Desegregation and the Rhetorical Fight for African American Citizenship Rights: The Rhetorical/Legal Dynamics of With All Deliberate Speed

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Focusing on the NAACPs 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 Independences guarantee of ideal equality to all citizens as opposed to the Constitutions 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.

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. Paulsons thoughtful, accessible study is a welcome addition to the growing rhetorical scholarship on school desegregation in the United States. -- Melody Lehn

Author Bio

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