rhetorical analysis essay about shirley chisholm's bid for presidency

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Exploring shirley chisholm's historic bid for the presidency.

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, a Black History Month segment for this presidential election year, remembering Shirley Chisholm's groundbreaking run for the Democratic nomination in 1972. Chisholm had a motto, not just for her historic campaign, but throughout her entire political life and career, many of you know it, "Unbought and Unbossed". In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to Congress. She was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, as well as the National Women's Political Caucus.

When she tossed her hat in the ring for the Democratic Party nomination in the 1972 presidential race, she had little support from the political establishment. Here was a candidate outspoken on behalf of civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, and the dignity of the poor during a period marked by economic recession. Perhaps ahead of her time, she supported a minimum family income. In an era of the FBI so-called COINTELPRO investigations of civil rights leaders, she publicly opposed wiretapping and domestic spying. Here is Shirley Chisholm announcing her candidacy for the nomination in 1972.

Shirley Chisholm : I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am Black and proud.

Shirley Chisholm : I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I'm equally proud of that.

Shirley Chisholm : I am not the candidate of any political bosses, or fat cats, or special interests.

Shirley Chisholm : I stand here now without endorsements from many big-name politicians, or celebrities, or any other kind of prop. I do not intend to offer to you the tired and glib cliches which for too long have been accepted part of our political life. I am the candidate of the people of America.

Brian Lehrer: Shirley Chisholm declaring her candidacy on January 25th, 1972, in Brooklyn. Let's talk about this important and inspiring piece of history with Zinga Fraser, assistant professor of Africana Studies and Women's and Gender Studies and director of the Shirley Chisholm Project at Brooklyn College. She's also co-curating a forthcoming exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, marking the 100th anniversary of Shirley Chisholm's birth. She would turn 100 this November. Professor Fraser, thanks so much for coming on. Welcome to WNYC.

Zinga Fraser: Thank you so much for having me.

Brian Lehrer: By way of introduction, do you want to say a little bit about what the mission of the Shirley Chisholm Project at Brooklyn College is?

Zinga Fraser: Of course. The Shirley Chisholm Project on Brooklyn women's activism for over 12 years has served as a research and archival entity that preserves the history of Chisholm's political life and the activism of women in Brooklyn. We're also the repository of Chisholm's archive where we also facilitate free and public educational programming. In the tradition of Chisholm, the project also examined social and political issues that grounded Chisholm's political life, like issues around women in politics, equity and education, racial and economic disparities, as well as criminal justice and immigration.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we invite your phone calls on the 1972 Shirley Chisholm presidential campaign, taking oral history calls, as we like to do in our history segments. Is anybody listening right now who happened to vote for Shirley Chisholm in 1972? Is anybody listening right now who just remembers Shirley Chisholm on the campaign trail for president in 1972, or anybody else with a personal story that relates to that presidential campaign, the Shirley Chisholm candidacy in particular? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, call or text for our guest Zinga Fraser from Brooklyn College.

Shirley Chisholm grew up on Prospect Avenue in Crown Heights and would go on to teachers' college at Columbia for her master's. What else would you like to add about her early life and how it set her up for politics?

Zinga Fraser: She's also an alum of Brooklyn College as well. Chisholm, as early, she grows up in Brooklyn. She comes out of a rich Caribbean Barbados, where her parents are both from. She's part of that quoting or trajectory of emerging Black, political, Caribbean immigrants who emerge in the 1930s. A lot of her life revolved around Brooklyn, but also, earlier before she gets into politics, she also lives in Barbados for a number of years and has her primary education in Barbados. She's also a very diasporic figure and subject.

Brian Lehrer: In 1972, the context of that campaign for the Democratic nomination, the field included South Dakota Senator George McGovern, who of course, got the nomination that year. He ran very much as an anti-Vietnam war candidate. Chisholm was also anti-war. How did she distinguish herself from McGovern?

Zinga Fraser: In many ways, she distinguished herself from McGovern in that she had a particular belief that she wanted to create a coalition that really crossed age, race, gender, class. She found a way to collectively bargain or try to collectively bargain the platform for the Democratic campaign. She was against abortion. She was pro-choice, and so she's really trying to push the McGovern campaign and the Democratic party to really come out in support of abortion and a woman's right to choose. At that time, McGovern was very leery about taking that stance.

Brian Lehrer: If we assume that Chisholm knew she wasn't going to win the nomination, what was she trying to achieve by running?

