the american promise essay

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Lyndon B. Johnson

Special message to the congress: the american promise.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, Members of the Congress:

I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy.

I urge every member of both parties, Americans of all religions and of all colors, from every section of this country, to join me in that cause.

At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.

There, long-suffering men and women peacefully protested the denial of their rights as Americans. Many were brutally assaulted. One good man, a man of God, was killed.

There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in our democracy in what is happening here tonight.

For the cries of pain and the hymns and protests of oppressed people have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great Government--the Government of the greatest Nation on earth.

Our mission is at once the oldest and the most basic of this country: to right wrong, to do justice, to serve man.

In our time we have come to live with moments of great crisis. Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues; issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression. But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself. Rarely are we met with a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, our welfare or our security, but rather to the values and the purposes and the meaning of our beloved Nation.

The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue. And should we defeat every enemy, should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation.

For with a country as with a person, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem. And we are met here tonight as Americans--not as Democrats or Republicans--we are met here as Americans to solve that problem.

This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: "All men are created equal"--"government by consent of the governed"--"give me liberty or give me death." Well, those are not just clever words, or those are not just empty theories. In their name Americans have fought and died for two centuries, and tonight around the world they stand there as guardians of our liberty, risking their lives.

Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. This dignity cannot be found in a man's possessions; it cannot be found in his power, or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others. It says that he shall share in freedom, he shall choose his leaders, educate his children, and provide for his family according to his ability and his merits as a human being.

To apply any other test--to deny a man his hopes because of his color or race, his religion or the place of his birth--is not only to do injustice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom.

THE RIGHT TO VOTE

Our fathers believed that if this noble view of the rights of man was to flourish, it must be rooted in democracy. The most basic right of all was the right to choose your own leaders. The history of this country, in large measure, is the history of the expansion of that right to all of our people.

Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can and should be no argument. Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right.

Yet the harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes.

Every device of which human ingenuity is capable has been used to deny this right. The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists, and if he manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he did not spell out his middle name or because he abbreviated a word on the application.

And if he manages to fill out an application he is given a test. The registrar is the sole judge of whether he passes this test. He may be asked to recite the entire Constitution, or explain the most complex provisions of State law. And even a college degree cannot be used to prove that he can read and write.

For the fact is that the only way to pass these barriers is to show a white skin.

Experience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination. No law that we now have on the books--and I have helped to put three of them there--can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it.

In such a case our duty must be clear to all of us. The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or his color. We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution. We must now act in obedience to that oath.

GUARANTEEING THE RIGHT TO VOTE

Wednesday I will send to Congress a law designed to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote.

The broad principles of that bill will be in the hands of the Democratic and Republican leaders tomorrow. After they have reviewed it, it will come here formally as a bill. I am grateful for this opportunity to come here tonight at the invitation of the leadership to reason with my friends, to give them my views, and to visit with my former colleagues.

I have had prepared a more comprehensive analysis of the legislation which I had intended to transmit to the clerk tomorrow but which I will submit to the clerks tonight. But I want to really discuss with you now briefly the main proposals of this legislation,

This bill will strike down restrictions to voting in all elections--Federal, State, and local--which have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote.

This bill will establish a simple, uniform standard which cannot be used, however ingenious the effort, to flout our Constitution.

It will provide for citizens to be registered by officials of the United States Government if the State officials refuse to register them.

It will eliminate tedious, unnecessary lawsuits which delay the right to vote.

Finally, this legislation will ensure that properly registered individuals are not prohibited from voting.

I will welcome the suggestions from all of the Members of Congress--I have no doubt that I will get some--on ways and means to strengthen this law and to make it effective. But experience has plainly shown that this is the only path to carry out the command of the Constitution.

To those who seek to avoid action by their National Government in their own communities; who want to and who seek to maintain purely local control over elections, the answer is simple:

Open your polling places to all your people.

Allow men and women to register and vote whatever the color of their skin.

Extend the rights of citizenship to every citizen of this land.

THE NEED FOR ACTION

There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain.

There is no moral issue. It is wrong--deadly wrong--to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.

There is no issue of States rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.

I have not the slightest doubt what will be your answer.

