Call for 2011 Lifetime Service Award Nominations

Deadline: September 1, 2011

The African American Communication and Culture Division (AACCD) and the Black Caucus

(BC) seek nominations for our 2011 Lifetime Service Award. This new award is given to an

individual with a lifetime of service exemplified in both personal and professional pursuits. The

award recognizes the contributions made by an active member of NCA who does extraordinary

works of social advocacy, community service-, and/or mentoring, etc. Nominate a mentor,

colleague, and friend. All letters of nomination should articulate how the nominee’s lifetime of

service enables Black scholars in the disciplines of communication studies, journalism,

advertising, public relations, and/or mass media, to thrive in the academy, society and/or the

global community. In addition to the submission of the nomination letter, the nomination packet

should also include a copy of the following items: (1) nominee’s curriculum vita, (2) two to four

recommendation letters attesting to the nominee’s lifetime of service, and (3) any additional

supporting materials.

A committee of past chairs from AACCD and BC will review the materials in the nomination

packet(s) and select an award recipient. Moreover, the materials in the nomination packet(s) will

be uploaded to BlackCaucus.pbwiki.com. On September 15, 2011, each nominee will have a

webpage on the website. An email will be sent on the listserv with links to each nominee’s

nomination letter, CV, recommendation letters, and supporting materials. BC is using its website

to inform our membership about the amazing contributions made by their colleagues. The award

recipient for the annual lifetime service award will be honored at the 2011 NCA Convention in

New Orleans, LA.

All nomination packet materials for the service award should be sent to:

Dr. Marnel Niles

California State University, Fresno

Department of Communication

5201 North Maple Avenue

M/S SA 46

Fresno, CA 93740

You may email submission and questions to MNNiles@csufresno.edu.

Call for 2011 Outstanding Service Award Nominations

Deadline: September 1, 2011

The African American Communication and Culture Division (AACCD) and the Black Caucus

(BC) seek nominations for our 2011 Outstanding Service Award. This new award is given to an

individual who exemplifies excellence in service. The award recognizes the contributions made

by an active member of NCA who does extraordinary works of service. Service is defined as

social advocacy, community service-, and/or mentoring, etc. Nominate a mentor, colleague, and

friend. All letters of nomination should articulate how the nominee’s service enhances the

livelihood of African Americans in academia, as well as in the national and/or international

Black community. In addition to the submission of the nomination letter, the nomination packet

should also include a copy of the following items: (1) nominee’s curriculum vita, (2) two to four

recommendation letters attesting to the nominee’s service, and (3) any additional supporting

materials.

A committee of past chairs from AACCD and BC will review the materials in the nomination

packet(s) and select an award recipient. Moreover, the materials in the nomination packet(s) will

be uploaded to BlackCaucus.pbwiki.com. On September 15, 2011, each nominee will have a

webpage on the website. An email will be sent on the listserv with links to each nominee’s

nomination letter, CV, recommendation letters, and supporting materials. BC is using its website

to inform our membership about the amazing contributions made by their colleagues. The award

recipient for the annual lifetime service award will be honored at the 2011 NCA Convention in

New Orleans, LA.

All nomination packet materials for the service award should be sent to:

Dr. Marnel Niles

California State University, Fresno

Department of Communication

5201 North Maple Avenue

M/S SA 46

Fresno, CA 93740

You may email submission and questions to MNNiles@csufresno.edu.

African American Civil Rights Rhetoric in LGBTQ Politics

African American Civil Rights Rhetoric in LGBTQ Politics from Leslie Wu on Vimeo.

Dark Girls: Preview

Dark Girls: Preview from Bradinn French on Vimeo.

"Negroes Get Your Guns: The Prophetic Rhetoric of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner"

By Andre E. Johnson

Presented at the National Council of Black Studies

Atlanta, Georgia

March 19, 2009

Abstract: While not as recognized by present day audiences as W.E.B. Dubois, Booker T. Washington, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and others, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner was one of the most prolific writers and speakers during his time. This paper not only (re) introduces Turner through a rhetorical trajectory, but also examines Turner's use of prophetic rhetoric to critique and challenge his audiences to live up to their own standards and ideals.

