Rhetoric & Public Affairs Sep 2021

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Second Emancipation Proclamation: Reimagining Prudence through Commemoration

Anne C. Kretsinger-Harries

Abstract

AbstractThis essay examines Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign for President John F. Kennedy to issue a second emancipation proclamation, which involved a series of public speeches delivered across the nation from 1961 through 1963 as well as a 60-page Appeal memorandum composed for Kennedy by Southern Christian Leadership Conference lawyers. King challenged Kennedy’s conservative, accommodating understanding of prudence by harnessing the inventional resources of Civil War centennial commemoration, folding together the past and present to offer a vision of audacious presidential leadership. Examination of this historical moment provides insight into how commemoration creates kairotic opportunities for advocates of social change to renegotiate prudence and call forth new, bolder forms of political action.

Journal
Rhetoric & Public Affairs
Published
2021-09-01
DOI
10.14321/rhetpublaffa.24.3.0447
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References (128) · 4 in this index

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Show all 128 →
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  92. 85. Recall earlier discussion in this essay regarding Kennedy’s intervention to stop violence directed at the…
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  97. 90. Abraham Lincoln, “The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the Propriety of Its Restoration: Speech at P…
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  99. 92. Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (New York: Simon and …
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  110. 103. Accounts vary wildly, ranging from 800 to 1,000 invitees and from 400 to 1,000 attendees. See Simeon Boo…
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  123. 113. As quoted in Aimee Ortiz, “Emmett Till Memorial Has a New Sign. This Time, It’s Bulletproof,” New York T…
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