African American Responses to American Presidential Inaugural Addresses: Counterpoint to Rhetorical Traditions

Examines presidential inaugural speeches, during the Civil Rights and Black Power era, from the Kennedy administration to President Lyndon Baines Johnson, to prove that, most times, this type of speech is little more than epideictic formality in regard to black interests, and, perhaps, the initial step in an administration’s disregard for the concerns of African Americans—or the first indication that an administration is ensnared in a dilemma of catering solely to white American interests. Correspondingly, the book explores the theory that African American leaders’ speeches attempt to respond to Presidential inaugural addresses.