Lyndon B Johnson's Speech: The Struggle For Equal Rights

President Lyndon B. Johnson once used the phrase, “we shall overcome”, in response to a violent racial uproar in Salma Alabama. This deadly uproar was in response to the African American struggle for equal rights in the 1960s. I found Johnson’s speech to be one of great significance because it is a declaration that still pertains to America, today. Johnson’s request of the American people to come together, and stand for our neighbors when freedom is denied to them, is a request that still holds true today. While we have come a long way since the violent racial discrimination of the 1960s, it is still in existence today, and many are still denied freedom. It is, and always will be, our American duty to give fair justice and opportunity for all American citizens. Throughout Johnson’s speech, there some key themes that reoccurred within it. Similar to what I

Johnson states in his address that when we deny equality and freedom to an American citizen, we are completely disregarding the equality and freedom that so many Americans had died for in the past. The United States Constitution is built on the principle that this country was born for the equal opportunity and advantages of all people. When I was reading President Johnson’s speech, a topic that came of interest to me was the Voting Rights Act that he was presenting in his speech. Johnson presented this bill to Congress in 1965, as a result of the Salma uproar, and on August 6, 1965, the bill was approved by Congress. This bill gave southern blacks the right to vote in poll taxes, literacy tests, and various other practices that were once denied to them. It transformed the political patterns of the south, and southern blacks were given the right to vote on a federal, state, and local, levels. I learned about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and knew of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but did not know the extent of those