On March 17, 1897, the New York Times carried a headline that read, “Negroes Get Guns!” The headline was in reference to AME Bishop Henry McNeal Turner’s commentary on the lynching of John Johnson and Archibald Jointry that happened in New Orleans. What made this lynching even more egregious for Turner was that it happened only a few miles away from a meeting of the AME Bishops.  The Times reported Turner calling for African Americans to get guns in an effort to protect themselves from the violence that many racist whites inflicted upon them.

Let every Negro in this country with a spark of manhood in him supply his house with one, two, or three guns or with a seven or a sixteen shooter and we advise him to keep them loaded and ready for immediate use and when his domicile is invaded by bloody lynchers or any mob by day or night, Sabbath or weekday, turn loose your missiles of death and blow your fiendish invaders into a thousand jibblets (2).

Turner advocacy of self-defense was a response not only to the lynching that was happening throughout the country, but it was also a response to the treatment many blacks faced throughout post-reconstruction. Turner found himself at odds many times with not only whites but also some blacks who during this time promoted a gradualist approach to the racial problems of the day. Turner eventually declared that there is no “manhood future for the negro” in America and steadfastly promoted emigration to Africa as the only way for African American survival.

Turner’s emigration position and his pessimistic beliefs stand in contrast to his position after the Civil War. After the Union achieved victory and slavery was officially abolished by the thirteenth amendment in 1865, Turner believed that America could finally live up to its covenant—one that promoted life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all citizens. However, over time, this position shifted.

In this essay, I chart Turner’s shift from a person full of optimism to one who could not see a future for African Americans in the United States. I do this by examining Turner rhetorical trajectory—which is a chronological examination of Turner’s rhetoric by analyzing key texts. I also examine Turner’s rhetoric as examples of prophetic discourse. I argue that Turner adopted a prophetic persona throughout his public career and that helped him find voice to articulate many of the positions that he held.

Henry McNeal Turner

Henry McNeal Turner lived a robust and many times complicated life as a preacher, newspaper columnist, chaplain, politician, postal officer, bishop, editor, publisher, author, and philosopher. Turner was born as a “free black” in New Berry Court House, South Carolina and raised primarily by his mother Sarah (Turner’s father died while he was young) and maternal grandmother Hannah Greer. Turner, though born as a free person, still experienced the harsh reality of prejudice and racism. He worked in cotton fields along side slaves as well as in a blacksmith shop under some of the harshest overseers. When Turner was “eight or nine years old,” he had a dream that placed him in front of a large crowd of both blacks and whites who looked to him for instruction (Culp 42). He interpreted the dream as God “marking him” for great things. The dream became a “guiding star” in Turner’s life—a point that Turner would always reflect on when times got tough (Angell, Bishop 9). The dream not only became a guiding light for Turner but it also gave Turner a desire for education.

As a boy, Turner fancied having an education, but state laws at the time did not allow blacks to attend school or learn how to read and write. After obtaining a spelling book, Turner attempted to learn how to read and write with the help of several people in his community. However, each time Turner would begin to study, others would find out and have the teaching stopped. Therefore, having learned only a little from his teachers, Turner attempted to learn to read and write on his own. Through the help of a divine “dream teacher,” Turner learned not only how to read and write but he also, by the time he was fifteen, had read the entire Bible five times and started a habit of memorizing lengthy passages of scripture, which helped him to develop a strong memory (Simmons 807, Batten 233).

It was also at this time that Turner found employment at a law office in Abbeville, South Carolina. The lawyers took notice of his “quick mind” and his “eagerness to learn,” and furthered Turner’s education by teaching him other subjects such as arithmetic, history, law and theology. Turner attended revival services with his mother and finally joined the Methodist church in 1848. However, his conversion would come three years later in 1851 under the preaching of plantation missionary Samuel Leard in a camp meeting at Sharon Camp Ground. Soon after his conversion, Turner accepted the call to preach. 

