Proverb Masters

Shaping the Civil Rights Movement

Raymond Summerville

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781496852489
• eBook ISBN:
  9781496852564
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Civil Rights in Politics
• Index: Social Sciences

In Proverb Masters: Shaping the Civil Rights Movement, author Raymond Summerville explores how proverbs and proverbial language played a significant role in the long civil rights era. Proverbs have been used throughout history to share and disseminate brief, powerful statements of truth and philosophical insight. Oftentimes, these sayings have helped unite people in struggles for social justice, serving as rallying cries for just causes. During the civil rights era, proverbs allowed leaders to craft powerful and evocative messages. These statements needed to be made implicitly, as explicit messages were often met with retaliation and even violence.

Looking at the autobiographies, biographies, speeches, diaries, letters, and critical texts of Charles W. Chesnutt, Ida B. Wells, A. Philip Randolph, Bob Dylan, Malcom X, Stokely Carmichael, and Septima Clark, the volume analyzes how these figures employed proverbs in support of social justice causes and in civil rights struggles. Summerville argues that these individuals generated enough print material embedded with proverbs and proverbial language that they should be considered proverb masters. With chapters dedicated to each figure, Summerville reveals their adept uses of this powerful linguistic tool.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction: Proverbs and Social Justice
• Chapter One: “Eternal Vigilance Is the Price of Liberty”: The Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings of Ida B. Wells-Barnett
• Chapter Two: “Literature Is the Expression of Life”: Sayings, Proverbs, and Proverbial Expressions of Charles W. Chesnutt
• Chapter Three: “Winning Freedom and Exacting Justice”: A. Philip Randolph’s Use of Proverbs and Proverbial Language
• Chapter Four: “Words Are but Wind”: The Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings of Bob Dylan
• Chapter Five: “Each One, Teach One”: The Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions of Septima Poinsette Clark
• Chapter Six: “You Can’t Hate the Roots of a Tree and Not Hate the Tree, You Can’t Hate Africa and Not Hate Yourself”: The Important Proverbs, Sayings, and Proverbial Expressions of Malcolm X
• Chapter Seven: “Black Power” and Black Rhetorical Tradition: The Proverbial Language of Stokely Carmichael
• Conclusion: Proverbs Shaping Legacies
• Notes
• Works Cited
• Index