Lincoln and Douglas meet the abolitionist David Walker as prisoners debate slavery: Empowering education, applied communication, and social justice

Abstract

This essay offers a case study of an attempt to merge scholarly research and political engagement via an empowering applied communication of social justice. First, a prison project is examined in which students/prisoners re‐staged the 1858 Lincoln/Douglas debates as a more fully representative three‐way debate including Lincoln, Douglas, and the black abolitionist, David Walker. Second, the essay outlines some “outreach” strategies that extended the pedagogical and political energies of the classroom into the larger site of the prison itself. Third, descriptions are offered of some outreach strategies that proved effective in launching the energies of the prison classroom into the loose community of prison‐rights activists, politically engaged scholars, and friends and families of prisoners. Interwoven throughout the essay is information regarding the political‐economy of the “correctional‐industrial‐complex” and the voices of students/prisoners.