The last time a President sent a civil rights bill to the Congress it contained a provision to protect voting rights in Federal elections. That civil rights bill was passed after 8 long months of debate. And when that bill came to my desk from the Congress for my signature, the heart of the voting provision had been eliminated.

This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, no hesitation and no compromise with our purpose.

We cannot, we must not, refuse to protect the right of every American to vote in every election that he may desire to participate in. And we ought not and we cannot and we must not wait another 8 months before we get a bill. We have already waited a hundred years and more, and the time for waiting is gone.

So I ask you to join me in working long hours--nights and weekends, if necessary--to pass this bill. And I don't make that request lightly. For from the window where I sit with the problems of our country I recognize that outside this chamber is the outraged conscience of a nation, the grave concern of many nations, and the harsh judgment of history on our acts.

WE SHALL OVERCOME

But even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and State of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life.

Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.

As a man whose roots go deeply into Southern soil I know how agonizing racial feelings are. I know how difficult it is to reshape the attitudes and the structure of our society.

But a century has passed, more than a hundred years, since the Negro was freed. And he is not fully free tonight.

It was more than a hundred years ago that Abraham Lincoln, a great President of another party, signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but emancipation is a proclamation and not a fact.

A century has passed, more than a hundred years, since equality was promised. And yet the Negro is not equal.

A century has passed since the day of promise. And the promise is unkept.

The time of justice has now come. I tell you that I believe sincerely that no force can hold it back. It is right in the eyes of man and God that it should come. And when it does, I think that day will brighten the lives of every American.

For Negroes are not the only victims. How many white children have gone uneducated, how many white families have lived in stark poverty, how many white lives have been scarred by fear, because we have wasted our energy and our substance to maintain the barriers of hatred and terror?

So I say to all of you here, and to all in the Nation tonight, that those who appeal to you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future.

This great, rich, restless country can offer opportunity and education and hope to all: black and white, North and South, sharecropper and city dweller. These are the enemies: poverty, ignorance, disease. They are the enemies and not our fellow man, not our neighbor. And these enemies too, poverty, disease and ignorance, we shall overcome.

AN AMERICAN PROBLEM

Now let none of us in any sections look with prideful righteousness on the troubles in another section, or on the problems of our neighbors. There is really no part of America where the promise of equality has been fully kept. In Buffalo as well as in Birmingham, in Philadelphia as well as in Selma, Americans are struggling for the fruits of freedom.

This is one Nation. What happens in Selma or in Cincinnati is a matter of legitimate concern to every American. But let each of us look within our own hearts and our own communities, and let each of us put our shoulder to the wheel to root out injustice wherever it exists.

As we meet here in this peaceful, historic chamber tonight, men from the South, some of whom were at Iwo Jima, men from the North who have carried Old Glory to far corners of the world and brought it back without a stain on it, men from the East and from the West, are all fighting together without regard to religion, or color, or region, in Viet-Nam. Men from every region fought for us across the world 20 years ago.

And in these common dangers and these common sacrifices the South made its contribution of honor and gallantry no less than any other region of the great Republic--and in some instances, a great many of them, more.

And I have not the slightest doubt that good men from everywhere in this country, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Golden Gate to the harbors along the Atlantic, will rally together now in this cause to vindicate the freedom of all Americans. For all of us owe this duty, and I believe that all of us will respond to it.

Your President makes that request of every American.

PROGRESS THROUGH THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

The real hero of this struggle is the American Negro. His actions and protests, his courage to risk safety and even to risk his life, have awakened the conscience of this Nation. His demonstrations have been designed to call attention to injustice, designed to provoke change, designed to stir reform.

He has called upon us to make good the promise of America. And who among us can say that we would have made the same progress were it not for his persistent bravery, and his faith in American democracy.

For at the real heart of battle for equality is a deep-seated belief in the democratic process. Equality depends not on the force of arms or tear gas but upon the force of moral right; not on recourse to violence but on respect for law and order.

There have been many pressures upon your President and there will be others as the days come and go. But I pledge you tonight that we intend to fight this battle where it should be fought: in the courts, and in the Congress, and in the hearts of men.

We must preserve the right of free speech and the right of free assembly. But the right of free speech does not carry with it, as has been said, the right to holier fire in a crowded theater. We must preserve the right to free assembly, but free assembly does not carry with it the right to block public thoroughfares to traffic.

