 Edler Garnet Hawkins, Behaving Like Ordinary Men
54 Will D. Campbell, Witnessing . . .
55 LeRoy Collins, Speech to the Anti-Defamation League of B'Nai Brith
56 Haywood N. Hill, This I Believe
57 Colbert S. Cartwright, Some Stern Words of Jesus
58 William O. Byrd, Mistakes I Have Made in Race Relations
59 Robert J. McCracken, The Christian Way in Race Relations
60 Duncan Howlett, The Untold Story of the Sit-Ins
61 Ralph David Abernathy, Trying to Get Home Without Jesus
62 Marion A. Wright, The Minister as Citizen
63 James McBride Dabbs, Who Speaks for the South?
64 Heslip "Happy" Lee, Hidden Persuaders in Human Relations
65 Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Call for Reason . . .
66 Robert H. Walkup, Not Race but Grace
67 Robert H. Walkup, Speech at the University of Mississippi
68 Charles L. Stanford, Jr., Love Disqualifi ed
69 Duncan M. Gray, Jr., Paranoia, Guilt, and Atonement
70 George A. Chauncey, The Worship God Wants
71 James McBride Dabbs, The Moving Finger Writes in Mississippi
72 James McBride Dabbs, To Defi ne Our Love
73 Marion King, Refl ections on the Death of a Child
74 J. Claude Evans, The Christian Faith and Race
75 James A. Pike, Speech at a Church and Race Relations Conference
76 Edler Garnet Hawkins, This Is the Mood and This Is the Time
77 Wyatt Tee Walker, Broadcast on KPFA, Los Angeles May 28, 1963
78 J. V. Cosby Summerell, The Testing of Our Faith
79 James Bevel, Speech at the Flamingo Club
80 Bruce William Klunder, Untitled Sermon
81 Eugene Carson Blake, Law and Order and Christian Duty
82 Francis Gerald Ensley, On Loving One's Neighbor as Oneself
83 Eugene Carson Blake, Late We Come
84 Patrick O'Boyle, Invocation . . .
85 John Lewis, Speech at the March on Washington . . .
86 Charles Morgan, Jr., Who Is Guilty in Birmingham?
87 George H. Woodard, Some Important Differences
88 Dick Gregory, Speech at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church
89 Arthur E. Shelton, Let's Face the World
90 Frank T. Wilson, Golgotha 1964
91 Dave Dennis, Speech at the Freedom Vote Rally
92 Dave Dennis, A Modern Day Moses
93 Aaron Henry, Speech at the Freedom Vote Rally
94 James McBride Dabbs, The Myth, the Movement . . .
95 Duncan Howlett, The Two Way Barrier
96 David G. Colwell, As if in a Foreign Country
97 Robert W. Spike, Division of Home Missions
98 Lawrence Campbell, Danville Christian Progressive Association
99 Ella Josephine Baker, Address at the Hattiesburg Freedom Day Rally
100 Edward W. Harris, A Methodist Pastor and Race Relations
101 L. Wilson Kilgore, Countdown on Human Worth
102 Duncan Howlett, Report from the South
103 James McBride Dabbs, Christian Response to Racial Revolution
104 Mildred Bell Johnson, Deep are the Roots
105 Ralph David Abernathy, Love and Race Relations
106 Fred L. Shuttlesworth, The National Civil Rights Crises . . .
107 Thomas Merton, Some Points . . .
108 Robert W. Spike, Address to the 55th Annual NAACP Convention
109 Albert D'Orlando, The Long, Hot Summer
110 Fred L. Shuttlesworth, Address at Medgar Evers Memorial Service
111 Robert W. Spike, Sermon at Deering Community Church
112 Dave Dennis and Edwin King, Funeral Service for James Chaney
113 Fannie Lou Hamer, Untitled Speech
114 Theodore M. Hesburgh, Moral Dimensions . . .
115 Robert J. McCracken, Civil Rights and Christian Duties
116 Kelly Miller Smith, The Misfi ts
117 Civil Rights Hearings, Religious Panel, February 20, 1965
118 Charles F. Wittenstein, Jews, Justice and Liberalism
119 Duncan Howlett, Report from Alabama and Mississippi
120 Albert D'Orlando, In Memoriam . . . James Reeb
121 Roy Wilkins, Eulogy at Memorial Service for James Reeb
122 Robert A. Reed, To Be a Man
123 Duncan Howlett, The Moral Stature of the Civil Rights Movement
124 Morris B. Abram, Address . . .
125 Jonathan Daniels, Untitled Paper Read Posthumously
126 Daniel Berrigan, Dear Friends in Christ
127 Ralph David Abernathy, A Christian Movement in a Revolutionary Age
128 Kelly Miller Smith, Trek Toward the Dawn
129 Gardner C. Taylor, Some Comments on Race Hate
130 Theodore Parker Ferris, Civil Rights from a Christian Point of View
Scholars Houck and Dixon have compiled a massive compendium--an embarrassment of riches... Indispensable... Essential. All levels/libraries.
"... there is ... much eloquence in these pages."
—Dallas Morning News (February 3, 2007)
"... a commendable effort to highlight the eloquence of overlooked advocates of black civil rights."
—Quarterly Journal of Speech (2007, 93:2)
"[An] important and worthwhile contribution."
—Journal of Law & Religion (2007-2008, 23:2)
"... an excellent resource."
—Communication Research Trends (2007, 26:3)
"... one cannot fail to acknowledge the work that went into compiling this anthology. As a project of recovery, it has few peers."
—Literature and Belief (26:1)
"In this fascinating collection of voices, many of them long lost to history, Davis Houck and David Dixon perform a singular service by bringing together vital documents about the most important American domestic drama of the 20th century: the movement to make the nation live up to the promise of its founding, that all men are created equal, in the image and likeness of God. This book is destined to become indispensable not only for scholars, but for anyone who cares about how history really happens."
—Jon Meacham, managing editor of Newsweek
Davis W. Houck (Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University) is Professor of Communication at Florida State University.
David E. Dixon (Ph.D. University of Notre Dame) is Professor and Chair of Political Science, California State University, Dominguez Hills.
More Information Available
Other books by:
Davis W. Houck
David E. Dixon
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
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