Zinga Fraser: She's really trying to change the platform. She's trying to not only bring in new and vibrant people into the Democratic party, and she's really trying to say, "We want a true Democratic Party that represents all people, specifically marginalized people." Chisholm doesn't necessarily think that she's going to win, but she believes that she has a position to really change the platform and the policies of the Democratic Party.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take a phone call with a memory. Theresa in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Theresa.

Theresa: Hi. How are you? Thanks for putting me on. Second-time caller, devout listener.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Theresa: Shirley Chisholm used to live in my building. My mother was friendly with her. Shirley Chisholm was friendly with all of the neighbors. She was just very a kindhearted person, a loving person. She was the type of person she'd say, "How are you doing? How are the kids," and things like that. That's just on Livingston Street in Brooklyn between Boerum and Court.

Brian Lehrer: Remembering Shirley Chisholm, the person, not just Shirley Chisholm the politician. Beautiful. Maria in Newton, New Jersey, you are on WNYC. Hi, Maria.

Maria: Oh my goodness. Thank you for taking my call. It's my first time calling. I'm a retired journalist, and I had the opportunity of meeting some quite lovely people, and Shirley Chisholm was one of them. One of the things I did want to say is that Shirley said that it was very difficult to run as a Black person for Congress, but it was harder to run as a woman to Congress. It just amazed me that here we are now, and I was discussing this with your screener, that the Vice President of the United States is a very beautiful, intelligent, Black woman. They give her such a difficult time, but it's not for Shirley Chisholm.

She stands on shoulders of many, many people, but Shirley Chisholm was a dynamo. She was energetic. She was smart. She was pushing for the ERA, which I had written about the ERA many, many times. She had a vision, just like Martin Luther King did. She had a vision, and she was pushing for it. It's a great memory.

Brian Lehrer: Maria, thank you for that memory. Professor Fraser, we're doing this in the context of Black History Month. We could just as easily be doing this in the context of Women's History Month, right?

Zinga Fraser: Yes, definitely. She transforms, and we could do it any other month either [laughs].

Brian Lehrer: Sure.

Zinga Fraser: Because she's so relevant. She's so relevant to a discussion. Chisholm is talking about police brutality during her time when there isn't even a term around the prison industrial complex. She's engaging in a discourse that is talking about intersectionality. The ways in which your caller discussed, Chisholm, and even the opening of the segment, really talks to the ways in which Chisholm saw herself as an intersectional figure, and what the toll of being Black and being a woman, but also being someone who's unbought and unbossed.

She was disliked more because of her radicalism around policies and her inability to cow down to machine politics in a large, strong, and powerful democratic party. That's what gets, even though we love Chisholm in this present moment, we all have to remember that Chisholm was not beloved in many ways because of the politics that she embodied.

Brian Lehrer: It's so interesting to listen back to her speeches from the campaign trail in 1972. One thing that's striking is her approach to power. Here's just a 10-second clip from the speech we heard a bit of earlier, introducing her campaign. 10-seconds of Shirley Chisholm.

Shirley Chisholm: Leadership does not mean putting the ear to the ground, to follow public opinion, but to have the vision of what is necessary and the courage to make it possible.

Brian Lehrer: More oral history. Lucy in Westchester, you're on WNYC. Hi, Lucy.

Lucy: Hi. Thank you so much for this and thank you for all your shows. I just was a 10-year-old white girl in a tiny town in Minnesota in 1972. Shirley Chisholm was just my hero. Absolutely. Maybe my mom introduced her to me, I don't know, but I just was fascinated by her. Her views on women probably is what drew me to her, but I'm going to be honest, it was also her clothes [chuckles]. I grew up to be a costume designer, and she was so well dressed, and just the way she could speak and how forceful and articulate, and then she just looked so fantastic. I was mesmerized by her. I had Shirley Chisholm for President signs and pins that I made. I just thought she was amazing.

Brian Lehrer: In a small town in Minnesota. Lucy, thank you very much. At the Museum of the City of New York, Shirley Chisholm's Centennial Exhibit that you're co-curating, Dr. Fraser, there going to be anything about her clothes?

Zinga Fraser: Yes. We actually have a number of items from the film because I was a historical consultant for the new film that's coming out on Netflix on the 22nd of March with Regina King and John Ridley as the writer and producer. We'll have some great pieces of Chisholm's clothing, and talking about Chisholm as her clothing and her style also is replicative of her being bold and unbought and unbossed and going outside of the norm of what we consider to be the dress of politicians.

