political_talk

LYNDON B. JOHNSON: SPEECH TO CONGRESS INTRODUCING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson's Message to the Congress The American Promise

March 15, 1965

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress:

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy.

I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause.

There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed.

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight.

For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great Government--the Government of the greatest Nation on earth.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON: Commencement Address at Howard University on Affirmative Action, 1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson's Commencement Address at Howard University on June 4, 1965

Dr. Nabrit¹, my fellow Americans:

I am delighted at the chance to speak at this important and this historic institution. Howard has long been an outstanding center for the education of Negro Americans. Its students are of every race and color and they come from many countries of the world. It is truly a working example of democratic excellence.

Our earth is the home of revolution. In every corner of every continent men charged with hope contend with ancient ways in the pursuit of justice. They reach for the newest of weapons to realize the oldest of dreams, that each may walk in freedom and pride, stretching his talents, enjoying the fruits of the earth.

Lyndon B. Johnson: At times history and fate meet....

 
President Lyndon B. Johnson | Democrat
The quotation is taken from a speech Johnson made to Congress on March 15, 1965, introducing the Voting Rights Act.

 At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There is no Negro problem. There is no southern problem. There is no northern problem. There is only an American problem. Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have the right to vote...Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes... No law that we now have on the books...can insure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it... There is no Constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of States' rights or National rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons [Martin Luther King, Jr., and Lyndon Johnson
Quotation Source: President Johnson's introduction of the Voting Rights Act to Congress, March 15, 1965

Being president is like being a jackass....

President Lyndon B. Johnson | Democrat

 Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Lyndon B. Johnson on Affirmative Action

President Lyndon B. Johnson | Democrat

In his commencement address to students at Howard University on June 4, 1965, Johnson explained why affirmative action policies were necessary to achieve real equality.

You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: 'now, you are free to go where you want, do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.' You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe you have been completely fair... This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity—not just legal equity but human ability—not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Quotation: Commencement Address at Howard University on June 4, 1965