DOCSLIB.ORG

Three Dead in South Carolina: Student Radicalization and The

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Three Dead in South Carolina: Student Radicalization and The THREE DEAD IN SOUTH CAROLINA: STUDENT RADICALIZATION AND THE FORGOTTEN ORANGEBURG MASSACRE A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Kimberly Dawn Stahler May, 2018 Thesis written by Kimberly Stahler B.S., Frostburg State University, 2012 M.A., Kent State University, 2018 Approved by Kenneth Bindas_________________________, Advisor Brian Hayashi _________________________, Chair, Department of History James Blank _________________________, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER Page I RAISING RADICAL YOUTHS .......................................................................................16 II DIVERGING FROM REALITY .......................................................................................55 III CONTINUED RACIAL TENSIONS ................................................................................89 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................117 NOTES .........................................................................................................................................123 SOURCES CONSULTED ...........................................................................................................140 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Everyone who knows me is aware that I am driven, focused, and determined. These personality traits have helped me achieve my goals, but the help I have received from others along the way proved to be more valuable to me than those traits. I could not have completed this project without the assistance and support I received from others. I am forever indebted to too many people to lay them all out here. However, I would like to thank all of those who read through drafts and talked through ideas throughout my time working on this thesis in addition to those mentioned below. All of the professors that I worked with during my time at Kent State University have helped me achieve my academic goals, but I would like to extend a special thanks to those who worked with me on my thesis. I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Kenneth Bindas. Thank you for the direction, advice, and support that you provided me along the way. I appreciate that you always made time for me whenever I needed to work through my own thoughts. I am also grateful for all the work that the members of my thesis committee put into overseeing this project: Dr. Leslie Heaphy, Dr. Zachary Williams, and Dr. Patrick Coy. Dr. Leslie Heaphy read drafts of my work throughout my writing process, and her feedback proved to greatly benefit my thesis. Dr. Zachary Williams helped me engage with the current scholarship on gender and the civil rights movement and broadened my understanding of identity. Dr. Patrick Coy helped me approach my research from an interdisciplinary lens, which rounded out the perspective that my thesis takes. iv I also am indebted to others academics and library professionals who helped me accomplish this project. Dr. Leonne Hudson introduced me to my case study and helped me work through my research throughout my time at Kent State University. Archivist Avery Daniels from the Miller F. Whittaker Library provided me with invaluable help with my primary source research which made this project possible. I appreciate every email that Daniels responded to and every source that he brought to my attention that I did not know existed. Further, a special thanks goes to Dr. William C. Hine for agreeing to an interview with me and for answering numerous emails to clarify some of the discrepancies that I found during my research. His insight and attention helped make this project into what it is. I am forever indebted to those who put tireless effort into saving and preserving the documents surrounding the Orangeburg Massacre: those who conducted and participated in the Orangeburg Massacre Oral History Project, those who wrote the grant proposal that funded the project and the process of cataloguing the documents in the Orangeburg Massacre Collection at the Miller F. Whitaker Library, and those who continue to participate in the annual commemorations and who keep the memory of the massacre alive. It would be impossible to list all of the friends and family members who helped me complete this thesis. However, special thanks are due to my sister Bethany Stahler and my brother-in-law Larry Nehring for helping me mentally and physically survive this project. To everyone who read drafts, who talked through ideas, and who provided ample amounts of encouragement, thank you, I could not have done this without you. When I started working on this project, gun violence in schools and police brutality targeting African Americans were major problems in America. The work of Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, and so many others is truly inspirational and impactful. Additionally, in the last few months there has been a student movement growing that is v demanding change from American politicians and the American public who have accepted the constant presence of school shootings in the news. I dedicate this thesis to all the young students who are standing up to ensure that their classrooms are a safe place for learning and to the often overlooked radical women who have built the foundation of grassroots organizing networks that are fighting for social justice in