Forensic Rhetoric and Racial Justice: Rhetorical Advocacy inthe Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition

Abstract

By turning to the case study of the 1893 pamphlet The Reason Why the Colored American is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition, we identify forensic rhetoric as a critical, yet under-theorized, tool of racial justice advocacy. Written by Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, Irvine Garland Penn, and Ferdinand Lee Barnett, The Reason Why challenged systemic exclusion and racial oppression by utilizing a forensic rhetoric characterized by a forensic persona, a substantive focus on past guilt, and an end goal of justice. We conclude by considering the possibilities of forensic rhetorical form in contemporary racial justice advocacy. We argue that the genre of forensic rhetoric can work with public audiences, not by enabling immediate justice, but by imagining possibilities new for justice and political being.