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President Johnson's Commencement Address At Howard University In 1965

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President Johnson’s Commencement Address at Howard University in 1965 was an important piece of history explaining the impact of civil rights bill of 1964 and the continuing pursuit of civil liberties through the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Moreover, his speech remains inspirational concerning how the government will uphold every US citizens equal rights and opportunities according to legislature passed during President Johnson’s tenure. When observing his commencement speech, President Johnson iterates the core principles of freedom our US citizens should receive. For instance, he said “Freedom is the right to share, share fully and equally, in American society to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public place, to go to school (Ball, Dagger, O’Neill, p. 145, 2020) This …show more content…

Overall, President Johnson is highly regarded as a key figure in implementing civil liberties, opportunities, and programs designed to hopefully bring the African American community out of generational poverty. Donald Allen would agree with President Johnson’s viewpoint on the importance of equal rights and fighting the wrongs of discrimination. Moreover, this agreed viewpoint is discussed when Allen illustrates the importance of our Bill of Rights through the statement “That is why a Bill of Rights was added to the U.S. Constitution and why the First Amendment comes first in that list of liberties”. (Ball, Dagger, O’Neill, p. 158, 2020) Both Allen and Johnson agree all US citizens regardless of race are endowed with the rights given in our Constitution. However, President Johnson was in favor of government expansion

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In the 1960’s during the era of the Civil Rights movement, America had been divided by the voting rights that were not given to the African Americans. Although, a decade ago the African Americans had been freed from slavery, but they were still not considered “equal” because they weren't able to vote. The discrimination in the area even had political leaders affected, therefore many of those political leaders during that time attempted to put an end to the several agonizing events going on. Lyndon B Johnson, a white persistent president speaks out to the lawmakers using compassionate encouraging appeals about voting for Civil Rights, in order to unify the nation “to build a new community”. President Johnson utilizes many devices in his speech such as anaphora, emotional appeals, and

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Lyndon B Johnson’s "We Shall Overcome" speech demonstrates how Johnson used his platform as president to address the issue of African American rights at the time. The speech was given in Washington DC on March 15th, 1965 to the United States Congress. Johnson was speaking about the injustices that African Americans were facing, after a violent scene had broke out in Alabama a week before. He first spoke out on the social injustices in the country that had been ignored, and later announced his plans to end them. Johnson’s speech was based on true knowledge and had the goal of expanding Congress and America’s knowledge on the problems facing the country.

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After taking an in depth look at all of the available topics, I meticulously made my choice to write my paper on two critical speeches that I believe explains a great impact on today’s society and the government. First Martin Luther King Jr’s, “Letter from Birmingham Jail”. My second choice is “A More Perfect Union” a speech by former President Obama. These two speeches endure what the United States government refuses to talk about which is race. What was interesting between these two men are from different era’s in time, however they see the same issue.

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Overall, in “We Shall Overcome,” President Johnson uses rhetorical appeals to convince the congress and American citizens to fix the struggle in a society, which is the inequality between the different races. Through this speech, he tries to change the bias of color of people, and remind the citizens that the basic principle of the U.S. is equality by using concerned and formal tone. He claims that the inequality towards the African Americans is against the constitution and the oath before God by using religious and relationship diction. President Johnson’s speech took a first big step towards the equality of mankind by using Aristotle’s rhetorical appeals, tone, and compelling diction.

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The Great Society On May 22nd of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke to the graduating class of the University of Michigan on The Great Society, saying "The Great Society rest on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time”, words that were spoken by President Johnson. The main passage of “The Great Society” by Lyndon Baines Johnson was mainly concentrated on eliminating poverty and racial injustice as revealed through his parallelism and anaphora. With this compelling speech, Lyndon inspired many young Americans to take actions to better their country using persuasive proofs such as ethos, logos, and pathos His persuasive techniques that applied directly to the students’ emotions inspired them to construct a better America just like President Johnson’s plan.

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Throughout history, white males were given better education than other races and minorities. in addition, until 1955 whites had priority seating on busses and trains, blacks were forced to give up their seats if need be. Throughout history, whites have oppressed minority groups for self gain. Today, nothing of this extent is still active, but racism and oppression still exists. Johnson believes that we are all created equal and develop into who we are.

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Johnson states three iconic phrases known by Americans, “All men are created equal,” “government by consent of the governed,” “give me liberty or give me death.” (paragraph 9). Those phrases make the promise that all citizens are worthy of the respect of others. This promise is in violation because it relies on the fact that everyone has access to the same opportunities. Since Negroes are denied their basic rights as citizens, they don’t have access to these opportunities.

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It is wrong--deadly wrong--to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.” Johnson also quotes the constitution to make his point. “The Constitution says that no person should be kept from voting because of his race or his color.” In this quote former president Johnson is using the example form the constitution because he wants people to know that America was built by people who believed in freedom and for everyone to be treated

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There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans.” To clarify what President Johnson means is that a week before he gave this speech, racial violence erupted in Selma, Alabama. The only reason that racial violence did erupt was because the people were protesting. Furthermore, President Johnson also says in paragraph 16, “His actions and protests, his courage to risk safety and even to

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Johnson in his speech talks a little bit about the past of the college he is speaking at, the U.S Constitution, the progressive era, the Peace Corps, and the New Deal, religion and past famous people and their words. While both of these speeches don’t always mention the past by its name, they are alluding to it, to show that they want to fix unfinished business by people and documents from the past. For example, they both mention the main ideas of the Constitution and how everyone deserves equality, happiness and freedom, to bring forward that they want to change the racial issues going on. They believe that everyone should get full equality, even if they have a different race, color, and religion, so they both want more acts to be passed to make sure everyone gets the civil rights they deserve. In both of these speeches, they are trying to get their message across that the country needs to change in various ways to become better.

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Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon B. Johnson were two exceptional men who made this country superior in the idea of desegregation. King refrained from abandoning his neighbors in the reality of injustice. King conducted marches from place to place to exude nonviolent protests, determined to abolish the unjust approach towards African Americans. President Johnson would soon realize that the parade of African Americans would not relinquish their goal until the head of state put forth his input and supported them, allowing them to register to vote. With President Johnson’s speech, he recognizes to the public how unjust African Americans were being treated and that the racial actions at the time should have been put to an end.

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Lyndon B Johnson attempts to unite the American people through his speech condemning racism in America. Lyndon speaks about the purpose of our

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John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered his “Civil Rights Address” on June 11, 1963 to talk about how everyone is born equal and just because you are born with darker skin you shouldn’t be considered less of a person and have less rights. It was filmed in the oval office and broadcast on national radio and television. This speech is about equal rights for african americans. It was made because two black children had to be escorted to school by state troopers after numerous threats. John F. Kennedy used diction as well as logos and ethos to make listeners believe that his argument is right and they should take his side.

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-John F. Kennedy, Importu speech on civil rights after University of Alabama desegregation efforts (Kennedy, John F. "Report to the American People on Civil

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Freedom. The importance of freedom is often forgotten as Americans live day by day taking this gift for granted. In this day and age, freedom seems as a “simple gift’ obtained by every American, but one forgets to think about those who were once unable to enjoy the freedoms one is promised daily. Back in the day, freedom seemed as nothing more than a dream to those of color. Everyday of a colored person’s life consisted of harassment and discrimination as no one cared to treat them as equals.

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