![\"MLK](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/543\/2017\/10\/MLK-statue.jpg\")
<\/a>In the Spring of 2017, I taught a graduate seminar that focused on the rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr. during the last year of his life. More specifically, we examined King within the African American prophetic tradition and placed special emphasis on his\u00a0prophetic pessimism<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn this second panel, students presented versions of their final papers in the class for the Graduate Association of African American History Conference held at the University of Memphis. The title of this panel was \u201cIf I Can Help Somebody\u201d: The Rhetorical Influence of Martin Luther King Jr.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Panelists:<\/strong><\/p>\n Keven Rudrow:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cFrom the Civil Rights Movement to \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d: Framing Social Protest through King\u2019s Rhetoric of Militant Nonviolent Disobedience and Self-Assertive Personhood\u201d- University of Memphis<\/p>\n Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2013, Black Lives Matter (BLM) was founded, following the death of Trayvon Martin, to stand in solidarity regarding the injustice and inequality experienced by Black people in the United States. Although standing for justice and equality for Black people, the political right has framed BLM as a domestic terrorist organization operating outside of what is imagined to be King\u2019s dream. In this essay, I examine television interviews and speeches delivered by King toward the end of his life. I argue these texts function as rhetorical fragments that generate insight into what King viewed as the ideal social movement characterized by militant nonviolent disobedience and self-assertive personhood. Furthermore, I use King\u2019s notion of militant nonviolent disobedience and self-assertive personhood as a conceptual framework for examining the political right\u2019s characterization of BLM as a domestic terrorist organization.<\/p>\n Watkins Dickerson:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201c\u2018You Are Somebody\u2019: King and the Prophetic Rhetoric of Rev. Henry Logan Starks\u201d- University of Memphis<\/p>\n Abstract:<\/strong><\/p>\n Many have studied and appreciated the rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr. with many of these focused on King\u2019s arguments and ideas as part of complete texts. Especially, in the last year of his life, some tend to note the significant shift in King\u2019s discourse as operating in a vacuum. However, it must be noted King\u2019s rhetoric was not formed on its own and was certainly influenced by a larger corpus of writings, speeches, and sermons framing a trajectory consistent with speaking truth to power. While I am not arguing as some have that King borrowed or as Dyson argues, sampled much of his rhetoric, I am arguing that some of the same prophetic treatments King produced and proclaim were evidenced in local movements all across the country. One such movement was the Sanitation Workers\u2019 Strike in 1968 and the rhetoric of Henry Logan Starks Jr. In this paper, I examine Starks\u2019 prophetic rhetoric inspired by King.<\/p>\n Steven Tramel Gaines<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cJohn A. Scott Sr.\u2019s Response to Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s Assassination\u201d- University of Memphis<\/p>\n Abstract:<\/strong><\/p>\n John A. Scott Sr. preached a sermon, \u201cThe Mind of Christ,\u201d on April 14 for the Church of Christ at White Station in Memphis after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. This paper claims that the sermon, in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., prophetically called for repentance but was shaped by social privilege. The sermon reminded listeners of their social privilege and challenged them to repent of their participation in the injustice that led to King\u2019s death. Although white privilege blunted Scott\u2019s prophetic rhetoric, he challenged the practice of ignoring racial and economic privileges and injustices.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Commentator: Dr. Andre E. Johnson, University of Memphis<\/p>\n