Desegregation and the Rhetorical Fight for African American Citizenship Rights

The Rhetorical/Legal Dynamics of “With All Deliberate Speed”

Sally F. Paulson

Focusing on the NAACP’s twentieth-century attempt to overturn the “separate but equal” doctrine through school desegregation cases, Desegregation and the Rhetorical Fight for African American Citizenship Rights analyzes the rhetorical/legal dynamics inherent in the struggle to determine African American citizenship rights. This book begins by identifying the fundamental dialectical tension existing within all American citizenship rights between the Declaration of Independence’s guarantee of “ideal equality” to all citizens as opposed to the Constitution’s privileging of local, “practical” decision-making through Article IV Sect. 2, the “privileges and immunities” clause. It contends that as a consequence of that dynamic, American citizenship rights are rhetorical concepts produced through argument grounded in “all the available means of persuasion,” including logical, emotional, and ethical appeals. Ultimately, this book demonstrates that the school desegregation issue came down to a question of credibility/ethics. Recommended for scholars interested in communication, law, history, political science, and cultural studies.

Lexington Books

Pages: 216 • Trim: 6 x 8¾

978-1-4985-6526-4 • Hardback • June 2018 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-4985-6528-8 • Paperback • August 2020 • $41.99 • (£32.00)

978-1-4985-6527-1 • eBook • June 2018 • $39.50 • (£30.00)

Series: Rhetoric, Race, and Religion

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Social Science / Black Studies (Global)

Desegregation and the Rhetorical Fight for African American Citizenship Rights

The Rhetorical/Legal Dynamics of “With All Deliberate Speed”

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Focusing on the NAACP’s twentieth-century attempt to overturn the “separate but equal” doctrine through school desegregation cases, Desegregation and the Rhetorical Fight for African American Citizenship Rights analyzes the rhetorical/legal dynamics inherent in the struggle to determine African American citizenship rights. This book begins by identifying the fundamental dialectical tension existing within all American citizenship rights between the Declaration of Independence’s guarantee of “ideal equality” to all citizens as opposed to the Constitution’s privileging of local, “practical” decision-making through Article IV Sect. 2, the “privileges and immunities” clause. It contends that as a consequence of that dynamic, American citizenship rights are rhetorical concepts produced through argument grounded in “all the available means of persuasion,” including logical, emotional, and ethical appeals. Ultimately, this book demonstrates that the school desegregation issue came down to a question of credibility/ethics. Recommended for scholars interested in communication, law, history, political science, and cultural studies.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 216 • Trim: 6 x 8¾

978-1-4985-6526-4 • Hardback • June 2018 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-4985-6528-8 • Paperback • August 2020 • $41.99 • (£32.00)

978-1-4985-6527-1 • eBook • June 2018 • $39.50 • (£30.00)

Series: Rhetoric, Race, and Religion

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Social Science / Black Studies (Global)

Author

Sally F. Paulson is independent scholar and practicing attorney in Memphis, Tennessee.

Table of Contents

Chapter I. The Situation
Chapter II. The Road to “Separate but Equal”
Chapter III. The Graduate School “Equality” Cases of the 1930’s
Chapter IV. McLaurin v. Oklahoma: “Separate Cannot Be Equal”
Chapter V. Public School Desegregation
Chapter VI. Brown II: “With All Deliberate Speed”
Chapter VII. “White Flight”

Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

Desegregation and the Rhetorical Fight for African American Citizenship Rights offers a fresh take on longstanding questions about the legal and rhetorical nature of citizenship rights. Sally F. Paulson’s thoughtful, accessible study is a welcome addition to the growing rhetorical scholarship on school desegregation in the United States.
— Melody Lehn