Voting rights have been a constant struggle for most people in America. During the eighteenth century, only property owning white men were able to vote. This means that the colored individuals and women were excluded from the basic right to vote. The southern white society deeply opposed the idea of African Americans voting, creating discriminating legislations furthering the problem in a society dominated by White Americans. Lyndon B. Johnson outlines the differences between the law and justice and emphasize the fact that laws must be questioned in order for justice to be served. Laws are created for an equal platform for all citizens of America but some laws do not encompass the entire situation to serve justice.
In the “American Promise: Message to Congress”, Lyndon B. Johnson expands on the fundamental rights America was founded upon and how certain groups do not achieve those equal rights due to race and color of skin. Even after the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments were passed, the underlying discrimination among the White American community continued. “Our mission is ... the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man” (Johnson 103). The American Revolution was fought for certain ideals that were set in place for all citizens, but some groups were denied these rights. These minority groups were living in America searching for freedom. America was founded on words like “Give me liberty or give me death,” and “All men are created equal.” “In their [powerful words like these] name Americans fought and died for two centuries” (Johnson 104). Americans of all class, gender, and race have been fighting for and protecting the country for the words the nation stands by. They are not jus...
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...t that to achieve equal rights, there needs to be a change in the political system. In order to provide equality of rights, the Voting Rights Act (1965) was established. The transition from the “struggle for human rights” to equality did not have any clear boundaries. Justice was not completely exercised because most laws contradicted the principles America was built upon. To move forward as a society, injustice can be remedied through challenging the laws created upon the dominant ideologies that were limited to certain groups of people.
Law and justice are two completely separate things as Lyndon B. Johnson clearly outlines in his “Special Message to the Congress.” Laws are enacted to provide equality for African Americans; however, when they are implemented, other factors such as pre-clearance requirements for each state prevent African Americans from voting.
Historically, the United States has prided itself as the most egalitarian and autonomous nation in the world. Political figures and institutions have attempted to uphold the theoretical ideals of the nation, while in practice often fail to fulfill their promises to the people. This gap between our fundamental values as delineated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and our discriminatory practices such as slavery and gender discrimination can be found in competing political ideologies which purposefully exclude marginalized peoples. The framers built the United States for the white man; every other person’s rights came, and continue to come afterwards. Once one people’s freedom is postponed, the same oppressive strategies
Although the U.S. Constitution states that “all men are created equal,” during America’s early days it only applied to upper class white men. This upsets many people in the United States. When the Constitution first came into play, only the rich white men were treated right. As the years progressed, more and more whites
In addition, to understand the obstacles for justice that African American constantly face. President Johnson tries to influence the citizens appealing to the people’s emotions and also stating facts. In the passage it states, “ It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others...and that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders.” In that quote he stated that he felt as if African Americans should be treated fairly and he tried to connect to their emotions and gives valid points. In addition, the president tries to make the reader understand that blacks won’t give up no matter what obstacles are thrown in their way my stating, “every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny this right, negro citizen may go to register only to be told the day is wrong, or they are an hour late or maybe even given a test”(paragraph 18). This quote shows that the government tried every way to keep African Americans from voting and it did not work because they will go through that every time until they get their right to
We Shall Overcome Rhetorical Analyses Throughout the history of the United States, racial discrimination has always been around our society. Many civil rights movements and laws have helped to minimize the amount of discrimination towards every single citizen, but discrimination is something that will not ever disappear. On March 15, 1965, Lyndon Baines Johnson gave a speech that pointed out the racial injustice and human rights problems of America in Washington D.C. He wanted every citizen of the United States to support his ideas to overcome and solve the racial injustice problems as a nation. Throughout the speech, Lyndon Johnson used several rhetorical concepts to persuade the audience.
The irony present when dealing the concept of freedom in America causes great discussion about the ideals on which our country was originally founded. Americans take great pride in not having a ruler that dictates their every move. How it is possible that in the past Americans felt, and even feel today, that there is a white supremacy? This standpoint may be a more modern view of the issue, but it is still a prevalent one. Before the Civil War, African Americans were not only viewed as another’s personal property, but also as non-human entities that were below everyone else. Our own Declaration of Independence, the very document that announced our freedom from a ruling power, states verbatim, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happ...
