In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights
  • Bethany Keeley
Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom: The Exodus Narrative in America's Struggle for Civil Rights. By Gary S. Selby. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2008; pp x+217. $29.95 paper.

Gary Selby's recent book, Martin Luther King and the Rhetoric of Freedom, presents a contribution to the growing body of rhetorical scholarship on King's rhetoric and the Civil Rights movement as a whole. Selby's book adds to the existing scholarship by tracing one rhetorical device, the Exodus narrative, across a number of speeches by King in addition to other bits of discourse from the period.

Selby argues that the Exodus narrative is an important part of the success of the civil rights movement and King's persona in particular. As he explains, "The thesis of this book is that the development and ultimate success of the civil rights movement resulted, at least in part, from the way the movement's leaders—Martin Luther King, Jr. in particular—evoked this deeply held cultural narrative to create the sense that blacks were reliving the Exodus in their own day" (10). [End Page 160]

The argument is framed theoretically by literature on the functions of narrative as rhetoric and by literature that understands social movements as constituted through rhetoric of both verbal and ritual narrative. To explain the particular historical force of the Exodus narrative, Selby also reviews research on the Exodus narrative within African American culture. Hence, he argues for the strength of the Exodus narrative in this context both because of its form as a narrative and because of its particular historical significance and specific character. He offers evidence of "the canonical narrative's multifaceted and mysterious character" (34) and the way the story emphasized God's awareness of suffering and attention to those who had been enslaved (43).

Chapters 3–7 contain specific analyses of the way the narrative functions in King's oratory, in King's persona as Moses, and for the movement as a whole. Chapter 3 focuses on an early sermon at Dexter Avenue Church titled "The Death of Evil," where King originally connected the Exodus story to the civil rights struggle. Next, Selby examines speeches around the Montgomery bus boycott, which adapt his initial strategy with the narrative to a political (though still religiously charged) context. He notes a significant shift away from textual exegesis and toward alluding to the story and using it metaphorically. In Selby's words, it is "a shift from analogy to metaphor" (85); in the sermon civil rights is similar to the Exodus, whereas during the boycott civil rights is an Exodus. Third, he discusses King's "Birth of a Nation" sermon, delivered after witnessing Ghana's independence. In this sermon, Selby argues, King further refines the relation between the Exodus story, global battles against oppression, and the American civil rights movement by creating a hermeneutic circle among these elements.

Chapters 6 and 7 move away from specific speech texts and toward more general thematic analysis of civil rights discourse. In chapter 6, Selby traces the way King assumed the persona of Moses over time, both through his own identification with the narrative and through others assigning it to him. In chapter 7, he discusses ways that the Exodus myth appears in other elements of civil rights rhetoric, aside from the speech and person of Dr. King. Most interestingly, Selby argues that the language of movement and journey, though not explicitly connected with the Exodus myth, resonate with the story. Further, he suggests that the act of marching functioned, among other things, as an embodied way of living the Exodus myth through physical action that repeats the walking done by the Israelites out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land.

Selby's close reading allows us a closer look at the texture of King's strategic [End Page 161] use of the Exodus narrative across his career. As Selby argues, the narrative serves a unique function for King because of its history of identification for...

pdf