Personal Identity and Religious Symbolism in 'Crisis-Race' Speeches: An Analog between Booker T. Washington and Barack Obama

• In Event: Chameleons Are at a Premium: Examining the Sociopolitical Implications of Racial Transcendence

Abstract

My paper performs an analog between what I am labeling as "crisis-race" speeches by two African American leaders, Booker T. Washington and Barack Obama, showing that although their speeches were delivered in different centuries in American history, the race question remains as a rhetorical exigence, one necessitating that leaders and spokespersons navigate the racial waters very cautiously and shade their own personal racial identity with nuanced meanings. There are stabilities and change in "crises-race" discourse.

Author

• Dorthy Pennington, University of Kansas