America. vi INTRODUCTION On February 8, 1968, hundreds of African American students from South Carolina State College (SCSC) and Claflin College gathered around a bonfire on Watson Street in Orangeburg, South Carolina, singing “We Shall Overcome.” Across the street, a group of almost exclusively white law enforcement officers from the South Carolina National Guard, the South Carolina Highway Patrol, and the local Orangeburg Police stood armed. After the bonfire grew, an officer called the fire department to prevent the flames from endangering the power lines. When the fire truck arrived, the National Guardsmen advanced into the street to protect the fire truck. The students began to retreat to their dormitories as the Highway Patrolmen crossed the street and stopped in an embankment at the edge of the SCSC campus. Suddenly, nine Highway Patrol officers fired their pump-action shot guns loaded with buckshot into the retreating crowd.1 The shooting lasted less than ten seconds, and in that time at least thirty-one students sustained injuries. Later, Samuel Hammond, Henry Smith, and Delano Middleton died from their wounds. After the firing stopped, chaos continued on campus as those who were able helped the most severely injured to reach the infirmary. Most of the wounded students were hit in their backs or the bottoms of their feet. Field organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Cleveland Sellers later told reporters that because the patrolmen “shot as low as they could and a number of students fell to the ground…they could have killed 75 percent of them right then if they wanted to.”2 Rosemary Brooks, a senior at SCSC, was one of the many black community members who helped the injured students find safety in the aftermath. Later she remembered, “that night was the worst night of my life. Never have I seen so much 1 bloodshed. Never have I seen so much heartbreak and terror… one student was shot in the mouth and part of his tongue was ripped out.”3 National movement leaders expressed their outrage at the use of deadly force from South Carolina’s law enforcement agencies during this peaceful protest. After a federal judge ordered the bowling alley to integrate in the weeks following the massacre, SNCC leader, H. Rap Brown stated, “as usual the Justice Department is acting in a faint-hearted manner after the blood of black youth has flowed in the streets. Three dead and 50 injured is too high a price to pay for a goddamn bowling alley.”4 After the shooting ended, the law enforcement officers continued to block Watson street, which intersected with the sole entrance to the SCSC campus. No ambulances were called to help the injured and dying students. Officers dragged Henry Smith and Delano Middleton, who would die soon after, towards their police cars. Four students later testified that they witnessed a patrolman use the butt of his gun to strike Smith. The sole nurse on duty that evening in the infirmary was quickly overwhelmed with the number of students who needed medical attention. Most of the students needed more care than she could provide. Arleathia Jones, and other SCSC students who had cars, drove the severely injured students to the local segregated hospital. Frankie Thomas, Jordan Simmons, and Charles Hildebrand were a few of the students who remembered that once they were admitted to the hospital they did not receive any care and needed to seek medical attention in other nearby hospitals the following day. Even today, some of the surviving students, including Ernest Shuler, continue to carry buckshot pellets in their bodies.5 After the massacre ended, tensions between the law enforcement officers and the students seemed to dissipate. The
Load more

Recommended publications
  • (And Revising?) Sports Boycotts: from Rugby Against South Africa to Soccer in Israel
    This is a peer-reviewed, post-print (final draft post-refereeing) version of the following published document, This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of the History of Sport on [date of publication], available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09523367.2014.934680 and is licensed under All Rights Reserved license: MacLean, Malcolm ORCID: 0000-0001-5750-4670 (2014) Revisiting (and Revising?) Sports Boycotts: From Rugby against South Africa to Soccer in Israel. International Journal of the History of Sport, 31 (15). pp. 1832-1851. doi:10.1080/09523367.2014.934680 Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2014.934680 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2014.934680 EPrint URI: http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/2296 Disclaimer The University of Gloucestershire has obtained warranties from all depositors as to their title in the material deposited and as to their right to deposit such material. The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation or warranties of commercial utility, title, or fitness for a particular purpose or any other warranty, express or implied in respect of any material deposited. The University of Gloucestershire makes no representation that the use of the materials will not infringe any patent, copyright, trademark or other property or proprietary rights. The University of Gloucestershire accepts no liability for any infringement of intellectual property rights in any material deposited but will remove such material from public view pending investigation in the event of an allegation of any such infringement. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR TEXT.
