Digital Repository

Johnson, Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise, 1965

President Johnson delivered a speech titled “The American Promise” to a joint session of Congress on March 15, 1965. In the speech, Johnson outlined his plans for supporting voting rights, stating, “There is no moral issue. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of states’ rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.”

Lyndon B. Johnson, Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise, 1965. Photograph by Cecil Stoughton. Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum.