Gender and Strategies in the Civil Rights Movement: The Rhetorical Choices of MLK, Malcolm X, Assata and Fannie Lou

• In Event: 'A Change Is Gonna Come': Reflecting on the Voices and Strategies of Change Agents from the Civil Rights Movement

Abstract

The rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement had often been treated a unitary phenomenon. This paper challenges the notion of a solitary black voice in the movement and instead examines the ways that strategies, gender and social location alter the choices of the vocal members of the Civil Rights Movement. This paper compares the rhetorical choices of Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Assata Shakur and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Author

• Michael Davis, James Madison Univ