Empowering Rhetoric: Black Students Writing Black Panthers.

Abstract

W hen Black Panther Party (BPP) documents enter the public space of the classroom, the possibility for students developing their own empowering rhetorics is heightened. In this article, I explore the political and pedagogical relevance of BPP documents in a critical reading and writing intensive classroom. I am concerned specifically with classroom publics and the use of BPP autobiographies and the BPP's Platform and Program "What We Want, What We Believe" with Black students who represent the minority at Miami University. I