Brian Lehrer: Don in Manhattan worked on her campaign in 1966 when she ran for Congress, he says. Hi, Don, you're on WNYC, and I apologize, we have just 30 seconds for you.

Don: Hi, Brian. Edna Kelly was a democratic machine Congresswoman for Bedford-Stuyvesant. She very famously said that she's not worried about the Civil Rights people in Bedford-Stuyvesant because she knows [unintelligible 00:14:22] with her monkeys. Shirley Chisholm grabbed a hold of that and ran with that, and that was one of the things that got her going in '66.

Brian Lehrer: Don, thank you so much. Last question, Professor Fraser. How did Chisholm's campaign in '72 set the stage for Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns the following decade? If you think in any even for Barack Obama.

Zinga Fraser: I think in many ways it tested the possibilities of what forming a coalition that really crossed age and race and gender and class. It's something that Jesse Jackson connects to when he envisions a Rainbow Coalition, and when we think about the Obama election, the importance of young people at the center of Chisholm, '72 campaign were young people and also them getting the right to vote at the age of 18. All of those things, I think, were really a way in which was a litmus test that allowed upcoming people who were not necessarily involved in politics, but got involved in politics because Chisholm redefined what presidential elections should look like and who had the capability and should be able to run.

She's saying, "This is not the domain of just white men. We need to create a way in which we see ourselves at the highest levels in this country." For those of you who are also interested in oral histories, we do a number of oral histories at the Chisholm Project, and those of you who have any kind of engagement with Chisholm, we would love to interview you for our oral histories as well.

Brian Lehrer: Zinga Fraser is assistant professor of Africana Studies and Women's and Gender Studies and director of the Shirley Chisholm Project at Brooklyn College. Thank you so much for joining us today. This was wonderful.

Zinga Fraser: Thank you so much.

Brian Lehrer: We're going to pick it up with part 2 of our Black History Month, presidential election year looks, next week when we talk about the Jesse Jackson campaign.

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The Significance of Shirley Chisholm’s Presidential Campaign

Shirley Chisholm: the first black female U.S. Representative, first black major-party candidate for President, and the first Democratic Party woman to run.

Shirley Chisholm made history as the first black female U.S. Representative, elected in 1968 by the voters of New York’s 12th Congressional District. Then she did it again as the first major-party black candidate for President in 1972. She was also the first female Democratic Party candidate for that office (Senator Margaret Chase Smith had run as a Republican in 1964).

Chisholm (1924-2005) set the precedent for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But what do all of Chisholm’s firsts actually mean? Tammy L. Brown examines Chisholm in the context of discourses of identity and argues that she “effectively reconciled seemingly contradictory philosophies of racial, ethnic, and feminist pride with humanist and universalist ideals to win over a broad spectrum of voters.”

Chisholm’s “identity” was complex; she was female, black, American, Barbadian-American, working class, and the child of immigrants. Brown argues that her appeal transcended single definitions of gender, race, and class “by emphasizing the common desire of all Americans to lead healthy and productive lives—equally protected by the laws of the land.”

As the child of Barbadian immigrants imbued with a strong West Indian intellectual tradition, Chisholm was “translocal.” She was able to privilege one identity over others depending on the political context, and seemed very aware that all these categories were historical constructs. Translocality as defined by Brown is a process, differing from “double consciousness, dual citizenship, intersectionality, and transnationalism.” Above all, Chisholm stood at a crossroads where civil rights, black power, women’s rights, anti-war, youth culture, and the Great Society all met.

To understand what Shirley Chisholm’s long-shot run for the Presidency meant at the time, Percy Sutton’s nomination speech at the 1972 Democratic Convention in Miami Beach is a good place to start . He said Chisholm was sounding a new trumpet, “summoning each of us to march towards change, to bring out the best in ourselves, to overcome our racial fears and differences, to discard our labels, to forget our old myths and our old slogans.”

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Why Shirley Chisholm Ran for President

By: Becky Little

Updated: January 26, 2024 | Original: December 4, 2018

The Democratic National Convention was a tense scene in July of 1972. The gathering in Miami came just one month after burglars had broken into the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate. The candidate who won the presidential nomination would be the one to take on President Richard Nixon , whom most people didn’t yet suspect of orchestrating the break-in. And for the first time, one of the candidates for the Democratic challenger was a Black woman.

