“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility…”. These iconic words from the Preamble of the Constitution embody American ideals of equality, unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and common access to political participation. However, in 1965, one-hundred-and-two years after slavery was abolished, African-Americans still did not have the right to vote in their own country. In the mid-1960s, race relations were at a tipping point, and when Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn into the presidency in 1963 following John F. Kennedy’s assassination, he knew he had to do something. Johnson regarded the presidency as the ultimate means of power. “Some …show more content…
A few days earlier, public audiences watched in horror as peaceful civil rights protesters, both white and black, in Selma, Alabama, were met with troopers armed with clubs and water hoses. Johnson used the newfound disbelief and empathy of his audience to push for action on the voting rights bill from Congress and support from the public. He spoke slowly, solemnly, and with unmistakable determination to make his audience aware of how personal the issue of African-American rights was to him (Matson 145) (Johnson). Johnson purges his own emotions through his tone during the speech and uses uniting language (“We shall overcome,” “I hope that you will use [this chance] with me,” (Johnson) to emphasize that African-American’s problems are everyone’s problems, that his problems are the countries problems, that he cannot make this change alone, and that the civil rights movement cannot make this change alone. Johnson delivered his speech on the wave of national grief and shaped the public reactions to the events in Alabama from pity and shock to resolution for change through his rallying rhetoric of a united nation and a communal