We Shall Overcome

Mr. Speaker, Mr.President, Members of the Congress
I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy
I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause
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.
Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.
In our time we have come to live with the moments of great crisis.
Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues -- issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression.
But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself.
Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, or our welfare or our security, but rather to the values, and the purposes, and the meaning of our beloved nation.
The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue.
And should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation.
For with a country as with a person, "
What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
There is no Negro problem.
There is no Southern problem.
There is no Northern problem.
There is only an American problem.
And we are met here tonight as Americans -- not as Democrats or Republicans.
We are met here as Americans to solve that problem.
This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose.
The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "
All men are created equal," "government by consent of the governed," "give me liberty or give me death." Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories.
In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.
Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man.
This dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position.
It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others.
It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being.
To apply any other test -- to deny a man his hopes because of his color, or race, or his religion, or the place of his birth is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom.
Our fathers believed that if this noble view of the rights of man was to flourish, it must be rooted in democracy.
The most basic right of all was the right to choose your own leaders.
The history of this country, in large measure, is the history of the expansion of that right to all of our people.
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.
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.
Wednesday, I will send to Congress a law designed to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote.
The broad principles of that bill will be in the hands of the Democratic and Republican leaders tomorrow.
After they have reviewed it, it will come here formally as a bill.
I am grateful for this opportunity to come here tonight at the invitation of the leadership to reason with my friends, to give them my views, and to visit with my former colleagues.
I've had prepared a more comprehensive analysis of the legislation which I had intended to transmit to the clerk tomorrow, but which I will submit to the clerks tonight.
But I want to really discuss with you now, briefly, the main proposals of this legislation.
This bill will strike down restrictions to voting in all elections -- Federal, State, and local -- which have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote.
This bill will establish a simple, uniform standard which cannot be used, however ingenious the effort, to flout our Constitution.
It will provide for citizens to be registered by officials of the United States Government, if the State officials refuse to register them.
It will eliminate tedious, unnecessary lawsuits which delay the right to vote.
Finally, this legislation will ensure that properly registered individuals are not prohibited from voting.
I will welcome the suggestions from all of the Members of Congress -- I have no doubt that I will get some -- on ways and means to strengthen this law and to make it effective.
But experience has plainly shown that this is the only path to carry out the command of the Constitution.
To those who seek to avoid action by their National Government in their own communities, who want to and who seek to maintain purely local control over elections, the answer is simple: open your polling places to all your people.
Allow men and women to register and vote whatever the color of their skin.
Extend the rights of citizenship to every citizen of this land.
There is no constitutional issue here.
The command of the Constitution is plain.
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.
I have not the slightest doubt what will be your answer.
But the last time a President sent a civil rights bill to the Congress, it contained a provision to protect voting rights in Federal elections.
That civil rights bill was passed after eight long months of debate.
And when that bill came to my desk from the Congress for my signature, the heart of the voting provision had been eliminated.
This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, or no hesitation, or no compromise with our purpose.
We cannot, we must not, refuse to protect the right of every American to vote in every election that he may desire to participate in.
And we ought not, and we cannot, and we must not wait another eight months before we get a bill.
We have already waited a hundred years and more, and the time for waiting is gone.
So I ask you to join me in working long hours -- nights and weekends, if necessary -- to pass this bill.
And I don't make that request lightly.
For from the window where I sit with the problems of our country, I recognize that from outside this chamber is the outraged conscience of a nation, the grave concern of many nations, and the harsh judgment of history on our acts.
But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over.
What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America.
It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life.
Their cause must be our cause too.
Because it's not just Negroes, but really it's all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.
And we shall overcome.