Blog 3 Summary

This week was about Lyndon Johnson and his fight for the rights of blacks. The first poster started off the week with strong points that the discrimination problem our country faced was not one of one specific region, race or party, but a problem for every single American. It was also aptly put that the issue of bipartisanship has always been a problem in our country, since everyone has their own opinions and beliefs, and as well as being a problem back then, it is a problem right now. That we all need to come together, under one flag as we are, and stand united to protect people’s right, and protect the Constitution. This was expounded upon by the second poster of the week, who stated that not only is discrimination wrong and not what our country was founded on, but it is a hypocrisy to our soldiers, who have fought, and will continue to fight, to make sure that we are a free and just democracy. It was nicely stated that, “[I]t is one of the privileges of living in the United States that we have a democracy, and that what we say as citizens is valued. To take that right away, or to weaken that right, based on race, religion or whatever reason is not what being an American [is] about.” This was elegantly put because no man, nor woman for that matter, is better than any other, and what one gets, so should the others. No matter if the person is of another color, faith or anything else. Our rights are our most valuable possessions. The last post of the week added nicely and to the topic. The poster hit on key points, such as the extreme racial riot which broke out between blacks traveling to in hopes of voting, and police officers, charged with upholding the law, who did not see blacks as having the God given right to vote. During a speech, a week after the riot, Johnson, who was outraged that anyone should be denied rights set forth in the Constitution, brought to the public’s attention a bill he was submitting which would abolish voting restrictions, previously used to keep those the majority deemed undesirable from voting. And if local state officials refused to register anyone desiring to vote, the United States Government had the right to register anyone for local and national elections and polls. One of the most important points of the poster was, “You would think that if the entire nation saw that their president, a white man, was to stand up for the rights of African Americans, the rest of the nation would follow through with him in order to do their best to be [‘good citizens’].” This largely pointed out that Johnson wasn’t fighting for just one race, but for all races. Whether he liked or disliked blacks didn’t matter because they were American citizens, and he believed in standing up for the rights of all American citizens, regardless.