Shirley Chisholm had long been known for breaking barriers. Four years before, she’d become the first Black U.S. Congresswoman in history as a Representative of her New York district. When she launched her primary campaign in January of ‘72, she became the first Black person to seek the presidential nomination from one of the two major parties (the first woman was Margaret Chase Smith , who sought the Republican nomination in 1964). Her slogan was: “Unbought and Unbossed.”

From the beginning, white male journalists and politicians didn’t take her bid seriously. Norman Mailer called her campaign “quixotic” in the Wall Street Journal , writing that “few politicians, Black or white, believe it.” Chisholm’s strongest supporters were Black women, but she struggled to win support from Black men and white women. Many of them endorsed Senator George McGovern because they felt he was more likely to win against Nixon. (McGovern won the nomination and lost to Nixon in a landslide.)

Chisholm was realistic about her chances, and winning wasn’t necessarily her goal, says Anastasia Curwood , a professor of history and African American and Africana studies at the University of Kentucky who is writing a biography about Chisholm.

Shirley Chisholm: Facts About Her Trailblazing Career

She may be best known for her 1972 run for president, but Shirley Chisholm broke barriers and influenced change throughout her life.

Shirley Chisholm

Pioneering African American politician Shirley Chisholm (1924‑2005) began her professional career as a teacher. She served as director of the Hamilton‑Madison Child Care Center until the late 1950s, then as an educational consultant for New York City’s Bureau of Child Welfare. In 1968, Chisholm became the first African American to earn election to Congress, where […]

Black Women Who Have Run for President

Since 1968, 11 Black women have entered the running for the highest office in the nation.

“She ran to win, but she knew she wouldn’t win,” she says. “Her object was to create a coalition and then influence the eventual nominee at the convention.” Chisholm hoped that once she reached the convention, she could could use her coalition of delegates to negotiate with the winning candidate in favor of rights for women, Black Americans and Indigenous people.

Her opponents were all white men, but there was one in particular who stood out in relation to her: George Wallace, the former governor of Alabama who famously called for “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.” It was incredible that a Black woman and the man who had been the face of southern segregation were competing in the same primary. 

On the campaign trail, Chisholm’s “rhetoric implicitly rejected what he stood for,” says Curwood. She didn’t directly point to Wallace, but he did sometimes mention her.

“George Wallace for some strange unknown reason, he liked me,” Chisholm later said . “George Wallace came down to Florida and he went all over Florida and he said to the people, ‘if you all can’t vote for me, don't vote for those oval-headed lizards. Vote for Shirley Chisholm!’ And that crashed my votes, because they thought that I was in league with him to get votes. That’s what killed me in Florida.”

Wallace’s Democratic primary campaign effectively ended in May, when he was shot five times in a failed assassination attempt. The shooting of someone running in the same race—and the fact that it could’ve happened to her—rattled Chisholm, Curwood says. Chisholm visited Wallace in the hospital, a move that angered a lot of her supporters.

In July, Chisholm arrived at the Democratic convention with 152 delegates. This was more than those of senator Hubert Humphrey and Edward Muskie, who’d been two of the main challengers on the campaign trail (Humphrey was the Democratic candidate in 1968). Yet she was still in fourth place behind Senator George McGovern, Senator Henry Jackson, and the injured Wallace. McGovern was the clear winner with 1,729 delegates, and his lead gave him no incentive to negotiate with Chisholm for her 152.

Even though she wasn’t able to use her delegates as leverage, Chisholm knew her candidacy was necessary in shifting the paradigm in which the only white men could be considered presidential material. Her presidential run was met with hostility from racists who vandalized her campaign materials with the n-word and men who told the Chicago Daily Defender she was playing “vaginal politics." But her candidacy opened the door for other Black and female candidates to run for president.

“She said many times, I just want to show it can be done,” Curwood says. Chisholm died in 2005, three years before Barack Obama became the first Black president and nine years before Hillary Clinton became the first female nominee for one of the two major parties.

“The fact that [Chisholm] got as far as she did is pretty remarkable,” Curwood says. Still, she thinks Chisholm “would have been stunned by how long it took” to get to Obama and Clinton’s milestones.

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Declaring presidential bid - Jan. 25, 1972

I stand before you today, as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America.

I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I'm equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests.

I stand here now, without endorsements from many big-name politicians or celebrities or any other kind of prop. I do not intend to offer to you the tired and bled clichés which for too long have been accepted part of our political life.

I am the candidate of the people of America.

Fellow Americans, we have looked in vain to the Nixon administration for the courage, the spirit, the character, and the words to lift us, to bring out the best in us, to rekindle in each of us our faith in the American dream. Yet all that we have received in return is just another smooth exercise in political manipulation, deceit and deception, callousness and indifference to our individual problems, and the disgusting playing of divisive politics. Pinning the young against the old; labor against management; North against South; Black against white.

The abiding concern of this administration has been one of political expediency rather than the needs of man's nature. The president has broken his promises to us and has therefore lost his claim to our trust and confidence in him.

I cannot believe that this Administration would have ever been elected four years ago, if we had known then, what we know today.

But we are entering a new era in which we must as Americans demand stature and size in our national leadership. Leadership which is fresh, leadership which is open, and leadership which is receptive to the problems of all Americans.

I have faith in the American people. I believe that we are smart enough to correct our mistakes. I believe we are intelligent enough to recognize the talent, energy, and dedication which all Americans, including women and minorities, have to offer. I know from my travels to the cities and small towns of America that we have a vast potential, which can and must be put to constructive use in getting this great nation together. I know that millions of Americans, from all walks of life, agree with me, that leadership does not mean putting the ear to the ground, to follow public opinion, but to have the vision of what is necessary and the courage to make it possible.

Americans all over are demanding a new sensibility, a new philosophy of government from Washington. Instead of sending spies to snoop on participants at Earth Day, I would welcome the efforts of concerned citizens of all ages to stop the abuse of our environment. Instead of watching a football game on television while young people beg for the attention of their president concerning our actions abroad, I would encourage them to speak out, organize for peaceful change, and vote in November. Instead of blocking efforts to control the huge amounts of money given [to] political candidates by the rich and the powerful, I would provide certain limits on such amounts and encourage all the people of this nation to contribute small sums to the candidates of their choice. Instead of calculating the political cost of this or that policy, and a weigh in favor of this or that group, depending on whether that group voted for me in 1968, I would remind all Americans at this hour of the words of Abraham Lincoln: "A house divided cannot stand."

We Americans are all fellow countrymen. One day confronting the judgment of history in our country. We are all God's children, and a bit of each of us is as precious as the will of the most powerful general or corporate millionaire.

Those of you who were locked outside of the convention hall in 1968, those of you who can now vote for the first time, those of you who agree with me that the institutions of this country belong to all of the people who inhabit it. Those of you who have been neglected, left out, ignored, forgotten, or shunned aside for whatever reason – give me your help at this hour. Join me in an effort to reshape our society and regain control of our destiny, as we go down the Chisholm Trail of 1972.

Female Reporter: You recommend a trend for more women, specifically black women, to get involved in politics and go after elected offices?

Chisholm: Do I recommend a trend for more women, and specifically black women, to enter into politics – [corrective murmur from audience] – elected office? Yes I definitely am feeling and recognizing that as a result of over 20 years in political life, only emerging 8 years ago publicly, that there is a great need for more women in the political area. I happen to believe that there’s certain aspects of legislation that, probably, would be given much more attention if we had more women’s voice in the halls of the legislature at the city, state, and national levels. Legislation that pertains to daycare centers, education, social services, mental services. The kind of legislations that has to do with the conversation and preservation of the most important resources that any nation has – and that is its human resource.

Male Reporter: [inaudible]… will hurt the presidential candidacy of Mayor Lindsay?

Chisholm: Well Mayor Lindsay will be getting votes from the same area that I anticipate getting votes, and I dare say my candidacy might not only hurt Mayor Lindsay, it might hurt a few others who have the same political [inaudible, audience cheering].

Recording goes black for several seconds, time passage is unmarked.

And my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history. I have always earnestly believed in the great potential of America. Our constitutional democracy will soon celebrate its 200th anniversary – effective testimony to the longevity of our cherished constitution and its unique Bill of Rights which continues to give to the world an inspirational message of freedom and liberty. The Americans –

Recording jumps forward.

…or felt in remedying our ills. But …

Recording skips.

I do not believe that in 1972 the great majority of Americans will continue harbor such narrow and petty prejudices. I am convinced that the American people are in a mood to discard the politics and the political personalities of the past. I believe that they will show in 1972 and thereafter that they intend to make independent judgments on the merits of a particular candidate based on that candidate’s intelligence, character, physical ability, competence, integrity, and honesty. It is, I feel, the duty of responsible leaders in this country to encourage and maximize, not to dismiss or minimize, such judgments.

