Summer of 2020

Andre E. Johnson is associate professor of rhetoric and media studies and a university research fellow at the University of Memphis. He is author of No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and editor of The Speeches of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner: The Press, the Platform, and the Pulpit, both published by University Press of Mississippi. Amanda Nell Edgar studies issues of race and racism as they intersect with other identities, particularly gender and class. She is author of Culturally Speaking: The Rhetoric of Voice and Identity in a Mediated Culture. Together, Johnson and Edgar are coauthors of The Struggle over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter.

By centering the voices of BLM activists, The Summer of 2020 offers an informative, fresh perspective on and deepens extant analysis of the Black Lives Matter movements. - Patricia G. Davis, coeditor of Rupturing Rhetoric: The Politics of Race and Popular Culture since Ferguson Through exceptional writing, The Summer of 2020 walks the line between popular discourse and academic argument in order to document and comment from ‘on the ground’ work of the Black Lives Matter movement." - Daniel White Hodge, author of Baptized in Dirty Water: Reimagining The Gospel According to Tupac Amaru Shakur

• Introduction: One More Long, Hot SummerChapter 1: "I Saw the Video": George Floyd and the Meaning of Black Lives MatterChapter 2: "Face the Fear and Do It Anyway": Protesting in the Face of Compounding ThreatsChapter 3: "What’s More Important Is the Bigger Picture": Intersectionality as a Personal InvestmentChapter 4: "It’s an Extension of My Faith": The Role of Faith, Religion, and Spirituality in the BLM MovementChapter 5: "It’s How We Pick Our Enemy": BLM and the Role of Electoral PoliticsChapter 6: "This Is Live? This Is Real?": Streaming a MovementConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex