Strategic Dramaturgy In The American Civil Rights Movement

“Strategic Dramaturgy in the American Civil Rights Movement,” the author, Doug McAdam, discusses “framing” and how important it was in the Civil Rights movement specifically in the south. Throughout the chapter, McAdam, defines “framing” in his perspective and the importance it had on the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and efforts from Martin Luther King Jr. This paper will analyze the role of framing in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as well as framing in the speech “the Civil Rights Movement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax” given by George C. Wallace, a governor from Alabama in 1964. Doug McAdam explains how the concept of framing is important when it comes to the study of social movements. In the manner that McAdam’s explained “framing” it was a means to bring attention to a certain focus and to gain support for the movement, in this case gain support for Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. For the civil rights movement to gain enough momentum to mobilize, they needed to attract positive media coverage. The media is able to influence and raise awareness in ways other

Wallace. Governor of Alabama and a staunch segregationist. He was able to use framing to benefit his own cause much like the SCLC. In his speech, “The Civil Rights MOvement: Fraud, Sham, and Hoax,” he framed the civil rights movement a treat to exercise basic freedoms. He believed that the federal government was imposing tyranny on the people, this was an act of enslavement to the greater masses. He goes on to say that for the country to regain it's balance the country need conservatives in power. He, himself a conservative, makes this point with a hope of furthering his political career into high positions of power. He believes in order for him to win he has to remind the people that the country is turning into chaos if they continue to vote liberal, and he is the person the masses should vote