The Rhetorical Martin Luther King

Texts on the Rhetorical Goddess

Many of King's speeches and writings are copyrighted. For more see Documents below.

King, Martin Luther. Letter from a Birmingham City Jail. 16 April 1963.

King, Martin Luther. "I Have a Dream." 28 August 1963.

King, Martin Luther. "Beyond Vietnam." 4 April 1967.

External Links

Biographies

Branch, Taylor. At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years 1965-1968. New York: Simon & Schuster 2006.

Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63. New York: Simon & Schuster 1989.

Branch, Taylor. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65. New York: Simon & Schuster 1999.

Martin_Luther_King_Jr. (Wikipedia).

Martin Luther King, Jr. Biographical. The Nobel Prize. [https://www.nobelprize.org/]

David L. Lewis and Clayborne Carson. "Martin Luther King, Jr.: American Religious Leader and Civil-Rights Activist." Last updated 31 March 2020. Encyclopedia Britannica.

Documents

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project. Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute of Stanford University.

Online King Records Access. Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute of Stanford University.

Memorials

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

Sources

Appel, Edward C. "The Rhetoric of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Comedy and Context in Tragic Collision." Western Journal of Communication 61 (1997): 376-.

Bosmajian, Haig. “The Inaccuracies in the Reprintings of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech.” Communication Education 31, no. 2 (April 1982): 107. doi:10.1080/03634528209384667.

Bostdorff, Denise M., and Steven R. Goldzwig. “History, Collective Memory, and the Appropriation of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Reagan’s Rhetorical Legacy.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 35, no. 4 (December 2005): 661–90. doi:10.1111/j.1741-5705.2005.00271.x.

Calloway-Thomas, Carolyn, and John Louis Lucaites, eds. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Sermonic Power of Public Discourse. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1993.

Carson, Clayborne "Martin Luther King, Jr.: Charismatic Leadership in a Mass Struggle." Journal of American History 74 (1987): 436-481.

Clark, E. Culpepper. "The American Dilemma in King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.'" Calloway-Thomas and Lucaites 33-39.

Colaiaco, James A. "The American Dream Unfulilled: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.'" Phylon 45 (1984): 1-18.

Colaiaco, James A. "Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Paradox of Nonviolent Direct Action." Phylon 47 (1986): 16-28.

Cook, Anthoney E. "Beyond Critical Legal Studies: The Reconstructive Theology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." Harvard Law Review 103 (1990): 985-1040.

Cox, J. Robert. "The Fulfillment of Time: King's "I Have a Dream" Speech (August 28, 1963). Texts in Context: Critical Dialogues on Significant Episodes in American Political Rhetoric. Ed. Michael C. Leff and Fred J. Kauffeld. Davis, CA: Hermagoras Press, 1989. 181-204.

Deifell, David. “Children in the Dream: Barack Obama and the Struggle over Martin Luther King’s Legacy.” Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric 8, no. 3 (July 2018): 157–72.

Dorrien, Gary J. Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2018.

Drury, Jeffrey P.Mehltretter, and Cole A. Crouch. “Robert F. Kennedy, ‘Statement on the Death of Reverend Martin Luther King, Rally in Indianapolis, Indiana (4 April1968) and Robert F. Kennedy, ‘Remarks at the Cleveland City Club’ (5 April1968).” Voices of Democracy, vol. 11, Jan. 2016, pp. 1–24.

Emanuel, Richard. “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘How Long? Not Long’ (25 March 1965).” Voices of Democracy 13 (January 2018): 13–23.

Fulkerson, Richard P. "The Public Letter as a Rhetorical Form: Structure, Logic, and Style in King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.'" Quarterly Journal of Speech 65 (1979): 121-136.

Gaipa, Mark. "'A Creative Psalm of Brotherhood': The (De)constructive Play in Martin Luther King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'." Quarterly Journal of Speech 93/1 (2007): 279-307.

Garrow, David J. "King's Plagiarism: Imitation, Insecurity, and Transformation." Journal of American History 78 (1991): 86-92.

Hariman, Robert. "Time and the Reconstitution of Gradualism in King's Address: A Response to Cox." Texts in Context: Critical Dialogues on Significant Episodes in American Political Rhetoric. Ed. Michael C. Leff and Fred J. Kauffeld. Davis, CA: Hermagoras Press, 1989. 205-217.

Harrison, Robert D., and Linda K. Harrison. "The Call from the Mountaintop: Call-Response and the Oratory of Martin Luther King, Jr." Calloway-Thomas and Lucaites 162-178.

Hoover, Judith D. "Reconstruction of the Rhetorical Situation in 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.'" Calloway-Thomas and Lucaites 50-65.

Holmes, D. G., (2007). Affirmative reaction: Kennedy, Nixon, King, and the evolution of color-blind rhetoric. Rhetoric Review, 26, 25 – 41.

