Most people know the greats of the civil rights movement: Ralph David Abernathy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Al
143 Martin explains that the Carter people “basically asked me what did I do with LBJ and JFK, as far as the black constituency was concerned.” The overall goal of the “general program [was] tightening the relationship [of] the shakers in and movers in the black national community with the administration.” Louis E. Martin, Soapes Interview, 1, 3.
Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, and others.144 Martin himself often spoke of Langston Hughes, A. Philip Randolph, Lester Granger, and Ralph Bunche as he noted African Americans who had made significant contributions to the advancement of the race.145 Based on his
remarkable accomplishments as a journalist for the African American community, his work with four presidents on behalf of Blacks and other underrepresented minorities, and his various efforts in academic and civic contexts, Louis Martin’s name deserves to be part of the list of people who made the civil rights movement progress, however smoothly or haltingly, throughout six
tumultuous decades.
My project brings Martin out of the background where he worked so hard for the career advancement of others, and puts him in plainly visible sight, like Poinsett’s work, but with a focus on his rhetoric.146 Martin’s love of and expertise in language led him to use it as the means to advance the cause he so fervently believed in: that African Americans must be allowed access to and take all opportunities to achieve first-class citizenship. His access to key people both in local and national government and outside of government made him uniquely able to articulate and advance the cause of Blacks by means of rhetorical agitation. The textual evidence he left behind is so-called propaganda at its finest. In the following chapter, I begin to examine those texts from the early era of Martin’s rhetoric, when he was transitioning from journalist to political strategist for the Kennedy and Johnson campaign of 1960.
144 Hanes Walton writes, “few in academic, scholarly, popular, and political circles know of [Louis Martin], and even fewer would see or cast him as a civil rights leader on par with King, Abernathy, and Young.” Hanes Walton, Jr., Rev. of Walking with Presidents: Louis Martin and the Rise of Black Political Power, by Alex Poinsett. Presidential Studies Quarterly 29.2 (June 1999): 509.
145 Louis E. Martin, Edwin Session #1, 22. 146
Alex Poinsett wrote Martin’s biography to “[bring] Louis Martin out of the shadows and onto center stage where he belongs.” My project focuses on the “lines” he delivered on stages across the country—his public address. Alex Poinsett, Walking with Presidents, xi.
2 EARLY OPTIMISM
“I take my stand with the optimists.”1
The first era of Martin’s speech writing coincides with his increased official participation in the Democratic National Committee (DNC). He first worked with the DNC as a journalist, representing the African American press as early as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1944 campaign. His subsequent journalistic involvement in documenting the everyday challenges faced by African Americans led him to become involved with John F. Kennedy’s entourage in the 1960 campaign, also initially as a journalist. Once Kennedy won the election, Martin served as an advisor to and rhetorical surrogate for Kennedy.2 Martin’s role as spokesperson appears in his early speeches in which he enthusiastically details Kennedy’s plans for the nation. He assumed a similar role when Johnson took office and remarked, at length, on Johnson’s many policies and programs which would improve the lot of African Americans. Later in this era, Martin turned his critical lens on Republican activities in Washington. Martin’s speeches are rich repositories of information about the turbulent times in which he wrote.
The texts of thirteen complete speeches are available from the early 1960s until Martin joins President Carter’s administration late in 1978, which marks the beginning of what I call the second era of his speeches (detailed in the next chapter). In Martin’s early addresses, we can see how his career as a journalist facilitated not only his fact-finding and communication skills in the political arena, but also brought him into contact with numerous key figures in African American
1 Louis E. Martin, “The Emancipation Proclamation—100 Years Thereafter,” North Carolina College, Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Association of Social Science Teachers and the Annual Meeting of Sigma Rho Sigma Honorary Society, Durham, NC, (26 Apr. 1963), In Roy L. Hill The Rhetoric of Racial Hope, ([S.I.: s.n.] Buffalo: University Press, 1976) 133. Hereafter cited as Louis E. Martin, “Emancipation Proclamation.”
2
Martin’s move to the White House was detailed in “Hint Martin Set For White House,” Atlanta Daily World 17 Apr. 1962: 1.
communities around the country. These individuals, as evidenced by Martin’s calling them to action, were the prime players in advancing civil rights in this tumultuous time. Martin argued that dedicated and principled people could begin to make changes to promote and attain first- class citizenship for African Americans all across the country.
