Remembering Crispus Attucks

Race, rhetoric, and the politics of commemoration

Bibliographic Data

ID9236397
AuthorsStephen H Browne (Engineering Arts (United States), corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume85
Issue2
Pages169-187
Publication date1999-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueQuarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00335639909384252
OpenAlexW1971877434
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited18

The symbolic career of Crispus Attucks provides a disturbing lesson in the politics of commemoration. This essay examines a complex process of rhetorical expropriation, whereby the rhetorical weight of the revolutionary hero was shifted from its origins in African American traditions of resistance onto grounds of racial accomodation. The work of public memory required to fund, build, and present the Crispus Attucks Memorial is treated here as evidence for the claim that people not only remember, but get remembered, and that under conditions of historical inequality, getting remembered must take on a politics of its own

Aesthetics · Art · HERO · Linguistics · Literature · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Race (biology) · Resistance (ecology) · Rhetoric · Rhetorical criticism · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Literature, Film, and Journalism Analysis · Media Studies and Communication · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies

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