David G. Holmes – författare

This book explores various historical misconceptions related to the civil rights movement, with each chapter discussing how a particular misconception developed and spread and what we now believe to be the truth behind the myth.Largely identified with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights movement continues to have a lasting impact on American politics and society. Though focused on African Americans, it helped make possible later protests by other groups. As one of the most important movements in modern U.S. history, it has been at the center of a number of historical misconceptions. This book examines some mistaken ideas about the civil rights movement and the truths behind the myths.Each chapter is devoted to a particular historical misconception about the civil rights movement, such as the belief that Southern whites were not civil rights activists or that the movement ended with King. Chapters discuss how the misconception developed and spread, along with what we now believe to be the historical truth and why. Quotations from primary sources provide evidence for the historical facts and fictions, and a selected, general bibliography directs readers to additional sources of information.Chapters individually discuss misconceptions related to the civil rights movementEach chapter considers how a historical misconception developed and spread, along with what we now believe to be the truth behind the mythQuotations from primary source documents provide evidence for the mistaken beliefs and the historical truthsA selected, general bibliography directs users to additional resources

Among pivotal historical moments in the United States, the civil rights movement stands out. In Where the Sacred and Secular Harmonize: Birmingham Mass Meeting Rhetoric and the Prophetic Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, David G. Holmes offers an original rhetorical analysis of six speeches delivered during the 1963 civil rights campaign in Birmingham, Alabama. Holmes frames his analysis within the biblical concept of prophecy. However, he stresses the idea of prophecy as sociopolitical forth-telling, rather than mystical foretelling. Based on his own transcriptions from rare recordings, Holmes examines how these orations, which clergy and laypeople delivered, address enduring themes such as the role of religion and politics, black leadership and black activism, and the political and popular legacies of the civil rights movement.Drawing upon American history, politics, hermeneutics, homiletics, and rhetoric, Holmes''s discussion ranges from civil rights prophets to contemporary politicians, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. Where the Sacred and Secular Harmonize illustrates how the Birmingham mass meeting oratory of 1963 represented a quality of democratic discourse desperately needed today.