The Power of Rhetorical Appeal

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i feel the power of that rhetorical appeal, but if we're honest about what jefferson meant, he was not promising that to black people. That's a powerful rhetorical appeal. And for that reason, i understand why activists and organizers have not taken that off the table. But it really wasn't a promise. He wasn't promising the thing tthatth doctor king is talking about,. Right? As we heard.

“All men are created equal.” Those words, from the Declaration of Independence, are central to the story that Americans tell about ourselves and our history. But what did those words mean to the man who actually wrote them? By John Biewen, with guest Chenjerai Kumanyika.

Key sources for this episode:

Nell Irvin Painter, The History of White People

Ibram Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning

The Racial Equity Institute