Speaking at Selma: Presidential Commemoration and Bill Clinton's Problem of Invention

In: Presidential studies quarterly: official publication of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, Band 44, Heft 2, S. 267-289

Abstract

This article explores the multiple challenges President Bill Clinton faced when he spoke in Selma, Alabama, at the thirty‐fifth anniversary commemoration of Bloody Sunday. Given the symbolic weight of Selma within public memory, its centrality within U.S. nationalistic narratives about equality and Clinton's own personal and political persona, the president had to operate within narrow rhetorical parameters on this occasion. His response was to both observe and depart from norms of presidents' commemorative discourse. An analysis of the speech suggests Clinton commemorated Bloody Sunday less than he memorialized the U.S. presidency, invigorating memories of its past and future power.