President Lyndon Johnson’s Speech to Congress on Voting Rights, March 15, 1965
On March 15, 1965, President Johnson called upon Congress to create the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He said,
In our system the first and most vital of all our rights is the right to vote. Jefferson described it as 'the ark of our safety.' It is from the exercise of this right that all our other rights flow.
President Lyndon Johnson’s Speech to Congress on Voting Rights, March 15, 1965. RG 46, Records of the United States Senate, National Archives.