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Rhetorical Analysis Of Lyndon B Johnson's We Shall Overcome

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Rhetorical Analysis Of Lyndon B Johnson's We Shall Overcome
In the 1960s America was undergoing civil and political unrest regarding the prejudice and suffrage of the black people, who had earned their freedom from slavery centuries ago. Multiple confrontations between black civil rights protesters and state police groups had occurred beforehand, but one particular attack on the protesters in Selma, Alabama pushed the ordeal into a serious state. This state of strife caused the President at the time, Lyndon B. Johnson, to urge Congress to force the end of racial segregation by allow all men of color to vote. Expressing this through his speech “We Shall Overcome”, delivered to Congress on March 16, 1965, Johnson was able to sway congress to pass the Voting Rights Act thanks to his clever uses of rhetoric.
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