1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:23,880 Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of Congress, members of the Cabinet, distinguished 2 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:28,160 guests, my fellow Americans. 3 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:39,880 Today is a triumph for freedom, as huge as any victory that's ever been won on any battlefield. 4 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:49,120 Yet to seize the meaning of this day, we must recall darker times. 5 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:56,420 Three and a half centuries ago, the first Negroes arrived at Jamestown. 6 00:00:56,420 --> 00:01:04,260 They did not arrive in brave ships in search of a home for freedom. 7 00:01:04,260 --> 00:01:15,200 They did not mingle fear and joy in expectation that in this new world anything would be possible 8 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:19,580 to a man strong enough to reach for it. 9 00:01:19,580 --> 00:01:26,320 They came in darkness and they came in chains. 10 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:37,040 And today we strike away the last major shackle of those fierce and ancient bombs. 11 00:01:49,580 --> 00:01:58,300 Today, the Negro story and the American story, 12 00:01:59,420 --> 00:02:01,520 fused and blend. 13 00:02:03,180 --> 00:02:07,220 And let us remember that it was not always so. 14 00:02:08,700 --> 00:02:12,020 The stories of our nation and of the American Negro 15 00:02:12,020 --> 00:02:14,300 are like two great rivers. 16 00:02:14,300 --> 00:02:19,800 welling up from that tiny Jamestown spring, 17 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:25,620 they flow through the centuries along divided channels. 18 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:32,380 When pioneers subdued a continent to the need of man, 19 00:02:33,340 --> 00:02:36,100 they did not tame it for the Negro. 20 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:40,340 When the Liberty Bell rang out in Philadelphia, 21 00:02:41,340 --> 00:02:43,860 it did not toll for the Negro. 22 00:02:44,300 --> 00:02:55,400 When Andrew Jackson threw open the doors of democracy, they did not open for the Negro. 23 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:06,360 It was only at Appomattox a century ago that an American victory was also a Negro victory. 24 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:16,720 And the two rivers, one shining with promise, the other dark stained with oppression, began 25 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:19,360 to move toward one another. 26 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:29,940 Yet, for almost a century, the promise of that day was not fulfilled. 27 00:03:29,940 --> 00:03:41,760 Today is a towering and certain mark that in this generation that promise will be kept. 28 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:52,080 In our time the two currents will finally mingle and rush as one great stream across 29 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:59,680 the uncertain and the marvelous years of the America that is yet to come. 30 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:06,800 This act flows from a clear and simple wrong. 31 00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:14,360 Its only purpose is to right that wrong. 32 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:22,840 Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. 33 00:04:22,840 --> 00:04:30,040 This law will ensure them the right to vote. 34 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:38,860 The wrong is one which no American in his heart can justify. 35 00:04:38,860 --> 00:04:50,260 The right is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny. 36 00:04:50,260 --> 00:05:00,280 In 1957, as the leader of the majority in the United States Senate, speaking in supporting 37 00:05:00,280 --> 00:05:11,760 legislation to guarantee to the right of all men a right to vote, I said, this right to 38 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:27,805 vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless it gives people people as individuals control over their own destinies 39 00:05:27,805 --> 00:05:39,805 Last year, I said, until every qualified person, regardless of the color of his skin, has the 40 00:05:39,805 --> 00:05:48,305 right, unquestioned and unrestrained, to go in and cast his ballot in every precinct in 41 00:05:48,305 --> 00:05:57,525 this great land of ours, I am not going to be satisfied. 42 00:05:57,525 --> 00:06:05,705 after the election I directed the Attorney General to explore as rapidly as possible 43 00:06:05,705 --> 00:06:10,565 the ways to ensure the right to vote. 44 00:06:10,565 --> 00:06:21,245 And then last March with the outrage of Selma still fresh I came down to this Capitol one 45 00:06:21,245 --> 00:06:32,065 evening and asked the Congress and the people for swift and for sweeping action to guarantee 46 00:06:32,065 --> 00:06:37,846 to every man and woman the right to vote. 47 00:06:37,846 --> 00:06:47,265 In less than 48 hours, I sent the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to the Congress. 