Licensed to preach in the Southern Methodist Church at the age of nineteen, Turner preached to large integrated audiences. However, Turner found it frustrating that the Southern Methodist Church would never ordain him and that as a licensed exhorter he had already achieved the highest level a black person could attain in the denomination. After discovering a Methodist denomination that had black bishops, Turner joined the African Methodist Episcopal church (AME) in 1858.

As an AME minister, not only was Turner ordained, but he also because a regular correspondent for the Christian Recorder, the AME weekly newspaper. In 1862, he also became pastor of the influential Israel AME church in Washington D.C. where he met many dignitaries of State. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln commissioned Turner to the office of Chaplain in the Union Army, making him the first black chaplain in any branch of the military. In this capacity, he also became a war correspondent, publishing many articles in the Christian Recorder about the trials and tribulations of the First Regiment US Colored Troops. When the Civil War ended, he found himself assigned to the Freedmen’s Bureau in Georgia as Army Chaplain.

After his service in the military, Turner turned his attention to politics. During the period of Reconstruction, and while working with the Freedmen’s Bureau, Turner became a Republican Party organizer and helped recruit and organized black voters throughout Georgia. He helped establish the first Republican State Convention, helped draft a new Georgia state constitution, and served as a Georgia state representative. However, his victory was short-lived because white members of the state legislature voted to disqualify blacks from holding elected office.

After his ouster from the Georgia state legislature, Turner became United States Postmaster in Macon, Georgia, the first black ever to hold that position. However, pressures began to mount on the federal government to dismiss Turner based on trumped up improprieties. Fired after only two weeks in office, Turner then took a position as a customs inspector in Savannah, Georgia. He held this position for several years but eventually resigned from this position because of increasing demands of the church (Simmons 816).

After resigning from his position as customs inspector, Turner focused his efforts on building the AME church in the South. His primary effort was to increase membership. By 1876, he became publications manager for the AME church. This allowed him to travel to all the districts and meet pastors and leaders of local churches. During the four years he served as publications manager, he developed a following that led to his election as one of the twelve bishops of the church. As a bishop, Turner had a national platform to espouse his ideas on race, politics, lynching, and other issues of the day. However, as racism became more of an issue for blacks, Turner increasingly became a proponent of emigration.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, after several failed attempts at an emigration plan and with the rise of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois as leaders in the black community, Turner’s influence started to wane. However, Turner remained active. He founded the Southern Recorder newspaper in 1888 as well as edited two others—the Voice of Missions (1893-1900) and the Voice of the People (1901-1904). He served as chair of the board of Morris Brown College from 1896-1908, and kept a busy schedule up to the end of his life. He was in Windsor, Ontario, at the General Conference of the AME church in 1915 when he suffered a massive stroke. He died hours later at a Windsor hospital (Angell, Bishop 248).

Prophetic Rhetoric

I define prophetic rhetoric as discourse grounded in the sacred and rooted in a community experience that offers a critique of existing communities and traditions by charging and challenging society to live up to the ideals they espoused while offering celebration and hope for a brighter future.  In addition, prophetic rhetoric, to use Darsey’s words, is “characterized by a steadfast refusal to adapt itself to the perspectives of its audience, a rhetoric in extremis, indicates something more complex than the breakdown of order; it indicates an alternative order” (5-6). Prophetic rhetoric dedicates itself to the rights of individuals, especially the poor, marginalized, and exploited members of society. It intends to lift the people to an ethical conception of the Deity (Heschel 413) by adopting a style of speaking that was “confident, unyielding, certain and bold” (Kiewe 210).

Prophetic rhetoric acts also as social criticism because it “challenges the leaders, the conventions, and the ritual practices of a particular society” by way of what society deems sacred (Walzer 33).  Prophetic rhetoric also becomes a critical rhetoric that “examines the dimensions of domination and freedom as these are exercised in relativized world” (McKerrow 91).

During the Civil War, Turner reasoned that God was in the midst of judging the country because of Black and white hostility. Only through repentance could the country get back right with God. In a sermon that appeared in the Christian Recorder in 1863, Turner challenged his congregation to support the war effort by joining the fight for freedom.

After the Civil War, Turner returned to Georgia and served in the Freedman’s Bureau. Like most blacks at the time, Turner believed the Civil War served two purposes—first to free the slaves and second, as divine retribution for the sin of slavery. Turner saw the war and its outcome as a monumental time that demanded a shift in the policy of America and believed that all Americans should celebrate emancipation.

            Therefore, when asked to keynote the Emancipation Day celebration, Turner saw himself as a prophet to all people—both blacks and whites, and he also saw himself as the conduit that could bring people together under a common cause. Turner saw emancipation as a new day or a new era for both blacks and whites to work together and help America to become the place where anyone could come and find freedom and justice. Turner’s hope arose from his belief in America’s divine mission. This mission, suppressed during the days of slavery, found a new life after emancipation, and Turner argued that America could live up to its promise of equality. It was within this divine mission that both blacks and whites could work together and Turner challenged both parties to do so.

            It was also this new-found belief in the covenantal promises of America that inspired Turner to do his work in Georgia. However, after helping to build the AME church in Georgia and involving himself in politics, Turner’s belief in the American covenant was shaken to its core when he found himself and other black representatives expelled from the Legislature on account of the white representatives belief in black inferiority. To answer this rejection, Turner, in his 1868 Eligibility speech, adopted a prophetic persona that shifted from a covenantal prophet to a representative prophet who represented now the interest of African Americans.

However, by the time of his 1893 Negro Convention speech, his prophetic persona again shifted. While he still operated as a representative prophet on the behalf of African Americans, Turner became more of a pragmatic prophet as he focused more on a plan of action than on calling his audience to celebrate or aim for some covenant. Frustrated by society’s dealings with African Americans and annoyed by African American responses to unjust treatment, Turner argued that there was no “manhood” future for blacks in America. While Turner believed that American society would never give equal rights to African Americans, his radically egalitarian commitments to equal rights and inclusion did not wane. In short, Turner believed and supported the principles of America, but argued that African Americans would never have the chance to participate in those principles while in America.

This led Turner to adopt a pessimistic prophetic persona grounded in the lament tradition of prophecy. At this time in his life, Turner had no confidence in American institutions or that the American people would live up to the promises in their sacred documents. While he still argued that emigration was the only way for African Americans to retain their “manhood” status, he also believed that African Americans would never emigrate to Africa. Turner’s position limited his rhetorical options, but by adopting a pessimistic prophetic voice that bared witness to the atrocities African Americans faced, Turner found space for his oratory, which again reflected itself within the lament tradition of prophecy.

In other words, Turner became a wailing and moaning prophet whose primary function is to speak out on the behalf of others and to chronicle their pain and suffering as well as his own. Traditionally a lament is a woeful complaint done primarily in private by an individual that highlights issues and problems that a person or group faces. Turner’s lamentations however, are different. First, Turner’s lamentations are not private but public and second, instead of directly addressing God, Turner’s lamentations address the public. Therefore, Turner practices a public lamentation that invites all who hear (or read) his words to understand his frustration and pain but also to know and to understand something about the pain and frustration of the people he claims to represents.  Consistent with the lament tradition, Turner does not expect anything to change—racism, lynching, and all the other problems African Americans faced would continue. His goal is simply to speak and to get his audience to hear. Thus, Turner’s prophecy becomes a record chronicling the pains and sufferings of the people he claims to represent and to give voice to the voiceless.

            Turner’s laments are all the more relevant to study because it differs from much of African American rhetoric during this period. Regardless of whether it was an assimilationist/integrationist response or one of accommodation, these responses had embedded within them one similar feature—a hope for a bright and glorious future for blacks in America. This bright future found resonance in the oft promoted successes gained by blacks since Emancipation—successes that included property ownership, educational achievements, number of businesses opened and maintained, and the religious advancement of African Americans. This is not to say that African American assimilationist/integrationist and accommodationist leaders did not mention the struggles and suffering that took place within the African American community—it just was not the focus of much of their rhetoric.

            Turner on the other hand, not only highlighted the pain and suffering of African Americans, but also made it the focus of his rhetoric. This focus fit within the lament tradition of prophecy—a tradition that could house Turner’s bitterness and anger with both the system that would not allow blacks to take part and with what he believed to be the apathetic nature of many black leaders. At the same time, it gave Turner a voice as a pessimistic prophetic who declared, “There is no manhood future in the United States for the Negro.”