We do have a right to protest, and a right to march under conditions that do not infringe the constitutional rights of our neighbors. And I intend to protect all those rights as long as I am permitted to serve in this office.

We will guard against violence, knowing it strikes from our hands the very weapons which we seek--progress, obedience to law, and belief in American values.

In Selma as elsewhere we seek and pray for peace. We seek order. We seek unity. But we will not accept the peace of stifled rights, or the order imposed by fear, or the unity that stifles protest. For peace cannot be purchased at the cost of liberty.

In Selma tonight, as in every--and we had a good day there--as in every city, we are working for just and peaceful settlement. We must all remember that after this speech I am making tonight, after the police and the FBI and the Marshals have all gone, and after you have promptly passed this bill, the people of Selma and the other cities of the Nation must still live and work together. And when the attention of the Nation has gone elsewhere they must try to heal the wounds and to build a new community.

This cannot be easily done on a battleground of violence, as the history of the South itself shows. It is in recognition of this that men of both races have shown such an outstandingly impressive responsibility in recent days--last Tuesday, again today,

RIGHTS MUST BE OPPORTUNITIES

The bill that I am presenting to you will be known as a civil rights bill. But, in a larger sense, most of the program I am recommending is a civil rights program. Its object is to open the city of hope to all people of all races.

Because all Americans just must have the right to vote. And we are going to give them that right.

All Americans must have the privileges of citizenship regardless of race. And they are going to have those privileges of citizenship regardless of race.

But I would like to caution you and remind you that to exercise these privileges takes much more than just legal right. It requires a trained mind and a healthy body. It requires a decent home, and the chance to find a job, and the opportunity to escape from the clutches of poverty.

Of course, people cannot contribute to the Nation if they are never taught to read or write, if their bodies are stunted from hunger, if their sickness goes untended, if their life is spent in hopeless poverty just drawing a welfare check.

So we want to open the gates to opportunity. But we are also going to give all our people, black and white, the help that they need to walk through those gates.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS GOVERNMENT

My first job after college was as a teacher in Cotulla, Tex., in a small Mexican-American school. Few of them could speak English, and I couldn't speak much Spanish. My students were poor and they often came to class without breakfast, hungry. They knew even in their youth the pain of prejudice. They never seemed to know why people disliked them. But they knew it was so, because I saw it in their eyes. I often walked home late in the afternoon, after the classes were finished, wishing there was more that I could do. But all I knew was to teach them the little that I knew, hoping that it might help them against the hardships that lay ahead.

Somehow you never forget what poverty and hatred can do when you see its scars on the hopeful face of a young child.

I never thought then, in 1928, that I would be standing here in 1965. It never even occurred to me in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students and to help people like them all over this country.

But now I do have that chance--and I'll let you in on a secret--I mean to use it. And I hope that you will use it with me.

This is the richest and most powerful country which ever occupied the globe. The might of past empires is little compared to ours. But I do not want to be the President who built empires, or sought grandeur, or extended dominion.

I want to be the President who educated young children to the wonders of their world. I want to be the President who helped to feed the hungry and to prepare them to be taxpayers instead of tax-eaters.

I want to be the President who helped the poor to find their own way and who protected the right of every citizen to vote in every election.

I want to be the President who helped to end hatred among his fellow men and who promoted love among the people of all races and all regions and all parties.

I want to be the President who helped to end war among the brothers of this earth.

And so at the request of your beloved Speaker and the Senator from Montana; the majority leader, the Senator from Illinois; the minority leader, Mr. McCulloch, and other Members of both parties, I came here tonight--not as President Roosevelt came down one time in person to veto a bonus bill, not as President Truman came down one time to urge the passage of a railroad bill--but I came down here to ask you to share this task with me and to share it with the people that we both work for. I want this to be the Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, which did all these things for all these people.

Beyond this great chamber, out yonder in 50 States, are the people that we serve. Who can tell what deep and unspoken hopes are in their hearts tonight as they sit there and listen. We all can guess, from our own lives, how difficult they often find their own pursuit of happiness, how many problems each little family has. They look most of all to themselves for their futures. But I think that they also look to each of us.

Above the pyramid on the great seal of the United States it says--in Latin--"God has favored our undertaking."

God will not favor everything that we do. It is rather our duty to divine His will. But I cannot help believing that He truly understands and that He really favors the undertaking that we begin here tonight.

Note: The address was broadcast nationally. See also Items 108, 109, 409.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/242211

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Johnson, special message to the congress: the american promise, 1965.

President Johnson delivered a speech titled “The American Promise” to a joint session of Congress on March 15, 1965. In the speech, Johnson outlined his plans for supporting voting rights, stating, “There is no moral issue. It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of states’ rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.”

Lyndon B. Johnson, Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise, 1965. Photograph by Cecil Stoughton. Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum.

The Movements of the New Left, 1950–1975 pp 91–95 Cite as

Lyndon B. Johnson

The American Promise: Special Message to the Congress

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Part of the book series: The Bedford Series in History and Culture ((BSHC))

Rarely has a president responded so directly to radical protest as in this speech Lyndon B. Johnson gave to Congress on March 15, 1965, just after the bloody repression of protests in Selma, Alabama. LBJ indicted segregation with the authority of a white southerner who had upheld it for decades. In an extraordinary gesture, he invoked the slogan of the civil rights movement by declaring with great firmness, “We shall overcome. ” Concretely, he demanded a voting rights act that would guarantee African Americans a share of power in the United States, and he got it. The act passed in August 1965, mandating federal elections registrars in any county where 40 percent of the eligible voters were not registered. It was the most direct intervention in state and local politics since Reconstruction.

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Gosse, V. (2005). Lyndon B. Johnson. In: The Movements of the New Left, 1950–1975. The Bedford Series in History and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-04781-6_24

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Preface: Why This Book This Way - Concise Edition

W hat is the best way to engage and teach students in their history survey course? From the beginning, The American Promise has been shaped by our firsthand knowledge that the survey course is one of the most difficult to teach and, for many, also the most difficult to take. From the outset we have met this challenge by providing a story students enjoy for its readability, clear chronology, and lively voices of ordinary Americans. The American Promise: A Concise History preserves the alread y- brief narrative and the full map program of the parent text, The American Promise , in a smaller, more affordable trim size with selected features and photos from the comprehensive edition. We remain committed to making the book the most teachable and readable introductory American history text available.

With LaunchPad we have made meeting the challenges of the survey course a great deal easier by providing an intuitive, interactive e- Book and course space with a wealth of primary sources. Ready to assign as is with key assessment resources built into each chapter, LaunchPad can also be edited and customized as instructors’ imaginations and innovations dictate. Free when packaged with the print text, LaunchPad grants students and teachers access to a wealth of online tools and resources built specifically for our text to enhance reading comprehension and promote i n- depth study. With LaunchPad, Concise users have access to the full art and feature program from the comprehensive book. LaunchPad is loaded with the ful l- color e- Book plus LearningCurve, an adaptive learning tool; the popular Reading the American Past primary documents collection; additional primary sources ; special skill s- based assessment activities ; videos ; chapter summative quizzes ; and more.

What Makes The American Promise Special

Our experience as teachers and our frustrations with available textbooks inspired us to create a book that we could use effectively with our own students. Our knowledge of classroom realities has informed every aspect of each edition and version of The American Promise . We began with a clear chronological, political framework , as we have found that students need both the structure a political narrative provides and the insights gained from examining social and cultural experience. To write a comprehensive, balanced account of American history, we focus on the public arena — the place where politics intersects with social and cultural developments — to show how Americans confronted the major issues of their day and created fa r- reaching historical change.

The unique approach of our narrative is reflected in our title, The American Promise . We emphasize human agency and demonstrate our conviction that the essence of America has been its promise. For millions, the nation has held out the promise of a better life, unfettered worship, equality before the law, representative government, democratic politics, and other freedoms seldom found elsewhere. But none of these promises has come with guarantees. Throughout the narrative we demonstrate how much of American history is a continuing struggle over the definition and realization of the nation’s promise.

To engage students in this American story and to portray fully the diversity of the American experience, we stitch into our narrative the voices of hundreds of contemporaries . We further animate this story with a vivid art and map program . Visual and map activities in each chapter prompt students to think critically about what they see. To help students of all levels understand American history, we provide the best in primary sources and pedagogical aids . To help instructors teach important skills and evaluate student learning, we provide a rich assortment of assignments and assessments in both the print and LaunchPad formats. While this edition rests solidly on our original goals and premises, it breaks new ground in addressing the specific needs of today’s courses.