Johannesen, Richard L. "The Ethics of Plagiarism Reconsidered: The Oratory of Martin Luther King, Jr." Southern Communication Journal 60 (1995): 185-

Johnson, Andre E., and Anthony J. Stone Jr. “‘The Most Dangerous Negro in America’: Rhetoric, Race and the Prophetic Pessimism of Martin Luther King Jr.” Journal of Communication & Religion 41, no. 1 (Spring 2018): 8–22.

Johnson, Davi. “Martin Luther King Jr.’S 1963 Birmingham Campaign as Image Event.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 10, no. 1 (Spring 2007): 1–25. doi:10.1353/rap.2007.0023.

Kearl, Michelle Kelsey. “WWMLKD?: Coopting the Rhetorical Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement.” Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric 8, no. 3 (July 2018): 184–99.

Keeley, Bethany. “I May Not Get There With You: ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ as Epic Discourse.” Southern Communication Journal 73, no. 4 (September 2008): 280–94. doi:10.1080/10417940802418791.

Klein, Mia. "The Other Beauty of Martin Luther King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.'" College Composition and Communication 32 (1981): 30-37.

Lee, Ronald L. "The Rhetorical Construction of Time in Martin Luther King's 'Letter from Birmingham Jail.'" Southern Communication Journal 56 (1991): 279-288.

Lee, Ronald L. "Universalizing 'Equality': The Public Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Calloway-Thomas and Lucaites 85-103.

Leff, Michael, and Ebony A. Utley. “Instrumental and Constitutive Rhetoric in Martin Luther King Jr.’S ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 7, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 37–51. doi:10.1353/rap.2004.0026.

Lynch, Christopher. "Reaffirmation of God's Anointed Prophet: The Use of Chiasm in Martin Luther King's "Mountaintop" Speech." Howard Journal of Communication 6 (1995): 12-31.

McClish, Glen. “The Instrumental and Constitutive Rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass.” Rhetorica 33, no. 1 (Winter 2015): 34–70. doi:10.1525/RH.2015.33.1.34.

Miller, Keith D. "Alabama as Egypt: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Religion of Slaves." Calloway-Thomas and Lucaites 18-32.

Miller, Keith D. "Composing Martin Luther King, Jr." Publications of the Modern Languages Association 105 (1990): 70-82.

Miller, Keith D. "Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Black Folk Pulpit." Journal of American History 78 (1991): 120-123.

Miller, Keith D. "Martin Luther King, Jr., Borrows a Revolution." College English 48 (1986): 249-265.

Miller, KeithD. “Second Isaiah Lands in Washington, DC: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ as Biblical Narrative and Biblical Hermeneutic.” Rhetoric Review 26, no. 4 (September 2007): 405–24. doi:10.1080/07350190701577926.

Miller, Keith D. "Voice Merging and Self-Making: The Epistemology of 'I Have a Dream.'" Rhetoric Society Quarterly 19 (1989): 23-52.

Mott, Wesley T. "The Rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail." Phylon 36 (1975): 411-421.

Mott, Wesley T. "Inventing Authority: Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Orchestration of Rhetorical Traditions." Quarterly Journal of Speech 83 (1997): 71-89.

Osborn, Michael. "The Last Mountaintop of Martin Luther King, Jr." Calloway-Thomas and Lucaites 147-161.

Osborn, Michael, and John Bakke. "The Melodramas of Memphis: Contending Narratives during the Sanitation Strike of 1968." Southern Communication Journal 63 (1998): 220-234.

Osborn, Michael. “Rhetorical Distance in ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 7, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 23–35. doi:10.1353/rap.2004.0027.

Patron, John H. “A Transforming Response: Martin Luther King Jr.’S ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail.’” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 7, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 53–65. doi:10.1353/rap.2004.0028.

Patton, John H. "'I Have a Dream': The Performance of Theology Fused with the Power of Orality." Calloway-Thomas and Lucaites 104-126.

Selby, Gary S. Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights. Studies in American Religion, 5. Waco, Tex: Baylor University Press, 2008.

Smith, Jonathan M., and Antonio de Velasco. “Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois, and Attitudes Toward Change.” Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric 8, no. 3 (July 2018): 146–56.

Snow, Malinda. "Martin Luther King's 'Letter from the Birmingham Jail' as Pauline Epistle." Quarterly Journal of Speech 71 (1985): 317-334.

Solomon, Martha. "Covenanted Rights: The Metaphoric Matrix of 'I Have a Dream.'" Calloway-Thomas and Lucaites 66-84.

Spilliers, Hortense J. "Martin Luther King and the Style of the Black Sermon." Black Scholar 3 (1971): 14-27.

Vail, Mark. 2006. “The ‘Integrative’ Rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr.’S ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech.” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 9 (1): 51–78. doi:10.1353/rap.2006.0032.

VanderHaagen, Sara C. “(Mis)Quoting King: Commemorative Stewardship and Ethos in the Controversy over the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.” Argumentation & Advocacy 55, no. 2 (May 2019): 91–114.

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