Rhetoric and timeliness: An analysis of Lyndon b. Johnson's voting rights address

On 15 March 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson spoke before the Congress and the nation to decry “Bloody Sunday"—the violence against civil rights protesters at Selma, Alabama—and to propose his administration's voting rights bill. The timing of LBJ"s voting rights address was a departure from his usual approach to rhetoric: he had been working on the legislation for some time and was ready when the crisis came. Johnson's speech embraced civil rights at an opportune time and re‐shaped time itself. Ironically, however, the speech also saw the rise of riots and black separatism at just the moment when black moderates and white liberals had achieved “civil rights.”