Lyndon B. Johnson’s Voting Rights Act Address
“Superior ability is not exclusive possession of any one race or any one class provided that men are given the right opportunities,” Henry A. Wallace. President, Lyndon B. Johnson, in his speech asserts that all American citizens are created equal and deserve the right to vote. He supports this claim by first using parallelism and alliteration, then loaded diction and allusion, then quotes, and finally ties it all together by using ethos and pathos. Johnson’s purpose is to get the audience to understand that all men and women are created equal in order to get all American citizens to go vote. Johnson begins his assertive speech to relate that all American citizens have a problem with accepting
Lyndon B. Johnson effectively uses loaded diction, pathos, allusion, and quotes to relate this message to his citizens. He states, “The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart.” In this statement, the former president uses loaded diction by alluding that the statement sounds in someone’s heart. Also, he uses pathos by referring to something by heart therefore making it both meaningful and emotional. Johnson perfectly marries the use of loaded diction and pathos in this sentence. Later, he alludes to the Constitution by using quotes. For instance, “‘All men are created equal’ – ‘Government by consent of the governed’ – ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’” Because he uses phrases from the Constitution itself, he explains his point, that America was made for the right of freedom and equality, in a well-done
He begins this section by using parallelism, loaded diction, and pathos. Johnson first uses parallelism by stating, “Who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome...--poverty, disease, and ignorance—we shall overcome.” Lyndon B. Johnson emphasizes this phrase to get the audience to understand that if all American citizens join as a united front, there is no hoop they cannot jump through. Later, he uses loaded diction such as “This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all.” The loaded diction used in the sentence explains how the United States became this “great, rich, and restless country.” He describes America as restless because it always keeps on fighting for what they believe in and will continue to do so for decades to come. This gives an insight to Johnson’s proposition as to the country fighting for equality while the citizens do not care to accept the dramatic change. Furthermore, Johnson ties his perfectly written message together in his final portion of his speech by using pathos. He wrote these final statements as empowering messages in order for the audience to do something about the equality and voting issue that this country is facing. He wanted a change of point
...etorical analysis teaches that the practice of rhetoric in pathos is not always strong enough to stand alone or solely support an argument. Many times pathos is contingent on emotions that are not supported by anything but the speaker alone. Therefore, like President Johnson’s speech, it is important to stick to a genre since it offers enough structure to validate the pathos illustrated. The deliberative genre provides a speech that evokes a serious setting where the speaker can be taken seriously and with a sense of urgency. The combination of pathos and genre can be a model for a successful pair of rhetorical features explained through my rhetorical analysis of Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1963 acceptance speech. In this speech he was able to address the devastating loss and mourning of JFK, while all the same maintaining an outlook of perseverance of the American people.
Part I: Reasoning in the Inaugural Address. President Roosevelt in his inaugural speech first realized the importance of his presidency, the speech and the US. He mentioned that the thing the US nation needs to fear is the fear itself. He further mentioned it as unreasoning, nameless and unjustified terror which constraints and paralyzes the efforts needed to make a retreat (Davis, 2014).
This book follows Johnsons political career, from a eager hard-working congressional secretary to the landslide victor of the 1964 presidential election. It discusses his "liberal" political views, It seems as though Johnson thought he could help the American people single-handedly and he seemed determined to do it. Johnson is He is praised for his vast legislative record and his stand on poverty and eventually, civil rights. He is criticized for his methods and
After ruling the case in Johnson’s favor, it made it difficult to make a law banning the act of flag burning. Laws would be suggested and one would make it to the supreme court. The law would make flag burning a national offense punishable by law. Unfortunately the same majority decision as in the Texas v. Johnson case would arise as a five-to-four majority agreed once again that the law would abridge the right to freedom of speech. Seeing as the same judges presided over the case, the same defense was used to justify their ruling on the law. It was unconstitutional to abridge speech and by their ruling in Texas v. Johnson, the majority still viewed flag burning as a form of symbolic speech. Not only did the ruling in Texas v. Johnson hinder immediate lawmaking against flag burning, but it also divided a nation for a time. Johnson burned the flag, so he says, as an act against the Reagan administration. If this was so as he claimed that divided the nation, not only against him but against the supreme court. You have the protestors during the time who agreed with Johnson, the patriots against Johnson, and those left confused about what was right and wrong. No one side was right, yet no one side was wrong in their eyes. Johnson’s act was crude and even to those who agreed with his right to freedom of speech, they didn’t view his act as unpunishable. The case made the nation doubt itself and its
At the time of this speech, Barack Obama is running for the Democratic Presidential candidate as well as being called into question when his former pastor publicly accused the government of committing hateful acts against black Americans. He addresses the American public then tries to persuade them to recognize that he understands both the white Americans and the black Americans. He uses ‘we’ and ‘us’ to show that he truly views the people as one as opposed to various separate groups, “… we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction…” He wants to move past the racial segregation and move towards a truly unified country, and he uses pathos by talking about his upbringing. The use of the descriptions of his youth with a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas shows that he can relate to the common person seeing as he had to adjust to both sides of his families as well as the stigmas that both sides had. The urgency in which Obama answered the accusations of being similar to Wright,
Lyndon B. Johnson’s Voting Rights Speech was given on March 15, 1965. In the past, America had a hard time trying to give African Americans voting rights even though they gained their freedom years before, but, it was hopefully all going to change. Johnson supported the idea of African Americans having the right to vote and he worked his hardest to talk Congress into passing this law. In his speech he’s talking to both the American Citizens and Congress trying to gain their support. When he was trying to get the support of the American people he went out of his way just to show them that this issue was about much more.
When Barack Obama ran for presidency, there were a lot of questions about his race, color, and whether he was born in the U.S.. The comments from his pastor Jeremiah Wright put him in an awkward situation, so he decided to give this speech to prove the point that we are all the same and live in the same country, so there shouldn’t be any discrimination among anyone. In his speech, Obama uses rhetorical devices to explain how race discrimination is affecting our country and us in every way possible. The use of rhetorical devices in this speech has strong effects on the audience. The use of allusion, symbolism, optimistic tone, and repetition of words gives the speech a strong argumentative tone. He argues the fact that to be able to achieve such big goals and how out country was supposed to be from the beginning, we need to stay united and rely on younger
During the powerful speech, he tells his audience that the Whites have taken everything from the Blacks which includes, freedom the most important factor of all. He then goes on to say that “the country is a nation of thieves.” He specifically uses this analogy to compare his country to a nation of thieves and by that, he is conveying the message that whites have excluded them from everything, and have left them with no social, political or economic rights. The analogy is very clear to comprehend and to analyze.
Johnson wanted to continue with Kennedy’s unfinished work of the “New Frontier” after Kennedy’s term. The “Great Society” a term that Johnson coined, was one of the greatest reform agendas since Roosevelt’s “New Deal”. (US History, 2014) The great society included ideas to help put an end to poverty and of racial injustice, as well as major spen...
Barrack Obama’s inauguration speech successfully accomplished his goal by using rhetoric to ensure our nation that we will be under safe hands. The speech is similar from ideas obtained from the founding documents and Martin Luther King’s speech to establish ‘our’ goal to get together and take some action on the problems our country is now facing. As President Barrack Obama starts his speech, he keeps himself from using ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’ and replacing it with ‘we’, ‘us’, and ‘together’ to achieve ethos. He makes sure his audience connects with him directly by making them feel at his level, and him at theirs. This way he connects to the audience, and in exchange, helps his statement of unity. Using various examples of parallelism, anaphora and refrain, Obama brands the theme of equality and togetherness in our country throughout the speech, vital to gain the respect of his audience. Obama recalls the ‘enduring strength of the constitution’ by delving into the past alluding to America’s allegiance to the Declaration of Independence by quoting “we hold these truths… that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. This expression clearly shows more ethos by reminding us that the quote of equality is of great importance today as it was the time it was written.
Lyndon Johnson is an intimate, complex and ambitious portrait of a President. He came to office with strong ambitions to emphasize equality for all, to generate hopes for the Great Society, and to reshape his America, but ultimately he withdrew from the political arena where he fought so hard. Johnson’s legacy started with a tragedy and ended with a tragedy: the story began with the cold bullet that went through his predecessor’s head, which enveloped the country with anger, chaos, and mourning, and ended with the deaths of fifty-eight thousand Americans, which threw the nation into tumult.
Green encourages his audience to help “overthrow” the oppressive government of the South. That plan to “build a stronger tyrant system of slavery” and threaten to force all African Americans into slavery. Green quotes the Confederacy to worry his listeners with an idea of what might happen if the South defeats the Union. He also asks his listeners to wish for a brighter future, where they will “create anew” their “claims upon the justice and honor of the Republic.” Green offers an image of an improved country will equality for all. But first, they have to defeat the enemy. He ends by appealing to his audience’s sense of patriotism by declaring the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, those of “justice and equality for all men” and reminding the African Americans what the United States is founded
On March 15th, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the, “We Shall Overcome” speech to the American Congress. Johnson demonstrated many rhetorical strategies, and used various poetic devices throughout his oration. Johnson did a great job of establishing a connection with his audience, which allowed for him to simply promote his ideas. Throughout his speech, he talked a lot about American pride and conveyed a strong sense of Nationalism. His speech was structured in a unique way, which allowed for his it to flourish and be very effective.
“... that firmness in that right is indispensable today for peace; that firmness will always be measured. Its mission is peace” (Matuz 1330). The firmness spoke of by President Lyndon B. Johnson in his speech to the American people responded to a second attack in the Gulf of Tonkin; it spoke of America putting their foot down to take whatever actions deemed necessary to end the hostile waves of communism that amplified off of North Vietnam. Such communism possessed the power to split Vietnam in two and held the potential to spread and constrict the whole world. Increased firmness arose necessary to achieve peace and to stop such venom from spreading globally; this, consequently, ensured United States aid to France’s cause of democracy. The United States military countered the communist hostility, with an animosity of their own. The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution justified Lyndon B. Johnson’s full advancement of U.S. military in Vietnam to put an end to the global communist progression and to hold firm.
Jordan first utilizes pathos to relate to her audience. “I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton left me out by mistake… I have finally been included in “We, the people.” Jordan begins her speech with an extremely personal statement. She tells her audience that she, as an African American woman, felt excluded when the preamble was first written. This forces her audience to feel sympathy for her;