1 I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy. 2 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.

3 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.

4 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.

5 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.

6 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.

7 Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.

8 . . . 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 . . .: “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. . . .

9 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, and provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being.

10 . . . 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.

11 . . . 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.

12 Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes.

13 . . . 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.

14 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.

What conclusion is best drawn from paragraph 5?

What is the main idea of the passage?

According to former President Johnson, why is the right to vote “the most basic right of all”?

According to Johnson, what is the source of “the dignity of man”?

What purpose does Paragraph 8 serve in the passage?

What is former President Johnson’s main purpose in “The American Promise”?

What does Johnson most clearly emphasize in paragraph 14?

Which sentence from the passage best expresses the main idea?

In Paragraph 14, what does Johnson intend to suggest by the use of “we” and “us”?

What purpose do the first two paragraphs serve in the passage?

Based on the information in the introduction and in Paragraph 13, which of these must have preceded the Selma protest?

Mary Edwards Wa