The text I will be analysing is President Lyndon B. Johnson's special message to the Congress : The American Promise March 15, 1965.
It is well known that during the 1960's the African American community had not gained their voting rights. President Johnson encouraged Congress to pass the voting right act. He expressed this through his famous speech "We shall overcome", which was delivered on March 15 , 1965. This speech is identified as a political speech due the fact that it contains features of a speech such as rhetorical devices, persuasion methods, and the use of ethos , pathos and logos.
The target audience of this speech are the members of Congress however Johnson is also targeting the people of America therefore he is not only asking the Congress to pass the voting right act but also asking the American people. In the text he directs a point to both members of the Congress and others who were present and all the people watching sine he mentions in the text "to all the nation tonight". This shows that he is not only concerned about the political aspect of the voting issue but the ethical aspect of the issue as well sine he is also attempting to rally the support of the American people. Throughout the speech , and ideal amount of persuasion methods were used. Johnson uses pathos in his speech to get persuade the audience to support his cause. He mentions the amount of violence that was used recently in Alabama which was caused by men and women protesting against their denial for the right to vote. Johnson uses this to persuade the American people and the Congressmen by appealing to their emotions in order to support his cause. In order to do this he seized the opportunity to mention the Selma massacre. He also puts himself into the speech. He implies that he is part of the American people, there he did not only try and make the people view him as the leader of America, but made himself be viewed as part of people of the United States. He uses the word "we" as he considers himself as one of the people. He uses we in the the famous line "We shall overcome". He then again appeals to the audience's emotions as he implies that he too wants something to be done to the situation with the civil rights for the African American people. This adds pathos due to the fact that he includes his emotions with the emotions of the people.
What gives Johnson more of a reason to recite this speech is the fact that Johnson used to be the Majority Leader in Senate as he worked to help different aspects of the Civil Rights movement of 1957. He believes that American should get rid of its racial discrimination. Johnson refers to different text from American history. He gives examples from the Constitution , and the Emancipation Proclamation to support his arguments. This could be used as an example of logos as he allows the audience to understand and connect the dots between the different periods of time This also is helpful as it is a great way to persuade the members of the Congress as it tells them how the country should be governed whist referring to previous constitutions and supporting his arguments. The tone of the speech is hopeful as he always refers to a better and brighter America. He says what he would like to happen and how he would like america to change but in the same time appealing to the peoples emotions.
In conclusion, this text uses many rhetorical devices and an ideal amount of persuasion methods that helped persuade the people of Congress and the American people which were his target audience.
Johnsons speech will be remembered as the speech that helped racism and pass the voting rights to the African American Community.
