ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: “THE FIGHT IS YOURS”: ALLY ADVOCACY, IDENTITY RECONFIGURATION, AND POLITICAL CHANGE William Howell, Doctor of Philosophy, 2020 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Trevor Parry-Giles, Department of Communication Since at least 1990, scholars and activists have used the term “ally” to describe and theorize a distinct sociopolitical role: someone from a majority identity group working to end that group’s oppression of another identity group. While the term is recent, “allies” are present throughout America’s constant struggle to actualize equality and justice. The identity-rooted ideologies that empowered allies disempowered the groups for and with whom they sought justice and equality. But those empowering identities were pieces, more or less salient, of complex intersectional people. Given the shared nature of identity, this process also necessarily pitted allies against those with whom they shared an identity. In this project, I ask two questions about past ally advocacy—questions that are often asked about contemporary ally advocacy. First, in moments of major civil rights reform, how did allies engage their own intersecting identities—especially those ideologically-charged identities with accrued power from generations of marginalizing and oppressing? Second, how did allies engage other identities that were not theirs—especially identities on whose oppression their privilege was built? In asking these two questions—about self-identity and others’ identity—I assemble numerous rhetorical fragments into “ally advocacy.” This bricolage is in recognition of rhetoric’s fragmentary nature, and in response to Michael Calvin McGee’s call to assemble texts for criticism. I intend to demonstrate that ally advocacy is such a text, manifesting (among other contexts) around the women’s suffrage amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the marriage equality movement. I argue that allies rarely engaged the ideologies underlying identity-based inequality in any open, direct, or thorough manner, especially at these moments when those ideologies were optimally vulnerable. I conclude that allies must accept that they marginalize others through identity and its adjacent ideology, and allies must help identity-group peers reconstitute their shared identity in recognition of this. Such reconstituting is necessary for a healthy American democracy but especially so in the late-2010s, as Americans persistently grapple with a political system fractured along identity lines. “THE FIGHT IS YOURS”: ALLY ADVOCACY, IDENTITY RECONFIGURATION, AND POLITICAL CHANGE by William Howell Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2020 Advisory Committee: Professor Trevor Parry-Giles, Chair Professor Kristy Maddux Professor Catherine Knight Steele Professor Carly S. Woods Professor Oliver Gaycken © Copyright by William Howell 2020 Acknowledgements To Lucia and Eliana for their love and support. To my parents, brother, and in-laws for their patience and understanding throughout. To the coffee shops that hosted long work sessions. To the friends and colleagues who evaluated arguments and readability, and offered critiques and support, especially Katie Brown, Yvonne Slosarski, Morgan Hess, Thomas McCloskey, Devin Scott, Janna Soeder, David Lawrence, Tina Baum, Bridget Jameson, and Jake Levy-Pollans. To the people of Maryland, the Flagship Fellowship, and the Mary Savage Snouffer Dissertation Fellowship for financially supporting my graduate education. To the professors and scholars whose classes and writings shaped my thinking. To my committee, for their stellar questions, insightful critiques, and direction. To my advisor, Dr. Trevor Parry-Giles, for his stellar advice throughout my graduate education and especially on this project. And to the all those activists and allies moving this country to be better, more equitable, and more just. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... iii Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Understanding Ally Advocacy .............................................................................. 5 Allies are Political Advocates ............................................................................. 11 Allies Reoccur in American History ................................................................... 13 Allies Have Cumulative Impact .......................................................................... 16 Allies Reconfigure Identity ................................................................................. 18 Allies Have Not Deconstructed Dominant Identity ............................................ 23 Notes ................................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 1: Male Allies and the Susan B. Anthony Amendment ................................ 38 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 38 Toward a Suffrage Amendment .......................................................................... 44 Regional Identity: “This town is not fossilized” ................................................. 48 Civic Identity: “It is for man to say whether woman shall have the vote” ......... 52 National Identity: “If we be indeed democrats and wish to lead the world to democracy…” ..................................................................................................... 65 Family Identity: “Equal suffrage has developed better wives and better mothers” ............................................................................................................................. 69 Class Identity: “Sex is not, as it never was, the line of class cleavage” ............. 77 Gender Identity: “If we men want moral courage in our politics we must have our women” ......................................................................................................... 82 Male Ally Advocacy: Reinforcing Men’s Centrality .......................................... 92 Notes ................................................................................................................... 96 Chapter 2: White Allies and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ....................................... 122 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 122 Toward A Civil Rights Act ............................................................................... 127 Regional Identity: “This whole thing of the Southerner” ................................. 135 Political Identity: “Not a struggle to be engaged in by the mere liberal” ......... 140 National Identity: “I don’t think it makes any difference…I am an American” ........................................................................................................................... 142 Religious Identity: “Beneath skins of different colours, and prayers in different tongues, all men are brothers” .......................................................................... 147 Class Identity: “By appealing to the prevalent prejudices, they are able to play one class off against the other” ......................................................................... 149 Racial Identity: “I think it extremely important that you identify yourself as what you are” ............................................................................................................. 154 White Ally Advocacy: Overlooking White Privilege ....................................... 159 Note ................................................................................................................... 163 Chapter 3: Straight Allies and the Movement for Marriage Equality ....................... 177 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 177 Toward Marriage Equality ................................................................................ 183 Regional Identity: “We’re one community regardless of all that” ................... 191 iii National Identity: “Each American benefits from the further advancement of liberty and justice for all” ................................................................................. 197 Religious Identity: “Good, primarily Christian people have been holding some of God’s children hostage” .................................................................................... 205 Family Identity: “All committed couples who want to build a life and family…can stop dreaming about marriage and start choosing marriage” ....... 212 Sexual Identity: “They’re not different from other people” ............................. 224 Straight Ally Advocacy: Fitting Existing Identities .......................................... 238 Notes ................................................................................................................. 241 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 293 Introduction ......................................................................................................