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Strategic Dramaturgy In The American Civil Rights Movement

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“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 …show more content…

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

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Samford University professor Jonathan Bass has argued against the vitriolic responses to the eight Alabama clergymen. The essence of Bass’ argument is that while the white clergymen can easily be called close-minded hypocrites, further scrutiny reveals that their intentions were fairly aligned with that of Martin Luther King Jr.’s and that of the black community in Birmingham, Alabama. The eight clergymen elaborated in their public statement that, “When rights are consistently denied, a cause should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets” (Eight Alabama Clergymen, par. 7). The misconception that Bass reveals is that the white clergymen were denouncing King’s demonstrations, when they were actually

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During the late 1960’s, Birmingham was the most segregated city in the United States. Riddled with high racial tension throughout the city, it gained its name of “Bombingham.” This was due to the fact that there were 60 unsolved bombings. With the city of Birmingham in ruins Martin Luther king was quoted in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, “I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.” Martin Luther king used the misfortune in birmingham in order bring out reform and revamp the civil rights movement.

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Civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had protested for civil rights throughout the most segregated places within the united states of America (at the time). Typically, Dr. King and other civil rights activists were arrested through breaking some unjust law in a moral and humane manner. Dr. King’s arrest in Birmingham CIty, Alabama, was one such famous event, as within the confines of Jail he responded to the bigoted arguments against civil rights. Dr. King achieved this through employing the rhetorical strategies of logical reasoning, appeal to emotion, & anaphora.

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The civil rights movement was the answer to a call for justice that transformed the world. Though in the seemingly distant past, the social and economic implications of Jim Crow era racism once deep-rooted in the nation were only a few decades ago. “The Letter from Birmingham Jail” stands as one of the most influential and potent historical documents of the civil rights movement. In his response to the “Public Statement” written by the eight white clergymen from Birmingham who criticized the demonstrations led by King. Martin Luther King Jr. not only addresses the concerns raised in the clergy's letter regarding Birmingham but also highlights the larger issues of institutionalized segregation facing the nation at large by appealing to an American

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Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American activist, once said, “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.” In the Jim Crow South in the 1930s, the setting of the film The Great Debaters, directed by Denzel Washington in 2007, King’s words were particularly relevant. James Farmer Jr., the main character of the film, argues King’s point in the final debate about civil disobedience between Harvard and Wiley College. Although the Wiley debaters rely effectively on the strategy of ethos, the keys to their victory are the strategies pathos and logos.

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