    [Show full text]
  • Look to the Governors— Federalism Still Lives by Karlyn H
    Chapter 4 Table 1: House Vote, By Income Group 1994 1996 1998 D R D R D R Less than $15,000 60% 37% 61% 36% 57% 39% $15,000-$30,000 50 48 54 43 53 44 $30,000-$50,000 44 54 49 49 48 49 $50,000-$75,000 45 54 47 52 44 54 $75,000+ 38 61 39 59 45 52 Source: Surveys by Voter News Service. tion, health care, Social Security. The effect was predictable: or more is growing rapidly and can’t be taken for granted a significant shift in support from Republican candidates to anymore. The GOP must decide what issues will allow it to Democratic ones. That result creates a dilemma for the GOP hold onto the gains made among non-affluent voters while not as it looks ahead to the next House elections. On the one hand, losing any more ground with the affluent. whatever the causes for the GOP’s loss of support among the affluent, those same causes apparently helped Republicans The extent to which the Republicans are successful, and gain enough ground with non-affluent voters to hold onto a the extent to which the Democrats can thwart their strategy, House majority. But the voter bloc of those making $75,000 could determine who controls the House in 2000. Look to the Governors— Federalism Still Lives By Karlyn H. Bowman In his 1988 book, Laboratories of Democracy, political Eight of the country’s ten most populous states have Republi- writer David Osborne urged readers to look beyond Washing- can governors.
    [Show full text]
  • The Gordian Knot: Apartheid & the Unmaking of the Liberal World Order, 1960-1970
    THE GORDIAN KNOT: APARTHEID & THE UNMAKING OF THE LIBERAL WORLD ORDER, 1960-1970 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Ryan Irwin, B.A., M.A. History ***** The Ohio State University 2010 Dissertation Committee: Professor Peter Hahn Professor Robert McMahon Professor Kevin Boyle Professor Martha van Wyk © 2010 by Ryan Irwin All rights reserved. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the apartheid debate from an international perspective. Positioned at the methodological intersection of intellectual and diplomatic history, it examines how, where, and why African nationalists, Afrikaner nationalists, and American liberals contested South Africa’s place in the global community in the 1960s. It uses this fight to explore the contradictions of international politics in the decade after second-wave decolonization. The apartheid debate was never at the center of global affairs in this period, but it rallied international opinions in ways that attached particular meanings to concepts of development, order, justice, and freedom. As such, the debate about South Africa provides a microcosm of the larger postcolonial moment, exposing the deep-seated differences between politicians and policymakers in the First and Third Worlds, as well as the paradoxical nature of change in the late twentieth century. This dissertation tells three interlocking stories. First, it charts the rise and fall of African nationalism. For a brief yet important moment in the early and mid-1960s, African nationalists felt genuinely that they could remake global norms in Africa’s image and abolish the ideology of white supremacy through U.N.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 After Slavery & Reconstruction: the Black Struggle in the U.S. for Freedom, Equality, and Self-Realization* —A Bibliogr
    After Slavery & Reconstruction: The Black Struggle in the U.S. for Freedom, Equality, and Self-Realization* —A Bibliography Patrick S. O’Donnell (2020) Jacob Lawrence, Library, 1966 Apologia— Several exceptions notwithstanding (e.g., some titles treating the Reconstruction Era), this bibliography begins, roughly, with the twentieth century. I have not attempted to comprehensively cover works of nonfiction or the arts generally but, once more, I have made— and this time, a fair number of—exceptions by way of providing a taste of the requisite material. So, apart from the constraints of most of my other bibliographies: books, in English, these particular constraints are intended to keep the bibliography to a fairly modest length (around one hundred pages). This compilation is far from exhaustive, although it endeavors to be representative of the available literature, whatever the influence of my idiosyncratic beliefs and 1 preferences. I trust the diligent researcher will find titles on particular topics or subject areas by browsing carefully through the list. I welcome notice of titles by way of remedying any deficiencies. Finally, I have a separate bibliography on slavery, although its scope is well beyond U.S. history. * Or, if you prefer, “self-fulfillment and human flourishing (eudaimonia).” I’m not here interested in the question of philosophical and psychological differences between these concepts (i.e., self- realization and eudaimonia) and the existing and possible conceptions thereof, but more simply and broadly in their indispensable significance in reference to human nature and the pivotal metaphysical and moral purposes they serve in our critical and evaluative exercises (e.g., and after Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, in employing criteria derived from the notion of ‘human capabilities and functionings’) as part of our individual and collective historical quest for “the Good.” However, I might note that all of these concepts assume a capacity for self- determination.
