The American President by Leuchtenburg William E

Author:Leuchtenburg, William E.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780195176162
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2015-11-18T16:00:00+00:00

“And”—Johnson broke off his sentence for a moment; then, raising his arms, resumed—“we shall overcome.”

His biographer Robert Dallek has described the response by the members of Congress and the onlookers in the gallery: “A moment of stunned silence followed, as the audience absorbed the fact that the President had embraced the anthem of black protest. And then almost the entire chamber rose in unison. … Tears rolled down the cheeks of senators, congressmen, and observers in the gallery, moved by joy, elation, a sense that the big victor, for a change, was human decency, the highest standards by which the nation was supposed to live.” Even the justices of the Supreme Court—all of them—leapt to their feet applauding.

The president had another thought he wanted to impart. “A century has passed, more than 100 years, since the Negro was freed,” he continued. “And he is not fully free tonight. … A century has passed, more than 100 years, since equality was promised. And yet the Negro is not equal.” He pointed out: “The real hero of this struggle is the American Negro. His actions and protests, his courage to risk safety and even to risk his life, have awakened the conscience of this nation. … And who among us can say that we would have made the same progress were it not for his persistent bravery, and his faith in American democracy?” Watching on television, Martin Luther King wept.

Johnson concluded on a personal note. Alluding once again to his experience at the Mexican American school in Cotulla, Texas, he said:

My students … often came to class without breakfast, hungry. … They never seemed to know why people disliked them. But they knew it was so, because I saw it in their eyes. I often walked home late in the afternoon, after the classes were finished, wishing there was more that I could do. …

I never thought then, in 1928, that I would be standing here in 1965. It never occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all over the country.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.