Oppositional Ethos: Fannie Lou Hamer and the Vernacular Persona

Based on the recovery and analysis of nearly two dozen of her speeches, this essay locates Fannie Lou Hamer's rhetorical influence in the vernacular persona she constructed. Closer consideration of how Hamer strategically wove various vernacular threads into a coherent persona that worked toward her rhetorical purposes encourages a renewed appreciation of her speaking career. This article also demonstrates the fecundity of grounding vernacular analyses in texts and using this frame to better understand the rhetorical strategies of previously overlooked advocates.