Lyndon B. Johnson's Explaination of our Fundamental Rights in “American Promise: Message to Congress”

On March 15, 1965, Lyndon Baines Johnson delivered “We Shall Overcome” in Washington, D.C. (Kreitner, Richard.). According to the words in the speech, in certain parts of the country African Americans did not have an equal right to vote. They would be informed that it was the incorrect day or ridiculed with impossible questions, solely because they were black. Johnson spoke this speech with integrity trying to conquer these racial discriminations and get the Voting Rights Act passed. He stressed that accomplishing equal citizenship takes more than just legal right. He wanted to ensure everyone that they were given an opportunity to escape poverty.

As said in the speech, “Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and indigenous discrimination. No law that we now have on the books–and I helped put three of them there–can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it.” Johnson says this in a very respectful way to listeners with opposing

In section two of the chapter the author describes the political status of black people living in the south. As he mentions how black people were being kept away from casting ballots and different laws were set up to keep black people away from voting. Such as difficult registrars were made in which difficult questions were asked from blacks. Moreover, laws like grandfather clause, requirements of property ownership, literacy tests were made as requirement while registering for vote. As most blacks were illiterate and poor so this allowed whites to stop black people from voting.

Johnson’s Speech, “To Fulfill These Rights”, can also support the idea that government action need to take place so that everyone has the “freedom to achieve.” In Johnson’s speech, which occurred in 1965, he deliberates that even though African Americans now have the right to vote, they still have a barrier to equal opportunity in society. Johnson expresses his desire to “give 20 million Negroes the same chance as every other American to learn and grow, to work and share in society, to develop their abilities-physical, mental, and spiritual, and to pursue their individual happiness.” He plans to stop the injustice towards African Americans and give them this equal opportunity through the use of government action by creating a program now known as “affirmative action.” If Johnson had not got the central government involved and created not only the “affirmative action” program, but also many other programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, the start at an equal opportunity for people in poverty and experiencing racial injustice may not have been

During the era of Andrew Jackson’s presidency, the nation seemed to be split down the middle in terms of its citizens. Obviously this is not meant to be taken literally, as the citizens of the United States were divided in terms of political views, morals, and other very important topics. One of these topics happened to be the act of expanding suffrage to people other than rich landowners. Both arguments in this debate were represented with a number of different types of evidence as to why each side was the correct way to go about shaping the way people voted in the United States and why the opposing opinion was not to be trusted. There were both pros and cons of expanding suffrage in the United States, but some were more valid than others.

During this time period, America's vision of politics was transformed. "Democracy appeared to suffuse every aspect of culture and politics" (Keene, 228). Considering the voting restrictions most states had in 1800, close to three decades later many states disregarded these restrictions. Several new states "adopted constitutions with no property requirements," and some older states even adjusted their constitutions (Keene, 228). America's ideas about voting were transformed to include nearly all white men with the growth of democracy. Although many states were broadening suffrage for white men, some were placing new restrictions on black men. These limitations made it were only a few black men had the right to vote. Overall, democracy transformed America's ideas on suffrage for the white and black man.

“I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Alabama for the right to vote. I’m not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us [African Americans]” –John Lewis. Within 100 years, African Americans overcame many obstacles such as paying poll taxes, passing multiple tests, and violence to be able to vote. They had to pay taxes, such as poll taxes. They also had to pass multiple tests, such as the Property and Literacy tests. Violence was also an obstacle African Americans had to face in order to vote.

The right to vote is indispensable to any democracy because it is the means by which citizens can collectively decide issues. Nowhere in the Constitution of 1791 does it explicitly guarantee the right to ballot box for women and minority groups, thus, excluding the majority from participating in the political process. Indeed, only 6% of the American population voted in President Washington’s re-election in 1792 (Lepore 2). Article I, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution defers voting eligibility to state legislatures (The Heritage Foundation 3), implicitly condoning the disfranchisement of women, minorities, and destitute whites. Although one can argue the Constitution of 1791 merely reflected the white supremacist, patriarchal society of its time, the reality remains that the significant groups were excluded from participating in the political process.

