In their new roles as congressmen after the Civil War, blacks, for the first time in American history, advanced views of civil rights that reflected black perspectives. One scheme for analyzing black rhetoric suggests that black congressmen did not share the perspective held by many whites--that blacks were inept individuals. Rather, the black congressman's rhetorical perspectives attempted to illuminate relationships based not upon casual coexistence, but upon more permanent relationships as exemplified in analyses from definitions, examples, or testimony under specific rhetorical strategies. Thus, as noted by R. E. Nebergall, when defining entities or citing examples, black congressmen attempted to "capture essences," which dealt "with fundamental and unchanging properties." Testimony also proved to be an important source of analysis for black congressmen. Much of the testimony given was carefully selected from authoritative sources or eyewitnesses. By establishing the characteristics of blacks as legitimate members of society (as illuminated by their rhetorical strategy of participation and related analyses) or the justification for Congress to pass the pending civil rights bill (as illuminated by their rhetorical strategy of justification and related analyses), black congressmen endeavored to raise society's level of consciousness. (HOD)