Our will can create a new America in 1972. One where there is freedom from violence and war, at home and abroad. Where there is freedom from poverty and discrimination. Where there exists at least the feeling that we are making progress in ensuring for everyone medical care, employment, and decent housing. Very more decisively clean up our streets, our water and our air. Where we work together, Black and white, to rebuild our neighborhoods and to make our cities quite attractive and efficient. And fundamentally, where we live in the confidence that every man and every woman in America has at long last the opportunity to become all that he was created of being, such as each ability. In conclusion, all of you who share in this vision – from New York to California, from Wisconsin to Florida – are our brothers and sisters on the road to national unity and a new America.

Recording jumps.

… And I’m close to forty four thousand dollars from the American people.

I want to say that in terms of my projection of three hundred thousand dollars, which was made earlier, that the benefits that are being planned and will be conducted in February, March, and April will let me, I’m quite sure, stay above that among. So I am going to be optimistic, now that I’ve made my announcement today, to able to get some sizable contributions. May I say that just this past week, I received two contributions from individuals in America, two contributions of $5,000 each – that is very encouraging.

Chisholm addresses someone in the crowd.

I can’t hear you.

I just want to say this, and it’s very important for all Americans to recognize, the United States Constitutions stipulates that anyone that is 35 years of age or over and is a natural-born citizen can run for the presidency. All of us meet that criteria. The people will make a decision.

Chisholm, S. A. [NYC Department of Records and Information Services]. (2015, April 13) Shirley Chisholm: Declares Presidential Bid, January 25, 1972 [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3JCX3WxBik ]. Retrieved on February 4, 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB5DmUOXYDxE2pj31NENZTw .

Neither the Catt Center nor Iowa State University is affiliated with any individual in the Archives or any political party. Inclusion in the Archives is not an endorsement by the center or the university.

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Fighting to be Heard: Shirley Chisholm and the Makings of a Womanist Rhetorical Framework

2019, Gender, Race, and Social Identity in American Politics: The Past and Future of Political Access, edited by Lori Montalbano

In this chapter, we examine the presidential candidacy of Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm. We argue Shirley Chisholm’s political campaign discourse is one example in a small sample of Black female public [and private] figures who make up what we call a womanist rhetorical genre. We focus our analysis on Chisholm’s words through her campaign announcement speech and her text Unbought and Unbossed. We also examine other texts, journals, and reports to augment our claims and fully explore the rhetorical legacy of political communication of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

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Professional Communication and Translation Studies

Andreea VOINA

November 8, 2016, marked the beginning of a new era in the American political setting. The Obama era was known as a period of great opening, minority friendly approach and liberal vision. Of the two candidates that were running for office in 2016, Hillary Clinton seemed to have the most similar approach to the now former president of the USA, Barack Obama; Clinton was framed as the de facto carrier and enforcer of Obama’s legacy. Feminist approaches are not gender determined; Obama himself has made a mark as a feminist leader. Clinton ran for the highest office as a pioneer of women’s representation in politics. The aim of this paper is to discover the similarities between Obama’s discursive style and Hillary’s approach. Through critical discourse analysis, we launch this research in order to emphasize gender negotiations, in terms of both content and style.

Rhetoric Review

Tamika L. Carey

The canonization of vocal African-American women scholars and activists is a trend that can obscure memory of their sophisticated persuasive techniques and political campaigns. Such has been the case with Geneva Smitherman, the noted sociolinguist and scholar activist. This essay analyzes the persuasive choices in a corpus of her earliest essays as a rhetorical campaign to situate her innovative use of antagonism and analysis within a tradition of African-American women scholars and activists who have used essay-writing as a means of sociopolitical action and to model a conceptual framework for understanding the complexity of their efforts.

Quarterly Journal of Speech

Robin Jensen

Ashley R Hall

Heeding Karma Chavez’s (2015) call to imagine rhetoric as “something entirely different,” I introduce what I call an Afrafuturist Feminist (AFF) rhetorical approach with the aim of offering one means by which rhetorical studies can move beyond normative white constructions of citizenship. In this piece, I flesh out a theoretical framework that explores the ways Black women’s truthtelling engineers rival conceptions of Blackness, creating spaces for us to reimagine what citizenship can look like in the lived experiences of Black Americans. I invoke the phrase, “in and out of frame,” to preliminarily consider how Black women like Assata Shakur and Cardi B employ rhetoric as threat to negotiate citizenship in the 20th and 21st centuries.

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