According to Document A, in New England, five out of the six states allowed black males to vote. States in the Mid-Atlantic North and Midwest North either did not allow black males to vote at all, or it was restricted. No state in any of these sections, with the exception of Massachusetts, allowed black males to serve on the jury. This means that there was a serious problem with the black to white ratio of representation. If there is very little African-American representation in the government, how can one expect them to gain equal rights without a powerful politician that, by chance, believes in equal rights? Also, one restriction of African-American citizens for voting was a $250 property requirement, meaning they had to own at least $250 worth of property in order to vote. As many of the Northern African-Americans did not meet this requirement, they were not able to vote at all. (Doc. A) This violates the 24th Amendment, which deals with poll taxes. If citizens are required to be wealthy to a certain extent in order to vote, this would technically be considered a poll tax. As many former slaves weren’t very wealthy, they were limited when it came to voting. In fact, in the document, it says that out of the approximate population of 11,000 African-Americans living in New York City during the mid-1850s, only around 100 could vote. If African-Americans were generally of a lower class, how is it fair of the government to initiate a fee to vote? Finally, in Document B, an Englishman writes of his travels in America, and he talks about the fact that African-Americans could not attend anyone in court, which means that they could not file court cases against anyone. This is an extreme deprivation of African-American rights. If a black citizen was stolen from, they could not defend themselves in court. Because they were African-American, they could not do

“The American Promise” Civil rights are the basic rights that belong to citizens to have political and social freedom. One of the main doctrines that describe civil rights is the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The VRA says that race, religion and sex can’t prevent someone from voting. This lead to Johnson’s writing of “The American Promise.” Lyndon B. Johnson purpose of this speech was to overcome legal barriers that prevented all individuals the right to vote and is protected by the constitution.

In a democracy each and every citizen of the state is supposed to have an equal say in the government. Today everyone has the opportunity to vote and has equal rights with no restrictions to American citizens. On the other hand back in the Jacksonian Era this was different. Before his time this wasn’t necessarily the case though and during Jackson’s era many improvements were made while many improvements that should’ve been made weren’t. During the Jacksonian Era the democratization of politics, which was seen as the equality and justice toward white males,

He was asking permission to grant them their birth given right: the right to vote. Johnson’s use of allusions and connotative diction throughout the speech develops the overall idea that all citizens are deserving of their rights and there’s a dire need for equality everywhere. To start off with, Johnson strives to coax white Americans to stand behind the idea that denying equality is dishonorable to the American promise and that inequality is powerful in its ability to disenfranchise various groups of individuals. Using historical references to salient battles in the African American fight for justice, he alludes to the Civil War.

“ Struggle is a never ending process” - Coretta Scott King. The fight for racial equality has been an issue for more than four hundred years and on Marc 15, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson gave a speech that shed light on the unethical separation of Americans, solely based on their skin color. During a period of racial and political unrest, America was divided over the voting rights of African-Americans. Furthermore, President Johnson’s “We Shall Overcome” speech became a major stepping stone in the change of the nation by persuading Congress to pass a bill that would push towards equality, hence, give all American an equal right to vote. By incorporating rhetorical elements, ethos/logos, and pathos, Lyndon B. Johnson influenced the nation into making a decision which put down a barrier in racial equality.

In the early years of the United States, voting laws were very strict and only a select few people were able to vote. In 1776, only people who owned land were permitted to vote. Most people in this category were white males over the age of 21. This continued for many decades: in 1790 the Naturalization Law passed. It explicitly stated that only “free white” immigrants can become naturalized citizens. This gave only free white people the right to vote- very little progress was being made.

Throughout the semester we have touched upon many instances for which the legal history of America effects the life of a black America, especially in “We Shall Overcome” Alexander Tsesis takes on the task of looking at civil rights through the “lens of legal history’. “The Ballot or The Bullet” displays the political message that the ‘ballot’ is freedom, and thus power through the freedom to vote. Malcom X hounds in on the political idea that the white man preys on the black man for votes, but then allows filibustering to happen in the Senate so nothing gets passed to promote equality for black Americans. Alexander writes frequently through the book how skewed politics become for blacks once their vote is legalized. That although, they can