In addition, Turner’s prophetic pessimism allowed him to become more philosophical and allowed for a deep and more penetrating analysis of the current situations facing African Americans. In his Fatherland speech we get a glimpse of what would become a staple for Turner throughout the rest of his life—a sharpened focus on black identity and self-respect. While many scholars recognize DuBois as the father of black identity studies because of his oft-cited “double consciousness” phrase, Turner first saw how a flawed construction of identity would be detrimental to African Americans. Grounded in his prophetic pessimism, Turner saw what social scientists and cultural critics would later acknowledge in the twentieth century—that segregation had an injurious effect upon African Americans. 

Turner’s pessimism continued throughout the rest of his life. As Turner’s pessimism grew, Turner also became bitter and more forceful in his attacks against society and other African Americans who found hope in anti-emigration policies such as integration and accommodation. However, it was within the lament tradition that Turner could still find relevance as an orator by not only offering critiques of society but also offering critiques of black leadership.

By this time, Turner’s representative persona shifted from African Americans in general to primarily Southern blacks—the ones who faced most of the oppression and the ones more open to emigration. Turner’s constant call for emigration would have sounded very hopeful to many people of the South who had nothing to lose, but also just as hopeful were the constant reminders of injustice that affected Southern blacks, because through Turner’s oratory, many blacks felt heard as well.

Conclusion

To contemporary eyes and ears, Turner’s rhetoric does not have a place. In many instances, he is mean, crude, cruel, bombastic, and obnoxious. He is at times dogmatic and unwavering in his positions and opinions. However, I suggest that this is not a reason to dismiss Turner—indeed; I further suggest it is the very reason why we should hear Turner’s voice.  It is out of this anger that Turner professes his love for all people and his desire that America, by way of inclusion in the covenant, or African Americans, by way of emigration, do the right thing. The very fact that Turner stayed in America and continued to live in the South when he had opportunity to go to Africa as bishop and live a comfortable life or move up North in America for a better existence than in the South, attested to his prophetic spirit not to give up on himself nor the people he represented.

In addition, another reason for the study of Turner’s rhetoric is that Turner anticipated many of the social movements in African American culture during the twentieth century. W.E.B. Dubois’ idea of “cultural nationalism,” Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa movement,” the modern day Civil Rights movement, the Black power movement, James Cone’s Black Theology of Liberation, and even some elements of nationalist rap found in the hip-hop culture of today, owe a debt to Turner’s work and progressive insights.

Moreover, Turner offered a third way in African American rhetorical discourse in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many historians and rhetoric scholars have called this period of African American history as the Washington and DuBois era. Many maintained that African Americans wanted either accommodation or integration. However, Turner rejected both positions and offered emigration as a possible solution to the problems African Americans faced. While many blacks did not accept emigration as a solution, many did, but due to the lack of resources, they could not emigrate. It was through Turner’s prophetic pessimism and bearing witness to the ills faced by many African Americans during this time that gave many African Americans a sense of pride and courage to face whatever came their way. It is also, why he could tell harassed and tortured black people to, “get your guns and may God give you good aim when you shoot.”

Is Cornel West Right Or Has He Lost His Mind?

Perhaps the single most influential and most celebrated member of the black intelligentsia, Dr. Cornel West, is under fire for some highly controversial remarks he made concerning President Barack Obama. Here’s what he said.

“I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men. It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation. When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening. And that’s true for a white brother.”

First of all, what so many of us, as well as our African-American leaders forget is that President Obama is the president of the entire country. He was NOT elected President of Black America only. In fact, he didn’t even really begin to gain the support of African-American voters until he had begun to prove himself as a viable candidate due to his popularity among White voters in the early primaries. Name a POTUS (even Bill Clinton, who we claimed as the first Black president based mainly on stereotypical behavior such as smoking marijuana, playing the sax, and sleeping around—a post for another day) who was able to really focus on the types of issues we’re asking our current president to deal with, including a grossly race-biased justice system, the strength of the Black dollar, lack of  jobs and education.