    [Show full text]
  • Mack Studies
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 381 472 SO 024 893 AUTHOR Botsch, Carol Sears; And Others TITLE African-Americans and the Palmetto State. INSTITUTION South Carolina State Dept. of Education, Columbia. PUB DATE 94 NOTE 246p. PUB TYPE Guides Non-Classroom Use (055) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC10 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Area Studies; *Black Culture; *Black History; Blacks; *Mack Studies; Cultural Context; Ethnic Studies; Grade 8; Junior High Schools; Local History; Resource Materials; Social Environment' *Social History; Social Studies; State Curriculum Guides; State Government; *State History IDENTIFIERS *African Americans; South Carolina ABSTRACT This book is part of a series of materials and aids for instruction in black history produced by the State Department of Education in compliance with the Education Improvement Act of 1984. It is designed for use by eighth grade teachers of South Carolina history as a supplement to aid in the instruction of cultural, political, and economic contributions of African-Americans to South Carolina History. Teachers and students studying the history of the state are provided information about a part of the citizenry that has been excluded historically. The book can also be used as a resource for Social Studies, English and Elementary Education. The volume's contents include:(1) "Passage";(2) "The Creation of Early South Carolina"; (3) "Resistance to Enslavement";(4) "Free African-Americans in Early South Carolina";(5) "Early African-American Arts";(6) "The Civil War";(7) "Reconstruction"; (8) "Life After Reconstruction";(9) "Religion"; (10) "Literature"; (11) "Music, Dance and the Performing Arts";(12) "Visual Arts and Crafts";(13) "Military Service";(14) "Civil Rights"; (15) "African-Americans and South Carolina Today"; and (16) "Conclusion: What is South Carolina?" Appendices contain lists of African-American state senators and congressmen.
    [Show full text]
  • U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS TRAIL JOURNEY SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville
    U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS TRAIL JOURNEY SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville Columbia Orangeburg Charleston Greenville - Columbia (1 hr. 32 mins.) Columbia - Orangeburg (51 mins.) Orangeburg - Charleston (1 hr. 15 mins.) The U.S. Civil Rights Trail spans 14 states, features more than 100 sites and highlights the country’s civil rights story. Your journey along the trail begins in Greenville, South Carolina. Penn Center St. Helena, SC DAY 1 – GREENVILLE Springfield Baptist Church Your journey begins as you travel along Interstate 85 toward Greenville and make your first stop: Springfield Baptist Church. Springfield Baptist Church Founded in 1867 by newly freed slaves, Springfield Baptist Church is the oldest historically Black Baptist church in Greenville and is still active in the community. In addition to being a center for spiritual growth, Springfield Baptist Church was headquarters for nonviolent civil rights protests in the 1960s. The church became Springfield Baptist Church, pivotal in the movement on Jan. 1, 1960, with Greenville, SC a peaceful march from the church to the Greenville Downtown Airport. The march was organized after the keynote speaker for a state NAACP convention, Jackie Robinson, the first Black Major League Baseball player, was denied use of the airport’s waiting room. Benjamin E. Mays House Museum Greenwood, SC DAY 2 – COLUMBIA Modjeska Monteith Simkins House > Modjeska Monteith Simkins House South Carolina State House Columbia, SC Continue your exploration of the U.S. Civil Today, a monument commemorating the Rights Trail as you make your way southeast history, contributions and actions of African- to the capital of South Carolina, Columbia. Americans in South Carolina, including their First stop on today’s schedule is the Modjeska struggle for civil rights, stands next to the Monteith Simkins House.
