The Rhetoric of Jeremiah Wright in Historical Perspective

Ed Blum, a professor at San Diego State University and author of the recently published book -- W. E. B. Du Bois, American Prophet (2007), of which I have written a review for the March 15 issue of the Christian Century -- addresses the historical pedigree of Wright's speech. Over the course of the last two centuries, Black writers and activists from Frederick Douglass to W.E.B. Du Bois to Martin Luther King, have issued prophetic denunciations of racism, using the idea of America's Christian nationalism as a lever in the conversation. Blum sees Wright in this long tradition. It's not a word we like to hear, but it is a word that has a history and a context. I think you'll find this analysis intriguing! Click here to read.