Introduction: How was the Civil Rights Movement fought in language?
In this project, I want to explore a few key questions about the role of language and literature written during and after the Civil Rights Movement. I want to ask: among all of the arts, what has literature in particular accomplished in the struggle for social justice? By literature, I mean the very material force of the individual words themselves as well as the ideas that they convey.
What can literature do to raise or even to transform our consciousness and propel us toward new ways of seeing the world, so that those who have been oppressed by structural racism and gender discrimination can redefine themselves and live out their hopes for themselves and for their families?
My overarching research questions: How was the civil rights struggle fought at the level of language? How was the struggle for independence and civil rights represented in writing, just as it was in overt political action in the courts and in the streets? How can what we learn about these literary strategies inform our understanding of the ongoing struggle for social justice today? Where are there expressive commonalities between today’s struggle and those of the past, and where are there differences in strategies and in mediums?
What is also crucial to recognize is that writers at the forefront of the struggle wrote not only to claim their space and to demand equality, they also wrote to transform "mainstream" consciousness, especially the consciousness of those in charge in government, in law, in publishing, in education, and the privileged at large.
My presentation today is part of a larger project on the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement in language, a project that extends from the 1950s up to the present: from the novels and essays of James Baldwin to the speeches and writing of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, up to the the work of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) up to Jordan Peele's new film Get Out. Students at SSU as well as Windsor High are contributing original research on novels of the 1970s, the political messages in early rap lyrics, comedy in the early days of the integration of Saturday Night Live, and a history of films on the ongoing Civil Rights struggle. This project networks and cross-references how writers used language to reclaim, refashion, celebrate, and act on behalf of their communities. Thus, you'll find a strong emphasis on the communal "we" and "us" and "ourselves," as well as the plural "you."
What can literature do to raise or even to transform our consciousness and propel us toward new ways of seeing the world, so that those who have been oppressed by structural racism and gender discrimination can redefine themselves and live out their hopes for themselves and for their families?
My overarching research questions: How was the civil rights struggle fought at the level of language? How was the struggle for independence and civil rights represented in writing, just as it was in overt political action in the courts and in the streets? How can what we learn about these literary strategies inform our understanding of the ongoing struggle for social justice today? Where are there expressive commonalities between today’s struggle and those of the past, and where are there differences in strategies and in mediums?
What is also crucial to recognize is that writers at the forefront of the struggle wrote not only to claim their space and to demand equality, they also wrote to transform "mainstream" consciousness, especially the consciousness of those in charge in government, in law, in publishing, in education, and the privileged at large.
My presentation today is part of a larger project on the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement in language, a project that extends from the 1950s up to the present: from the novels and essays of James Baldwin to the speeches and writing of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, up to the the work of Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) up to Jordan Peele's new film Get Out. Students at SSU as well as Windsor High are contributing original research on novels of the 1970s, the political messages in early rap lyrics, comedy in the early days of the integration of Saturday Night Live, and a history of films on the ongoing Civil Rights struggle. This project networks and cross-references how writers used language to reclaim, refashion, celebrate, and act on behalf of their communities. Thus, you'll find a strong emphasis on the communal "we" and "us" and "ourselves," as well as the plural "you."
- Introduction: How was the Civil Rights Movement fought in language?
- Pre-Civil Rights Era Uses of Language: Epistemic Violence and Legal Restrictions
- James Brown, "Too Funky in Here" (1979)
- Builder Levy, I AM a Man (1968)
- Builder Levy, Harlem Peace March 1967
- Builder Levy, Anti-War Protest
- Dykes on Bikes: Headlining SF Pride Parade since 1977
- Malcolm X's Repudiation of a Slave Name
- Malcolm X: Language Play and Caustic Irony
- Audre Lorde: "You cannot dismantle the master's house with the master's tools" (1984)
- Adrienne Rich "Diving into the Wreck" (1973)
- James Baldwin: Deconstructing the Language of Racism
- Conclusion: Language as a Medium for Activism and Liberation
- Creative Commons License
- Resources
- test of radial view
- visualization of content