A New Skills Focus for the Special Features

For this revision we focused our attention on The American Promise ’s acclaimed feature program by looking for ways to make the features more useful, skill s- oriented assignments. In print, the features offer primary sources, visuals, essays, and discussion questions; in Launchpad, the feature program comes fully to life with both shor t- answer and multipl e- choice questions that test students’ critical reading skills. Making Historical Arguments (formerly Historical Question ) now offers active, skill s- based activities that demonstrate to students how historians make and support historical arguments. Analyzing Historical Evidence (formerly Documenting the American Promise ) then gives students the opportunity to practice the skills introduced in Making Historical Arguments through analysis of text and visual sources. An enhanced Beyond America’s Borders continues to offer students a global perspective on the narrative’s themes with essays that connect U.S. history to developments around the globe. Those using LaunchPad will have access to Experiencing the American Promise , which offers essays that illuminate the stories of individuals who sought their dream in America, helping students evaluate to what extent individuals make history.

Collectively these features provide a range of new topics and content that includes a new focus on the weak opposition to the African slave trade in the eighteenth century; a nuanced look at reactions to the Boston Port Act outside Massachusetts; an examination of the nation’s first formal declaration of war; attention to Ida B. Wells and her campaign to stop lynching; a spotlight on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s use of New Deal programs to rebuild the navy during the 1930s; an exploration of the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment; and much more.

Evaluation of Primary Sources

Primary sources form the heart of historical study, and we are pleased to offer the new Analyzing Historical Evidence feature, which asks students to use historical thinking skills to consider a range of documents . Each feature juxtaposes two to four primary documents to reveal varying perspectives on a topic or issue and to provide students with opportunities to build and practice their skills of historical interpretation. Because students are so attuned to visuals and instructors deeply value their usefulness as primary sources, we have included both text and visual sources in this new feature. Images including artifacts of daily life in Chaco Canyon, examples of early photojournalism, political cartoons, and more show students how to mine visual documents for evidence about the past.

In Analyzing Historical Evidence , feature introductions and document headnotes contextualize the sources, and shor t- answer questions at the end of the feature promote critical thinking about primary sources. New topics have been added that are rich with human drama and include “The Nation’s First Formal Declaration of War” and “Americans Encounter the New Deal.” These features are available both in print and online and are easily assigned in LaunchPad, along with multipl e- choice quizzes that measure student comprehension.

In addition, more than 150 documents in the accompanying collection Reading the American Past are available free to users who package the reader with the main print text, and they are automatically included in the LaunchPad e- Book. Not only can the shor t- answer questions be easily assigned from within LaunchPad, but multipl e- choice questions are also available for assignment to measure comprehension and hold students accountable for their reading.

LaunchPad for The American Promise also comes with a collection of more than 135 additional primary sources that instructors can choose to assign. These sources include letters, memoirs, court records, government documents, and more, and they include items by or about such people as John Smith, William Penn, Anne Hutchinson, Jonathan Edwards, Mary Jemison, Black Hawk, John C. Calhoun, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Mary Elizabeth Lease, William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Huey P. Long, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Paul Robeson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and more.

To give students ample opportunity to practice thinking critically about primary source images, one picture in each chapter includes a special visual activity caption that reinforces this essential skill. One set of questions in these activities prompts analysis of the image, while a second set of questions helps students connect the image to main points in the narrative.

Distinctive Essay Features Practice Historical Thinking Skills

To demonstrate and engage students in various methods of historical thinking, our new Making Historical Arguments feature essays pose and interpret specific questions of continuing interest, such as “Why Did Cortés Win?,” “Was the New United States a Christian Country?,” “Did Westerners Really Build It All by Themselves?,” and “Why Did the ERA Fail?”

Shor t- answer questions at the end of the features prompt students to consider things such as evidence, beliefs and values, and cause and effect as they relate to the historical question at hand. Available both in print and online, these features can be easily assigned in LaunchPad, along with multipl e- choice quizzes that measure student comprehension.