Read the rest here

2011 NCA Nominations for the African American Communication and Culture Division and Black Caucus Outstanding Research Awards

The African American Communication & Culture Division (AACCD) and the Black Caucus of NCA seek nominations for the 2011 annual research awards.  We will grant awards to the author(s) of theory and/or research on specific issues of concern to African Americans, Black Ethnics, or people of the African Diaspora representing a variety of communication contexts, processes, practices, theory development, or innovative research approaches. There will be one award in each of the following four categories: outstanding (1) book, (2) refereed article, (3) book chapter, and (4) dissertation.  I.     Call for Outstanding Book Nominations:  The African American Communication and Culture Division and the Black Caucus seek nominations for its 2011 Outstanding Book Award given to the author(s) or editor(s) of an outstanding scholarly book. Books published between July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011 will be eligible for consideration.  Book nominations may include authored books, edited books, and textbooks. Self-nominations are strongly encouraged.  All letters of nomination should clearly explicate how the book makes, or promises to make, a significant contribution to African American communication scholarship.  In addition, the nomination letter should note specifically which single chapter is best representative of the nominated book.   You should email the nomination letter, a copy of the table of contents, and the introductory chapter of the nominated book to the awards committee chair, if possible.  If it is not feasible to email the book award's nomination letter, table of contents, and introductory chapter, you may mail four (4) copies of all materials. Also, ask the book publisher to mail a hard copy of the book. II.    Call for Outstanding Scholarly Article Award Nominations: The African American Communication and Culture Division and Black Caucus seek nominations for its 2011 Outstanding Scholarly Article Award to be given to the author(s) of a journal article. Articles published between July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011 are eligible for consideration.  Self-nominations for the article award are strongly encouraged.  All letters of nomination should clearly explicate how the article makes, or promises to make, a significant contribution to African American communication scholarship.  Please send an electronic copy of the letter of nomination and a copy of the journal article.   III.     Call for Outstanding Scholarly Book Chapter Nominations: The African American Communication and Culture Division and Black Caucus seek nominations for its 2011 Outstanding Scholarly Book Chapter to be given to the author(s) of a book chapter. Chapters or thought-provoking essays published between July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011 are eligible for consideration.  Self-nominations for the book chapter award are strongly encouraged.  All letters of nomination should clearly explicate how the book chapter makes, or promises to make, a significant contribution to African American communication scholarship.  Be sure to include the author and title of the book in which the chapter appears.  It is preferred to email the letter of nomination and a copy of the book chapter, however if it is not feasible to email the book chapter you may mail four (4) copies.    IV.     Call for Outstanding Dissertation Award Nominations The African American Communication and Culture Division and Black Caucus seek nominations for its 2011 Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. The advisor of the dissertation committee or a faculty member should make nominations from the department in which the dissertation was completed.  Students of dissertations defended between July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011 are eligible. The nomination packet must include a cover letter written by the advisor or faculty nominator and the following: (1) a 500-word (maximum) abstract of the dissertation; and (2) an article-length report of the dissertation (32 double-spaced pages maximum-including title page, tables, figures, appendices, and references) OR a selection from the dissertation the applicant thinks is most representative of the study (32 double-spaced pages maximum). It is preferred to send an electronic copy of all materials, however if it is not feasible to email the dissertation materials you may mail four (4) copies.   Please note the following about all award nominations:   * All requested materials should be sent electronically to: ajohnson@memphisseminary.edu * Where it is necessary to send hard copies, mail the documents in quadruplets to: Dr. Andre E. Johnson Memphis Theological Seminary Awards Committee Chair  168 E. Parkway Memphis, Tennessee 38104 * We will accept nominations for works published only between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011. * At least one author must be an NCA member. * We will announce the award recipients during the African American Communication and Culture division's business meeting at the NCA convention in New Orleans , and award winners should agree to attend the conference to receive their award in person. * We will not consider nominations for yourself or others without a statement of nomination and the accompanying publication.   * The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2011.  * You may email any questions to ajohnson@memphisseminary.edu