Since women now had the right to vote, they wanted to expand the ideas of democracy by wanting a direct vote to select members of congress. Theodore Roosevelt supported the idea that members of congress should be selected by a direct vote. As a response to that, congress ratified the 17th amendment which would allow the people to select members of congress by the popular vote. (Doc D). Southerners would try and prevent African American males from voting in these elections. Southern states would allow Jim Crow laws which helped segregate African Americans. The supreme court case of Plessy v. Ferguson supported these Jim Crow laws by stating that African Americans should be segregated but viewed equal. There were many African American individuals who wanted to get better treatment in society such as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois. These individuals wanted the same thing but had different methods of receiving those things. Booker T. Washington wanted to take things slow and have peaceful strikes but W.E.B. Dubois
Despite the 14th and 15th constitutional amendments that guarantee citizenship and voting right regardless of race and religion, southern states, in practice, denied African Americans the right to vote by setting up literacy tests and charging a poll tax that was designed only to disqualify them as voters. In 1955, African Americans still had significantly less political power than their white counterparts. As a result, they were powerless to prevent the white from segregating all aspects of their lives and could not stop racial discrimination in public accommodations, education, and economic opportunities. Following the 1954 Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, it remained a hot issue in 1955. That year, however, it was the murder of the fourteen-year-old Emmett Louis Till that directed the nation’s attention to the racial discrimination in America.
Activists like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led marches and speeches that addressed this unfair racial discrimination. Additionally, violence against African Americans in Southern states increased. Therefore, the President at that time, Lyndon B. Johnson, saw this as a national problem and signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was originally for Southern states and only for five years, but it eventually got renewed.
The United States changed as a nation because of the Civil Rights Movement. Especially, the United States notched up as a more perfect union. The Civil Rights Movement secured voting rights for African-Americans and called for the ending racial segregation, discrimination and segregation. After years of struggle and upheaval, it resulted in the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, under the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. The purpose of the act was to protect African-Americans’ voting rights and overcome legal barriers that prevented them from exercising their rights to vote. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a historic triumph as it helped the nation acknowledge the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which granted equal voting rights to all but which goal remained unfulfilled for the next several decades. Therefore, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned
Thomas Jefferson, in his 1801 First Inaugural Address for President of the United States of America, stated, “All . . . will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect and to violate would be oppression (Inaugural Addresses, 1989).” Jefferson was not alone in this thinking. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and others understood that the unbridled power of the majority, which is the life-blood of a democracy, could be easily used to ignore or degrade the rights of a minority group. The framers of our nation intended for the protection of minority rights over the “tyranny of the majority” to be an ardent duty of the federal government.
Throughout history, there has been a struggle for equality and justice. The oppression that African Americans have received throughout the generational period in which they first arrived in America has continued to be a raging war. Article I, Section 8 of the American Constitution enabled Congress to have certain rights and authorities over the laws. In the evaluation of the 1700s, 1800s, 1950s, and 1990s, the prolific effects can be seen through specific Congressional Acts.
After slavery was in abolished between the 1870’s to the mid 1960’s in the Southern States, The Jim Crow laws was the practice of discriminating against African Americans, This Laws were the belief that whites were superior and more dominate to blacks. So they kept public places segregated and placed restrictions upon blacks. Restriction of the right to vote was a version of social control that African Americans were shown the hardships of. As a citizen of the United States of American, you might think you have the freedom to vote. However, if you are a black American and live in the South, you do not.” This is quoted by author Stetson Kennedy in his book called Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was (147). A lot of black Americans that lived in the Southern states were not able to vote, and even if they wanted to or tried to, they had to pass certain tests or even pay outrageous poll taxes that they could not afford. Also, places that were hiring workers were segregated as well; “White southerners would not want to work under black supervisors and most white craftsmen did not hire African...
Since the beginning of American history, citizens who resided the country lacked the basic civil rights and liberties that humans deserved. Different races and ethnicities were treated unfairly. Voting rights were denied to anyone who was not a rich, white male. Women were harassed by their bosses and expected to take care of everything household related. Life was not all that pretty throughout America’s past, but thankfully overtime American citizens’ civil liberties and rights expanded – granting Americans true freedom.
Although our present day society still questions whether the rights of the Individual should outweigh the public order or the social order of our country should outweigh the individual rights has enlightened me to a distorted vision and a compromised system and questionable Leadership. “African- American men comprise less than 6% of the U.S. population and almost one-half of its criminal prisons.” Quoted by the Bureau of justice statistics. When research is conducted by another other than oneself yield such great crippling results, it does hold truths to be true to that which began before our awakening
In the 1960’s America was divided over the voting rights of African Americans. It was a time of racial and political unrest as president Lyndon B. Johnson encouraged Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. On March 16, 1965 “We Shall Overcome” was delivered to congress. Lyndon B. Johnson was elected vice president of the United States in 1960 and became the 36th president in 1963. Throughout his speech Johnson uses a variety of strategies to persuade the nation that African Americans have the right to vote. Some of these strategies include ethos, logos, and pathos.