Black Women’s Commemorative Recovery: Strategic Ambiguity as a Rhetorical Resource in The Embrace

Abstract

When The Embrace, a monument to Martin and Coretta King, was unveiled in Boston in 2023, it drew mixed reactions from various quarters of the public. Some observers praised the statue for its representation of the Kings as a couple and praised the universal themes of love and unity they read into it, while others criticized its disembodied presentation and suggested it was not an appropriate commemoration of the work performed by such venerated figures. A significant element in the public’s interpretation of the monument involved its location in Boston, a city widely perceived to be uniquely plagued by memories of racist reaction. In this essay, I argue that, in a discursive context in which enduring memories of racist reaction constitute part of the city’s place meaning, the monument’s ambiguous presentation functions as an important rhetorical resource in recovering narratives of Black women’s agency during the civil rights movement. The resourcefulness of this form of strategic ambiguity is strengthened when the erection of monuments in prominent public spaces comprises an important element of contemporary campaigns to achieve racial justice.