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Rhetorical Devices In Lyndon B Johnson's We Shall Overcome Speech

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“We Shall Overcome” was a speech given by former president Lyndon B. Johnson. He named his speech “we shall overcome” because it was a favorite song during the 1960s. The primary purpose of this speech was for the members of Congress to pass a Voting Right act to allows African American the right to vote. There was a lot of racial issues that were happening at the time but Black people wanting to be able to vote. This speech was meant to impact both the Congress and every American. This speech has a lot of rhetorical devices. We are going to be analyzing calm of value, Logos, and hortative sentence In “We Shall Overcome” Johnson used calm of value. The calm of value is to argue if something is good or bad, right or wrong. In this whole speech former president Johnson is arguing that the Voting Right Act. is a good thing for the US.”All Americans must have the privileges of citizenship, regardless of race, and they are going to have those privileges of citizenship regardless of race” and that "All men are created equal." it a good thing because the constitution says it is and because everyone has human rights. …show more content…

Logos is using specific details, facts, examples, statistic, or expert testimony to back them up. In this speech, Johnson uses a lot of examples from the Constitution or using the word constitution. “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.” 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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