Ethical responsibility in the discourse of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

This dissertation seeks to advance our understanding of communication ethics of social movements. This study considers a philosophy of ethics in the context of the discourse and communicative action of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). From 1955 to 1968, King and the SCLC fought for civil rights for African Americans, sacrificed for blacks and whites, admonished the white establishment, and stood for the oppressed; thus, this project asserts that they exemplify ethical responsibility.; Ethical responsibility---articulated by Levinasian ethics, religious ethics, and virtue ethics---emerges in King's and the SCLC's discourse and communicative action. For philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, ethics is the self's response to the other. In Levinas' discussion of "the saying," he indicates that the one who answers the call of the other with respect, sincerity, and openness is ethical. Acknowledging that the saying requires "the said" or discourse, he cautions that the said has a totalizing power. Nonetheless, this study asserts that when the said is balanced with the saying, rhetoric can be an ethical response. This study contends that King's use of a rhetoric of admonishment was ethical because he reproached whites for discriminating against blacks, while also expressing his devotion to them. Thus King's and the SCLC's embodiment of ethical responsibility suggests that rhetoric can be ethical.; In particular, I study speeches, sermons, and essays by King as well as the communicative action of the SCLC. Through an analysis of King's discourse and the SCLC's communicative action, elements of rhetorical style, vision, and audience directives emerge. King employed a distinctive rhetorical style in response to his supporters and in order to communicate his vision. King and the SCLC enacted their vision and instructed supporters to respond to whites with love, respect, nonviolence, courage, sacrifice, magnanimity, unity, determination, and admonishment; in so doing, ethical responsibility emerges in their communication. Thus the elements of rhetorical style, vision, and audience directives illuminate how King's discourse and the SCLC's communicative action reveal ethical responsibility. Therefore, this analysis contributes to an understanding of communication ethics of social movements.