By ALBERT CANO
Staff Writer
I believe that when Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1965 he used principle because of his speech called the “American Promise”. In March of 1965 Johnson, a teacher at the time, made a speech to Congress that expressed his deep feelings toward his students. “They never seemed to know why people disliked them.” Johnson taught a 5th, 6th, and 7th-grade class, he felt he knew how they felt because of the look in their eyes. He could never imagine if he had to go through their traumas and knew he had to do something about it. So Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in favor of these poor students showing his true feelings and how he used principle.
When signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Johnson used principle because of his discussion with Wilkens. In Robert Dallek’s book, “Flawed Giant” when Johnson was making his “free at last” discussion many people questioned why it even took him so long to act on the matter. “Free at last, free at last, thank god almighty I’m free at last.” Johnson was letting others know that was finally able to speak on what he truly believed and not what he had to believe before due to his political life. Now that he was broken from these bonds he was free to stand up for whatever he wanted. By making this change he did it for the people.
After signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 I know Johnson used principle because of his discussion with Russel in his book “Flawed Giant” Johnson made it very obvious that he didn’t care if he won or lost the election, he knew he just wanted the right thing to be done. “If that’s the price to pay, I’ll pay it gladly.” It wasn’t the easiest thing to do knowing he would put the election at risk but to help with the problem of discrimination that was going on against people of color he had to. It would not only cost him the election, but it would also cost him the South.
In conclusion in the mid-1900s, Johnson became president, and one important problem at the time was segregation and injustice toward colored people. To continue Kennedy’s legacy Johnson fought this problem. He wanted everyone to be treated equally. Many people argued that he was a man of Politics because it seemed he only cared about the Civil Rights Act before the re-election, but his “Free at last” speech seemed to prove otherwise. He knew he put the election at risk to do the right thing.