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Rhetorical Techniques Used In Lyndon Baines Johnson's Speech

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“We shall overcome” is a speech by Lyndon Baines Johnson on March 15, 1965. This speech took place one week after Selma. “We shall overcome” was created to convince the Members of Congress, into joining him in his fight against racism by approving a bill meant to abolish racist voting restrictions. Lyndon Johnson’s speech to convince Members of congress to help him pass a bill to abolish racist voting restrictions by using a strong tone to create the sense that what he was saying was important, and in his speech he used Pathos and Logos to make the crowd feel sympathy for the black community because of the harsh truth. Lyndon Johnson used a rhetorical device in his tone to help deliver that racist voting rights are bad to the crowd. His voice …show more content…

He used Logos and Pathos by telling facts about racist voting restrictions and then phrased it in a way to make the crowd give sympathy. An example of him using logos and pathos is when he said: “Yet the harsh fact is that in many places of this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes.” He said this right after he said “Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote.” these two lines shock the audience. These two joined together, is the perfect strategy because when Lyndon Johnson stated what should be and what everyone believed, and then said what the harsh reality was in a negative way, it literally changed the perspective of many Members of congress and many other viewers. Lyndon Johnson’s mix of Pathos and Logos helped convinced the crowd into helping him abolish racist voting restrictions. In the speech “We shall overcome,” Lyndon Baines Johnson used Logos and Pathos to convince the crowd, and backed it up with a strong, determined tone. In this speech, Lyndon Johnson stated how unfair the racist voting restrictions and said that it was wrong and that everyone had a right to vote. He also backed everything up with a stern, unbreakable voice to help deliver his

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