Critical Introduction

Welcome to our blog about civil rights and police brutality. We are five undergraduate students in the College Park Scholars program at the University of Maryland. After studying rhetoric in our English classes, we learned different ways to analyze a text through rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos. We were all very interested in how civil rights has evolved within our society from the 1960s to today; whether through the protests of such issues as police brutality that were awoken by the deaths of Emmett Till and Freddie Gray or the continual unfair treatment of African Americans. We were mostly interested in the impact of pop culture as it related to educating and helping society grieve these situations.

We have chosen two songs, that we believe showcase the evolvement of the civil rights movement in society today; “River” by Leon Bridges and  “The Death of Emmett Till” by Bob Dylan. “River” by Leon Bridges was written directly after the Baltimore Uprising, a series of racial riots, and captures the pain, the bonding, the growth, and the unity of the African American community. The songs sends a message to the community to remain hopeful and have faith for the better. Bob Dylan’s song “The Death of Emmett Till” describes Emmett Till’s death, Dylan uses his publicity to cry for America’s attention to the horror. Both of these songs work together, despite the difference in time, to call notice to the injustices within our society and to encourage America to change for the better.

Our blog begins with the discussion of the logos behind both of the songs. Neither song encompassed statistics and facts but rather the authors appeal to the audience through vivid detail. Following, we discussed pathos of both songs, providing the audience with a deeper understanding of the emotional aspect of the texts. After logos and pathos, we decided to explain a variety of appeals such as ethos, kairos, audience appeal and stasis theory. These appeals give the audience further understanding of the text and their backgrounds.

In “The Death of Emmett Till”, Bob Dylan vividly describes how Emmett Till was murdered and the process of the court trial through detailed lyrics that follow a chronological order. This process educates listeners about the horrific event and provides a deeper insight into the unjust treatment towards African Americans in the 1960s. Leon Bridges presented logos in both lyrics and scenes within the music video. Bridges provides detail to educate us on the tragedy of the protests by showing scenes of a man covered in blood walking on an empty street, a child sitting alone looking outside of the window and people banging police cars with cones in the TV in the room. He weaves pathos into his logos by showing scenes of both the brutality in the beginning  and the sense of optimism at the end.

As the authors made their own rhetorical statements through the expressions of these songs, we too hope that our blog presents an understanding of the relevance and impact of civil right and racial injustice had and continue to has in our society. Our goal is to educate the younger generation about unfair treatment towards different races, so that in the future this problem can cease to exist. Hopefully readers will leave this blog with new insights about the origin and impact of civil rights and the issues of police brutality.