March 15, 1965
President Lyndon Johnson went on national television to pledge his support to the Selma protesters (who had been twice turned back by Alabama state troopers on their attempted march to Montgomery) and call for the passage of a new voting rights bill that he was introducing in Congress. “There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem,” he said. “…Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negros, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.”
