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- Title
Sanitizing the Struggle: Barack Obama, Selma, and Civil Rights Memory.
- Authors
Hill, Theon E.
- Abstract
In this article, I examine Barack Obama’s use of collective memory during his 2007 campaign speech in Selma, Alabama. Specifically, I argue that Obama appeals to collective memory to challenge the Black community’s relationship to the past. He reframed the memory of the Civil Rights Movement in a manner favorable to his political aspirations. While this frame was politically expedient, it weakened Black political agency. It robbed the Black community of crucial rhetorical resources used to challenge structural inequalities in society. This article offers insight into the complex relationship between metaphor and collective memory. Specifically, I interrogate the role of metaphor as a crucial site where public memory is formed, disrupted, and rearticulated. Furthermore, I consider the implications of his use of memory for the future of the Black freedom struggle.
- Subjects
UNITED States; OBAMA, Barack, 1961-; COLLECTIVE memory; HISTORY of African American civil rights; CIVIL rights movements; CAMPAIGN speeches; AFRICAN American history
- Publication
Communication Quarterly, 2017, Vol 65, Issue 3, p354
- ISSN
0146-3373
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/01463373.2016.1275728