In this chapter I argue that Martin forms the foundation of his plan for advancement for minorities, specifically African Americans, in these early addresses. The foundation he
establishes in these speeches persists throughout the subsequent two eras of his rhetoric. He is extremely attentive to the audiences at hand and extols their local achievements, thus showing the importance of Blacks’ inclusion in the political process originating at the local level. Martin details and justifies his proposals for action by focusing on a few key concepts, including, most notably, the importance of voting, which he calls a “birthright.”3 While Martin does speak to issues of racism with the cold, factual tone of a pragmatic journalist, his speeches in this early era also exude infectious optimism for a future of genuine equality and first-class citizenship for all Americans, regardless of color.
In what follows, I provide evidence for my argument and attendant claims in roughly chronological order, citing relevant passages in the thirteen complete speeches of this early era. Taken together, these speeches provide a clear starting point for the evaluation of Martin’s corpus of rhetoric which will then inform an analysis of the two later eras of his orations: during his time with the Carter administration (Chapter 3) and after his Carter appointment until his last speech delivered in 1990 (Chapter 4). This chapter proceeds as follows: first I provide some background information about Martin’s formative years and activities as a journalist and editor turned political advisor in the Democratic party leading up to his involvement with the Kennedy
3
Louis E. Martin, “Winds of Change,” Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, (11 June 1970), in Library of Congress, Louis Martin Papers, Box 7, Folder 10, Speeches & Writings File, Speech File, 1970-1977, 6. Hereafter cited as Louis E. Martin, “Winds of Change.”
campaign and administration. Then, I detail the context of the first era in which Martin gave his speeches. This section focuses specifically on Martin’s time working with the DNC—an
organization which provided a launching pad for his increasingly political endeavors.
Then, I take a look at the various audiences Martin addressed in each of these speeches— ranging from college students, to community activists, to formal political delegations. The section on audience facilitates a discussion of critical localism—establishing the identity of the audiences and where they were based shows how potentially broad Martin’s oratorical reach and influence were among various communities of color.
With the context and audience of these speeches in mind, I turn to the major themes and proposals Martin used during this era which form the foundation for his overall philosophy on how consistent agitation, involvement, and action were critical to beginning to secure the rights of citizenship for Blacks in America. These key concepts include his insistence on African Americans’ involvement in the political process, his attempt to redefine African American identity, his insistence on the purposeful use of the vote and the dollar, and his persistence in getting Blacks into positions of power both in government and the judiciary. Martin’s idiolect4 is particularly apparent in his treatment of these themes as he crafts a pragmatic argument5 for his prescription for change. To make his argument, Martin looks carefully and critically at the historical context of the past and present—assessing both opportunities and constraints and how
4
Jeanne Fahnestock writes that an idiolect is a “personal pattern of usage.” Jeanne Fahnestock, Rhetorical Style: The Uses of Language in Persuasion (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011) 83. Hereafter cited as Jeanne Fahnestock, Rhetorical Style.
5 Pragmatic argument was appropriate for Martin to use because it is generally “used to support a policy claim.” Martin consistently supported policies like voting, spending wisely, and electing Blacks to government positions. See James Jasinski, “Pragmatic Argument,” in Sourcebook on Rhetoric: Key Concepts in Contemporary Rhetorical Studies (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2001) 41. For more on pragmatic argument, see: Ch. Perelman, “Pragmatic Argument,” Philosophy 34.128 (Jan. 1959): 18-27. See also Kenneth Burke, A Grammar of Motives (Berkeley: University of California, 1945) 276, 277. For a case study of pragmatic argument, see Denise M. Bostdorff and Steven R. Goldzwig, “Idealism and Pragmatism in American Foreign Policy Rhetoric: The Case Of John F. Kennedy and Vietnam,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 24.3 (Summer 1994): 515-530.
they have changed over time, since, as he explains, “Change is inevitable.”6 He often calls upon historical anecdotes from both his own history and the past of revered civil rights predecessors to show progress in the movement. From his experiences in his early formative years, Martin was able to construct a foundation for his strategy to achieve first-class citizenship for all Americans of color. I close with a brief assessment of Martin’s take on the potential for progress in civil rights under Republican presidents Nixon and Ford, and a prelude to Martin’s work with Carter.