We will read and write about the complex vocabularies and traditions that comprise African-American literature and rhetoric in the 20th and 21st centuries. Given this topic’s inherent complexity, and the skill good writers employ in constructing narratives about Black life and identity in the U.S., a serious consideration of this topic will help us to identify the kinds of arguments smart readers find compelling. By analyzing the internal grammar of good arguments, we will ourselves write smarter and more original academic prose. Towards these ends, we will dissect the rhetorical strategies and organizational structures of a variety of literary genres, and explore the literary and rhetorical possibilities of websites, movies, photographs, museum exhibits, advertisements and comic books.