WIST Quotations

Johnson, Lyndon -- Letter (1965-03-15), “Special Message to the Congress on the Right to Vote”

Dave — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 19:44:36 +0000

We cannot have government for all the people until we first make certain it is government of and by all the people.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Letter (1965-03-15), “Special Message to the Congress on the Right to Vote”
(Source)

Johnson, Lyndon -- Letter (1965-03-15), “Special Message to the Congress on the Right to Vote”

Dave — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 21:55:33 +0000

The essence of our American tradition of State and local governments is the belief expressed by Thomas Jefferson that Government is best which is closest to the people. Yet that belief is betrayed by those State and local officials who engage in denying the right of citizens to vote. Their actions serve only to assure that their State governments and local governments shall be remote from the people, least representative of the people’s will and least responsive to the people’s wishes.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Letter (1965-03-15), “Special Message to the Congress on the Right to Vote”
(Source)

Johnson, Lyndon -- Letter (1965-03-15), “Special Message to the Congress on the Right to Vote”

Dave — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 18:48:53 +0000

Unless the right to vote be secure and undenied, all other rights are insecure and subject to denial for all our citizens. The challenge to this right is a challenge to America itself. We must meet this challenge as decisively as we would meet a challenge mounted against our land from enemies abroad.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Letter (1965-03-15), “Special Message to the Congress on the Right to Vote”
(Source)

Johnson, Lyndon -- Speech (1964-01-08), “State of the Union,” Joint Session of Congress, Washington, D. C.

Dave — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 17:09:59 +0000

All members of the public should have equal access to facilities open to the public. All members of the public should be equally eligible for Federal benefits that are financed by the public. All members of the public should have an equal chance to vote for public officials and to send their children to good public schools and to contribute their talents to the public good.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1964-01-08), “State of the Union,” Joint Session of Congress, Washington, D. C.
(Source)

Johnson, Lyndon -- Speech (1965-03-15), “The American Promise,” Joint Session of Congress [14:20]

Dave — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 21:32:34 +0000

Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination. No law that we now have on the books — and I have helped to put three of them there — can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it.
In such a case our duty must be clear to all of us. The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color. We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution. We must now act in obedience to that oath.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1965-03-15), “The American Promise,” Joint Session of Congress [14:20]
(Source)

A nationally broadcast address, introducing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Johnson, Lyndon -- Speech (1965-03-15), “The American Promise,” Joint Session of Congress [11:51]

Dave — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 19:34:36 +0000

Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right.
Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes.
Every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny this right. The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists, and if he manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he did not spell out his middle name or because he abbreviated a word on the application.
And if he manages to fill out an application he is given a test. The registrar is the sole judge of whether he passes this test. He may be asked to recite the entire Constitution, or explain the most complex provisions of State law. And even a college degree cannot be used to prove that he can read and write.
For the fact is that the only way to pass these barriers is to show a white skin.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1965-03-15), “The American Promise,” Joint Session of Congress [11:51]
(Source)

A nationally broadcast address, introducing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Johnson, Lyndon -- Speech (1965-03-15), “The American Promise,” Joint Session of Congress [04:25]

Dave — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 21:39:41 +0000

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.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1965-03-15), “The American Promise,” Joint Session of Congress [04:25]
(Source)

A nationally broadcast address, introducing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The mention of Selma is in reference to the events of "Bloody Sunday" on 7 March 1965.

Johnson, Lyndon -- Speech (1960-03-10), U.S. Senate

Dave — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 21:01:19 +0000

The only basis for fearing the votes of men is to fear those men themselves. To deny the right to vote is to increase those fears.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1960-03-10), U.S. Senate
(Source)

As Senate Majority Leader.

Warren, Earl -- Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 561-562 (1964) [majority opinion]

Dave — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 17:43:49 +0000

Undoubtedly, the right of suffrage is a fundamental in a free and democratic society. Especially since the right to exercise the franchise in a free and unimpaired manner is preservative of other basic civil and political rights, any alleged infringement of the right of citizens to vote must be carefully and meticulously scrutinized.

Earl Warren (1891-1974) American jurist and politician; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1953-69)
Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 561-562 (1964) [majority opinion]
(Source)

Commager, Henry Steele -- “Who Is Loyal to America?” Harper’s Magazine #1168 (Sep 1947)

Dave — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 15:25:55 +0000

Who are those who are really disloyal? Those who inflame racial hatreds, who sow religious and class dissensions. Those who subvert the Constitution by violating the freedom of the ballot box. Those who make a mockery of majority rule by the use of the filibuster. Those who impair democracy by denying equal educational facilities. Those who frustrate justice by lynch law or by making a farce of jury trials. Those who deny freedom of speech and of the press and of assembly. Those who press for special favors against the interest of the commonwealth. Those who regard public office as a source of private gain. Those who would exalt the military over the civil. Those who for selfish and private purposes stir up national antagonisms and expose the world to the ruin of war.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
“Who Is Loyal to America?” Harper’s Magazine #1168 (Sep 1947)
(Source)

Reprinted in Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954)

Garfield, James A. -- “Suffrage and Safety,” speech, Ravenna, Ohio (4 Jul 1865)

Dave — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 15:24:40 +0000

Let us not commit ourselves to the absurd and senseless dogma that the color of the skin shall be the basis of suffrage, the talisman of liberty.

James A. Garfield (1831-1881) US President (1881), lawyer, lay preacher, educator
“Suffrage and Safety,” speech, Ravenna, Ohio (4 Jul 1865)
(Source)

Trumbo, Dalton -- The Remarkable Andrew (1942)

Dave — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 00:06:11 +0000

Democracy means that people can say what they want to. All the people. It means that they can vote as they wish. All the people. It means that they can worship God in any way they feel right, and that includes Christians and Jews and voodoo doctors as well.

Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976) American screenwriter and novelist [James Dalton Trumbo]
The Remarkable Andrew (1942)

Based on Trumbo's 1941 book of the same name. Parallel text.

Johnson, Lyndon -- Speech (1960-03-10), U.S. Senate

Dave — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 12:52:22 +0000

Whatever the laws may provide, however lofty may be their sentiments, a man without a vote is a man without protection; he is virtually helpless.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1960-03-10), U.S. Senate
(Source)

As Senate Majority Leader.

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano -- Radio Broadcast (1944-10-05)

Dave — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:43:13 +0000

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves — and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Radio Broadcast (1944-10-05)
(Source)