quotWeShallOvercomequot

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Lyndon Baines Johnson: "We Shall Overcome"

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress:

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the

destiny of democracy. I urge every member of both

parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors,

from every section of this country, to join me in that

cause.

At times history and fate meet at a single time in a

single place to shape a turning point in man's unending

search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord.

So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last

week in Selma, Alabama. There, long-suffering men and

women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as

Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a

man of God, was killed.

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in

Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the

long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But

there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in

what is happening here tonight. For the cries of pain and

the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned

into convocation all the majesty of this great government

-- the government of the greatest nation on earth. Our

mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this

country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.

In our time we have come to live with the moments of

great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate

about great issues -- issues of war and peace, issues of

prosperity and depression. But rarely in any time does an

issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely

are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or

abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to

the values, and the purposes, and the meaning of our

beloved nation.

The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is

such an issue.

And should we defeat every enemy, and should we

double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be

unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a

people and as a nation. For with a country as with a

person, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the

whole world, and lose his own soul?"

There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern

problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an

American problem. And we are met here tonight as

Americans -- not as Democrats or Republicans. We are met

here as Americans to solve that problem.

This was the first nation in the history of the world

to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that

purpose still sound in every American heart, North and

South: "All men are created equal," "government by

consent of the governed," "give me liberty or give me

death." Well, those are not just clever words, or those

are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have

fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the

world they stand there as guardians of our liberty,

risking their lives.

Those words are a promise to every citizen that he

shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be

found in a man's possessions; it cannot be found in his

power, or in his position. It really rests on his right

to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all

others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall

choose his leaders, educate his children, provide for his

family according to his ability and his merits as a human

being. To apply any other test -- to deny a man his hopes

because of his color, or race, or his religion, or the

place of his birth is not only to do injustice, it is to

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quotWeShallOvercomequotLyndonBainesJohnson:"WeShallOvercome"Mr.Speaker,Mr.President,MembersoftheCongress:Ispeaktonightforthedignityofmanandthedestinyofdemocracy.Iurgeeverymemberofbothparties,Americansofallreligionsandofallcolors,fromeverysectionofthiscountry,tojoinmeinthatcause.Attimeshistoryandfate...

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