    [Show full text]
  • Waveland, Mississippi, November 1964: Death of Sncc, Birth of Radicalism
    WAVELAND, MISSISSIPPI, NOVEMBER 1964: DEATH OF SNCC, BIRTH OF RADICALISM University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire: History Department History 489: Research Seminar Professor Robert Gough Professor Selika Ducksworth – Lawton, Cooperating Professor Matthew Pronley University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire May 2008 Abstract: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced Snick) was a nonviolent direct action organization that participated in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. After the Freedom Summer, where hundreds of northern volunteers came to participate in voter registration drives among rural blacks, SNCC underwent internal upheaval. The upheaval was centered on the future direction of SNCC. Several staff meetings occurred in the fall of 1964, none more important than the staff retreat in Waveland, Mississippi, in November. Thirty-seven position papers were written before the retreat in order to reflect upon the question of future direction of the organization; however, along with answers about the future direction, these papers also outlined and foreshadowed future trends in radical thought. Most specifically, these trends include race relations within SNCC, which resulted in the emergence of black self-consciousness and an exodus of hundreds of white activists from SNCC. ii Table of Contents: Abstract ii Historiography 1 Introduction to Civil Rights and SNCC 5 Waveland Retreat 16 Position Papers – Racial Tensions 18 Time after Waveland – SNCC’s New Identity 26 Conclusion 29 Bibliography 32 iii Historiography Research can both answer questions and create them. Initially I discovered SNCC though Taylor Branch’s epic volumes on the Civil Right Movements in the 1960s. Further reading revealed the role of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, pronounced Snick) in the Civil Right Movement and opened the doors into an effective and controversial organization.
    [Show full text]
  • Irish Journalists and the 1968 Mexico City Olympics* Citation: Stephen D
    Firenze University Press https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/bsfm-sijis Irish Journalists and the 1968 Mexico City Olympics* Citation: Stephen D. Allen (2021) Irish Journalists and the 1968 Mexico City Olym- Stephen D. Allen pics. Sijis 11: pp. 91-108. California State University (<[email protected]>) doi: 10.13128/SIJIS-2239- 3978-12876 Copyright: © 2021 Stephen D. Allen. This is an open access, Abstract: peer-reviewed article published Th is article examines how Irish journalists depicted Mexico City as a suitable host by Firenze University Press for the 1968 Olympic Games. Mexican elites believed the event would attract (https://oajournals.fupress.net/ foreign investment and tourists but faced an uphill battle as many European ob- index.php/bsfm-sijis) and dis- tributed under the terms of the servers criticized the city as undeserving. Irish journalists often presented images Creative Commons Attribution of Mexico that were impacted by Ireland’s own struggles of achieving sporting License, which permits unre- modernity and its sense of global importance as a white European nation. Th e stricted use, distribution, and image that emerged portrayed Mexico as rich in history and sporting infrastruc- reproduction in any medium, ture, but also mired in disorganization, superstition, and violence. Th ese negative provided the original author and images may have propelled journalist and president of the Olympic Committee source are credited. of Ireland, Lord Killanin, to the International Olympic Committee presidency. Data Availability Statement: Keywords: Ireland, Lord Killanin, Mexico, 1968 Olympics, sport All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Infor- mation fi les. Competing Interests: The Author(s) declare(s) no confl ict of interest.
    [Show full text]
  • THE SHOWRUNNER Frankie Thomas
    ATLENGTHMAG.COM 1 THE SHOWRUNNER Frankie Thomas Roger hates open casting calls, but the network is being a pain in the ass about casting “real kids” in the Life According to Liberty pilot. “Viewers should look at these kids and see themselves,” says the first in an increas- ingly inane series of memos. “Avoid overly polished child-star types.” They use the words “fresh,” “natural,” “organic,” and “raw” so often, you’d think they really just want to open a restaurant in Silverlake. Roger hates a lot of things—rush hour traffic, the 405 any time of day, people who mispronounce “Hermès,” the smoking ban in restaurants, most of America east of the Harbor Freeway—but he especially resents wast- ing a workday on an open call, because, for the most part, he doesn’t hate his job. He does it damn well, too: if you have kids, they’ve probably clocked half their lives watching his shows. Superpants? That was him. Second String, Friendship Heights, Passing for Paranormal—all Roger Knox productions. It’s thanks to your kids that Roger owns a penthouse in the Hills, drives a black Maserati, wears a different suit every day (Armani, Zegna, Tom Ford, YSL, maybe breaking out the Hugo Boss when he doesn’t mind looking like a slob), and gets his shoes shined once a week even though he doesn’t walk enough to scuff them. He’s been here long enough that he no longer feels like he’s evading when people ask him where he’s from and he answers, “Hollywood.” At the casting call, though, Roger is forced to interact with people who aren’t from Hollywood, people who even smell like the real world—babies, church basements, cafeterias, grocery-store shampoos.
