Mothering a Legacy: Lucy McBath and Revolutionary Motherhood in Black Women's Political Rhetoric

Lucy McBath, renowned for her advocacy against gun violence, defied expectations as the first Black woman to represent Georgia's predominantly white 6th congressional district. Given the constraints that Black women face in politics, McBath's campaign offers an important case for studying how Black women utilize motherhood rhetoric for political agency. We argue that McBath's rhetoric, rooted in revolutionary motherhood, constructs motherhood as fearful, empowered, and collective. It acknowledges the precarity of children's lives in a cultural context where they are always at risk. Still, it also insists that through collective action, mothers can protect children. The study contributes to rhetorical theory by showing how revolutionary motherhood can serve as public rhetoric and how Black women strategically use rhetoric to challenge racial domination.