Rhetoric, Race, Religion, and the Charleston Shootings

Melody Lehn is assistant professor of rhetoric and women’s and gender studies at Sewanee: The University of the South. Sean Patrick O'Rourke is professor of rhetoric and American studies at Sewanee: The University of the South.

Introduction: Was Blind but Now I See: Rhetoric, Race, and Religion in the Charleston Shootings
Sean Patrick O’Rourke
Melody Lehn

Part I: The Killer’s Manifesto: Rhetorics of the Lost Cause and Race Warfare

1“The South Shall Rise Again”: Setting the Lost Cause Myth in Future Tense in Dylann Roof’s Manifesto
Margaret Franz
2Charleston and the Postracial Logics of “Race War”
Daniel A. Grano

Part II: Gun Control: The Debates That Did Not Happen and the Language of Lynching

3The Racial Politics of Gun Violence: A Brief Rhetorical History
Craig Rood
4The Charleston Church Shooting and the Public Practice of Forgetting Lynching
Samuel P. Perry

Part III: Civic Eulogies and Exhortations: The Responses of Barack and Michelle Obama

5The Act of Forgiveness in Barack Obama’s Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend
Clementa Pinckney, Charleston, South Carolina, June 26, 2015
David A. Frank
6Challenging the Myth of Postracialism: Exhortation, Strategic Ambiguity, and Michelle Obama’s Response to the Charleston Killings
Melody Lehn

Part IV: Rebels and Flags: The Rhetorics of Heritage, Hate, Continuity, and Change

7In the Aftermath: The Rhetoric of Heritage and the Limits of the Mythical Past
Luke D. Christie
8The Rebel Flag and the Rhetoric of Protest: A Case Study in Public Will Building
Sean Patrick O’Rourke

Part V: Neo-Confederate Monuments: Rhetorics of Contested Public Memory

9“Remove Not the Ancient Landmark”: Making the Confederate Distortions of Religion Apparent
Camille K. Lewis
10In the Aftermath: Memorials of the Neo-Confederacy, Symbols of Oppression, and the Rhetoric of Removal
Patricia G. Davis

Conclusion: Zenith and Nadir
Donna Hunter