48 00:06:47,265 --> 00:06:58,145 In little more than four months, the Congress, with overwhelming majorities, enacted one 49 00:06:58,145 --> 00:07:03,825 of the most monumental laws in the entire history of American freedom. 50 00:07:03,825 --> 00:07:10,085 The members of the Congress, the many private citizens who worked to shape and pass this 51 00:07:10,085 --> 00:07:19,665 bill will share a place of honor in our history for this one act alone. 52 00:07:19,665 --> 00:07:27,105 There were those who said this is an old injustice and there is no need to hurry. 53 00:07:27,105 --> 00:07:32,085 But ninety-five years have passed since the Fifteenth Amendment gave all Negroes the right 54 00:07:32,085 --> 00:07:38,085 to vote, and the time for waiting is gone. 55 00:07:38,085 --> 00:07:44,185 There were those who said smaller and more gradual measures should be tried, but they 56 00:07:44,185 --> 00:07:46,865 had been tried. 57 00:07:46,865 --> 00:07:52,645 For years and years they had been tried and tried and tried, and they had failed and failed 58 00:07:52,645 --> 00:07:57,965 and failed, and the time for failure is gone. 59 00:07:57,965 --> 00:08:06,725 There were those who said that this is a many-sided and very complex problem, but however viewed 60 00:08:06,725 --> 00:08:15,665 The denial of the right to vote is still a deadly wrong, and the time for injustice has 61 00:08:15,665 --> 00:08:18,145 gone. 62 00:08:18,145 --> 00:08:25,325 This law covers many pages, but the heart of the act is plain. 63 00:08:25,325 --> 00:08:31,485 Wherever by clear and objective standards states and counties are using regulations or 64 00:08:31,485 --> 00:08:40,426 laws or tests to deny the right to vote then they will be struck down. 65 00:08:40,426 --> 00:08:47,605 If it is clear that state officials still intend to discriminate then federal examiners 66 00:08:47,605 --> 00:08:52,645 will be sent in to register all eligible voters. 67 00:08:52,645 --> 00:09:00,605 When the prospect of discrimination is gone the examiners will be immediately withdrawn. 68 00:09:00,605 --> 00:09:10,785 And under this act, if any county anywhere in this nation does not want federal intervention, 69 00:09:10,785 --> 00:09:16,365 it need only open its polling places to all of its people. 70 00:09:30,605 --> 00:09:41,505 This good Congress, the 89th Congress, acted swiftly in passing this act. 71 00:09:41,505 --> 00:09:57,365 And I intend to act with equal dispatch in enforcing this act. 72 00:09:57,365 --> 00:10:04,066 And tomorrow at 1 p.m. the attorney general has been directed to file a lawsuit challenging 73 00:10:04,066 --> 00:10:19,725 the constitutionality of the poll tax in the state of Mississippi. 74 00:10:19,725 --> 00:10:23,025 And this will begin. 75 00:10:23,025 --> 00:10:39,951 The legal process which I confidently believe will very soon prohibit any state from requiring the payment of money in order to exercise the right to vote 76 00:10:41,031 --> 00:10:47,271 And also by tomorrow, the Justice Department, through publication in the Federal Register, 77 00:10:48,471 --> 00:10:54,151 will have officially certified the states where discrimination exists. 78 00:10:54,151 --> 00:11:02,191 I have, in addition, requested the Department of Justice to work all through this weekend 79 00:11:02,191 --> 00:11:11,811 so that on Monday morning next they can designate many counties where past experience clearly 80 00:11:11,811 --> 00:11:16,631 shows that federal action is necessary and required. 81 00:11:16,631 --> 00:11:25,211 And by Tuesday morning, trained federal examiners will be at work registering eligible men and 82 00:11:25,211 --> 00:11:43,391 women in 10 to 15 counties. 83 00:11:43,391 --> 00:11:48,411 And on that same day next Tuesday, additional poll tax suits will be filed in the states 84 00:11:48,411 --> 00:12:02,791 of Texas, Alabama, and Virginia. 85 00:12:02,791 --> 00:12:11,311 And I pledge you that we will not delay or we will not hesitate or we will not turn aside 86 00:12:11,311 --> 00:12:20,491 until Americans of every race and color and origin in this country have the same right 87 00:12:20,491 --> 00:12:35,731 as all others to share in the process of democracy. 88 00:12:35,731 --> 00:12:44,311 So through this act and its enforcement, an important instrument of freedom passes into 89 00:12:44,311 --> 00:12:49,611 the hands of millions of our citizens. 90 00:12:49,611 --> 00:12:54,731 But that instrument must be used. 91 00:12:54,731 --> 00:13:05,491 Presidents and Congresses, laws and lawsuits can open the doors to the polling places and 92 00:13:05,491 --> 00:13:13,131 open the doors to the wondrous rewards which await the wise use of the ballot. 93 00:13:14,471 --> 00:13:21,331 But only the individual Negro and all others who have been denied the right to vote 94 00:13:21,331 --> 00:13:26,931 can really walk through those doors and can use that right 95 00:13:26,931 --> 00:13:33,451 and can transform the vote into an instrument of justice and fulfillment. 96 00:13:33,451 --> 00:13:47,411 So let me now say to every Negro in this country, you must register. 97 00:13:47,411 --> 00:13:49,731 You must vote. 98 00:13:49,731 --> 00:13:59,691 You must learn so your choices advance your interest and the interest of our beloved nation. 