Thursday, January 27, 2011

Week Three Blog- Person 4

On March 15, 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson presented a speech to the United States of America that would be one of the many focal points in the struggle for African-American qualities as citizens of our country. the speech he gave, took place a week after heavy racial tensions led to a violent police attack on peaceful African-American protesters on Selma, Alabama. the group of protesters had no intentions of getting violent, and planned on being led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr to Montgomery, Alabama to register to vote. The brutal attacks on the 500 civil rights activists led to the tragic death of a white Minister, James J. Reeb from Boston, Massachusetts.

The speech following the attacks was extremely brave on the part of President Johnson. He showed unprecedented leadership qualities and spoke on what he believed was best for his country, and what he believed was best for the future. he went against the mindset of many Americans at that time period who believed that racism and segregation seemed like the best way to run the country. he spoke against all of those people , some considered President Johnson one of the many heroes of the civil rights movement but in his speech he stated; "The real hero of this struggle is the American Negro" President Johnson truly wanted to make everything equal for all Americans regardless of race.

He did what a President could to make things equal for African-Americans in the United States by signing the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965 which would no longer allow the unfair tests of literacy and history to take place, which at that time stopped most of the African-American people from voting. Even though the African-Americans gained more voting rights then before, there still lingered a tremendous amount of racial tension. So much so, that on August 11, 1965 the famous Watts Riots in Los Angeles took place, leading to the death of 34 rioters.

No comments:

Post a Comment