African American Rhetoric(s): Interdisciplinary Perspectives is an introduction to fundamental concepts and a systematic integration of historical and contemporary lines of inquiry in the study of African American rhetorics. Edited by Elaine B. Richardson and Ronald L. Jackson II, the volume explores culturally and discursively developed forms of knowledge, communicative practices, and persuasive strategies rooted in freedom struggles by people of African ancestry in America.

Outlining African American rhetorics found in literature, historical documents, and popular culture, the collection provides scholars, students, and teachers with innovative approaches for discussing the epistemologies and realities that foster the inclusion of rhetorical discourse in African American studies. In addition to analyzing African American rhetoric, the fourteen contributors project visions for pedagogy in the field and address new areas and renewed avenues of research. The result is an exploration of what parameters can be used to begin a more thorough and useful consideration of African Americans in rhetorical space.

Elaine B. Richardson, an associate professor of English and applied linguistics at Penn State University, is the author of African American Literacies and Hiphop Literacies.

Ronald L. Jackson II, an associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State University, is the author of Scripting the Black Masculine Body: Identity, Discourse, and Racial Politics in Popular Media.

“This is an important project, given the role . . . of African American rhetorics in the American experiment.”—Bradford T. Stull, author of Amid the Fall, Dreaming of Eden: Du Bois, King, Malcolm X, and Emancipatory Composition