99 00:14:03,451 --> 00:14:23,511 Your future and your children's future depend upon it, and I don't believe that you are going 100 00:14:23,511 --> 00:14:24,691 to let them down. 101 00:14:24,691 --> 00:14:32,771 This act is not only a victory for Negro leadership. 102 00:14:32,771 --> 00:14:37,571 This act is a great challenge to that leadership. 103 00:14:37,571 --> 00:14:45,451 It is a challenge which cannot be met simply by protests and demonstrations. 104 00:14:45,451 --> 00:14:58,231 It means that dedicated leaders must work around the clock to teach people their rights 105 00:14:58,231 --> 00:15:07,531 and their responsibilities and to lead them to exercise those rights and to fulfill those 106 00:15:07,531 --> 00:15:12,271 responsibilities and those duties to their country. 107 00:15:12,271 --> 00:15:19,931 And if you do this, then you will find, as others have found before you, that the vote 108 00:15:19,931 --> 00:15:28,731 is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying 109 00:15:28,731 --> 00:15:37,091 the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men. 110 00:15:37,091 --> 00:15:43,391 Today what is perhaps the last of the legal barriers is tumbling and there will be many 111 00:15:43,391 --> 00:15:57,136 actions and many difficulties before the rights woven into law are also woven into the fabric of our nation But the struggle for equality must now move to a different battlefield 112 00:15:58,756 --> 00:16:06,456 It is nothing less than granting every American Negro 113 00:16:06,456 --> 00:16:11,956 his freedom to enter the mainstream of American life. 114 00:16:11,956 --> 00:16:19,596 not the conformity that blurs enriching differences of culture and tradition, 115 00:16:20,196 --> 00:16:27,276 but rather the opportunity that gives each the chance to choose. 116 00:16:28,856 --> 00:16:35,596 For centuries of oppression and hatred have already taken their painful toll. 117 00:16:35,596 --> 00:16:48,316 It can be seen throughout our land in men without skills, in children without fathers, 118 00:16:48,316 --> 00:16:55,456 in families that are imprisoned in slums and in poverty. 119 00:16:55,456 --> 00:16:59,356 For it is not enough just to give men rights. 120 00:16:59,356 --> 00:17:05,596 They must be able to use those rights in their personal pursuit of happiness. 121 00:17:05,596 --> 00:17:15,117 The wounds and the weaknesses, the outward walls and the inward scars which diminish 122 00:17:15,117 --> 00:17:22,076 achievement are the work of American society. 123 00:17:22,076 --> 00:17:30,496 And we must all now help to end them, help to end them through expanding programs already 124 00:17:30,496 --> 00:17:39,156 devised and through new ones to search out and forever in the special handicap of those 125 00:17:39,156 --> 00:17:45,256 who are black in a nation that happens to be mostly white. 126 00:17:45,256 --> 00:17:54,756 So it is for this purpose to fulfill the rights that we now secure that I have already called 127 00:17:54,756 --> 00:18:01,516 a White House conference to meet here in the nation's capital this fall. And so we will 128 00:18:01,516 --> 00:18:10,056 move step by step, often painfully, but I think with clear vision, along the path toward 129 00:18:10,056 --> 00:18:18,296 American freedom. It is difficult to fight for freedom, but I think I also know how difficult 130 00:18:18,296 --> 00:18:24,896 it can be to bend long years of habit and custom to grant it. 131 00:18:24,896 --> 00:18:44,456 There is no room for injustice anywhere in the American mansion. 132 00:18:44,456 --> 00:18:51,556 there is always room for understanding toward those who see the old ways 133 00:18:51,556 --> 00:19:02,336 crumbling and to them today I say simply this it must come it is right that it 134 00:19:02,336 --> 00:19:09,656 should come and when it has you will find a burden that has been lifted from 135 00:19:09,656 --> 00:19:18,617 your shoulders too. It is not just a question of guilt, although there is that. It is that 136 00:19:18,617 --> 00:19:25,536 men cannot live with a lie and not be stained by it. 137 00:19:25,536 --> 00:19:33,216 The central fact of American civilization, one so hard for others to understand, is that 138 00:19:33,216 --> 00:19:43,836 freedom and justice and the dignity of man are not just words to us. We believe in them. 139 00:19:43,836 --> 00:19:56,476 Under all the growth and the tumult and abundance, we believe. And so, as long as some among us 140 00:19:56,476 --> 00:20:06,216 are oppressed, and we are part of that oppression, it must blunt our faith and sap the strength 141 00:20:06,216 --> 00:20:14,236 of our high purpose. Thus this is a victory for the freedom of the American Negro, but 142 00:20:14,236 --> 00:20:22,016 it is also a victory for the freedom of the American nation. And every family across this 143 00:20:22,016 --> 00:20:31,776 great entire searching land, will live stronger in liberty, will live more splendid in expectation, 144 00:20:31,776 --> 00:20:38,696 and will be prouder to be American because of the act that you have passed that I will 145 00:20:38,696 --> 00:20:39,696 sign today. 146 00:20:52,016 --> 00:21:21,996 Thank you.