African American Women's Rhetoric is a comprehensive study of the ways in which African American women in politics, education, business, and other social contexts have tried to persuade their audiences to value what they say and who they are. Through detailed examinations of the rhetoric of a variety of women in important periods in American history, Deborah Atwater reveals that African American women today who engage in speech in the public sphere (such as Condoleezza Rice, Barbara Jordan, and others) stem from an important lineage of active, outspoken women.