    [Show full text]
  • Cleveland Sellers Oral-History Interview, 2013
    Civil Rights History Project Interview completed by the Southern Oral History Program under contract to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History & Culture and the Library of Congress, 2013 Interviewee: Dr. Cleveland Sellers Interview Date: March 21, 2013 Location: Voorhees College, Denmark, South Carolina Interviewer: Dr. John Dittmer Videographer: John Bishop Length: 01:48:00 John Dittmer: My name is John Dittmer, and I am here in Denmark, South Carolina, with videographer John Bishop to interview Dr. Cleveland Sellers, the president of Voorhees College. This interview will become part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Dr. Sellers, we are delighted to be here today and we thank you for taking the time to talk with us. Cleveland Sellers: Thank you, thank you. JD: I would like to start with your early childhood. You were born and raised right here in Denmark, weren’t you? CS: Born and raised in Denmark. The irony is, is that it’s been pretty much a complete circle for me, in that I started out here as a mascot for the college in—when I was three years old. And I came back in 2008 as president of the college. So, it’s a very interesting experience returning home. Dr. Cleveland Sellers, March 21, 2013 2 JD: Yeah, must be. CS: Yes. JD: What was it like growing up in Denmark? Tell us something about your childhood, your family. CS: Well, the first bit of information is, is that the college here was the center, cultural center of and educational center for the community.
    [Show full text]
  • Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr
    H-Afro-Am Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4, 1968) Discussion published by Shawn Leigh Alexander on Sunday, April 3, 2016 Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated 48 years ago today (April 4, 1968). Below is a beginning of a bibliography of books by or about Rev. King. Please add and discuss your own favorites. Lerone Bennett, What Manner of Man; a Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr (Chicago,: Johnson Pub. Co., 1964). Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988). Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998). Taylor Branch, At Canann's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-1968 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006). James H. Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991). Michael Eric Dyson, I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr (New York: Free Press, 2000). Adam Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America: The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987). David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (New York: Vintage Books, 1988). Drew D. Hansen, The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech That Inspired a Nation (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2003). Vincent Harding, Martin Luther King, the Inconvenient Hero (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996). Trudier Harris, Martin Luther King Jr., Heroism, and African American Literature (Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2014).
    [Show full text]
  • TRACING the DISCOURSE of AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM by Aron Tabor
    DOES EXCEPTION PROVE THE RULE? TRACING THE DISCOURSE OF AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM By Aron Tabor Submitted to Central European University Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science Supervisor: Alexander Astrov Word Count: 91,719 Budapest, Hungary 2019 ii Declaration I hereby declare that no parts of this thesis have been accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions. This thesis contains no material previously written and/or published by another person, except where appropriate acknowledgement is made in the form of bibliographical reference. Aron Tabor April 26, 2019 iii iv Abstract The first two decades of the twenty-first century saw an unprecedented proliferation of the discourse of American exceptionalism both in scholarly works and in the world of politics; several recent contributions have characterized this notion in the context of a set of beliefs that create, construct, (re-)define and reproduce a particular foreign policy identity. At the same time, some authors also note that the term “American exceptionalism” itself was born in a specific discourse within U.S. Communism, and, for a period, it was primarily understood with reference to the peculiar causes behind the absence of a strong socialist movement in the United States. The connection between this original meaning and the later usage is not fully explored; often it is assumed that “exceptionalism” existed before the label was created as the idea is traced back to the founding of the American nation or even to the colonial period.
    [Show full text]