Helping Students Understand the Narrative

Every instructor knows it can be a challenge to get students to complete assigned readings and then to fully understand what is important once they do the reading. The American Promise addresses these problems hea d- on with a suite of tools in LaunchPad that instructors can choose from.

To help students come to class prepared, instructors who adopt LaunchPad for The American Promise can assign the LearningCurve formative assessment activities. This online learning tool is popular with students because it helps them rehearse content at their own pace in a nonthreatening, gam e- like environment. LearningCurve is also popular with instructors because the reporting features allow them to track overall class trends and spot topics that are giving their students trouble so they can adjust their lectures and class activities.

Encouraging active reading is another means for making content memorable and highlighting what is truly important. To help students read actively and understand the central idea of the chapter, instructors who use LaunchPad can also assign Guided Reading Exercises . These exercises appear at the start of each chapter, prompting students to collect information to be used to answer a broad analytic question central to the chapter as a whole.

To further encourage students to read and fully assimilate the text as well as measure how well they do this, instructors can assign the multipl e- choice summative quizzes in LaunchPad, where they are automatically graded. These secure tests not only encourage students to study the book, they also can be assigned at specific intervals as highe r- stakes testing and thus provide another means for analyzing class performance.

Another big challenge for survey instructors is meeting the needs of a range of students, particularly the students who need the most support. In addition to the formative assessment of LearningCurve, which adapts to the needs of students at any level, The American Promise offers a number of print and digital tools for the underprepared. Each chapter opener includes Content Learning Objectives to prepare students to read the chapter with purpose. Once into the heart of the chapter, students are reminded to think about main ideas through Review Questions placed at the end of every major section. In print and LaunchPad these questions can be assigned as a chapter review activity. Key Terms are defined in the margins, giving background on important ideas and events. Some students have trouble connecting events and ideas, particularly with special boxed features. To address this, we have added a set of Questions for Analysis to the end of each feature to help students understand the significance of the featured topic, its context, and how it might be viewed from different angles. These questions are also available in the print and LaunchPad versions of the book.

With this edition we also bring back two popular sets of en d- o f- chapter questions that help widen students’ focus as they consider what they have read. Making Connections questions ask students to think about broad developments within the chapter, while Linking to the Past questions cros s- reference developments in earlier chapters, encouraging students to draw connections to the modern world and consider how the issues addressed in the chapter are still relevant today. Both sets of questions are assignable from the print and LaunchPad versions.

Helping Instructors Teach with Digital Resources

With requests for clear and transparent learning outcomes coming from all quarters and with students who bring increasingly diverse levels of skills to class, even veteran teachers can find preparing for today’s courses a trying matter. With LaunchPad we have reconceived the textbook as a suite of tools in multiple formats that allows each format do what it does best to capture students’ interest and help instructors create meaningful lessons.

But one of the best benefits is that instructors using LaunchPad have a number of assessment tools that allow them to see what it is their students do and don’t know and measure student achievement all in one convenient space. For example, LearningCurve , an adaptive learning tool that comes with LaunchPad, garners more than a 90 percent student satisfaction rate and helps students master book content. When LearningCurve is assigned, the grade book results show instructors where the entire class or individual students may be struggling, and this information in turn allows instructors to adjust lectures and course activities accordingly — a benefit not only for traditional classes but invaluable for hybrid, online, and newer “flipped” classes as well. In addition, not only can instructors assign all of the questions that appear in the print book and view the responses in the grade book, but they also have the option to assign automatically graded multipl e- choice questions for all of the book features.

With LaunchPad for The American Promise we make the tough job of teaching simpler by providing everything instructors need in one convenient space so they can set and achieve the learning outcomes they desire. To learn more about the benefits of LearningCurve and LaunchPad, see the “Versions and Supplements” section on page xvii.

The American Promise: History

Introduction.

The American comprehension of liberty has become the guiding light for the majority of countries. Thousands of people from all over the world come to the United States every year, hoping to pursue a better future for themselves and their families. However, Americans have come a long way to find themselves in the place they are now. Major milestones following American history are inscribed in the number of documents, to which people refer in pursue of freedom and happiness. Some of the most significant of them is the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States (Roark et al.).

The first document, catalyzing creating the American nation in 1776, is a splendid example of celebrating freedom. While it was not common for people in the 18th century to talk about equality, the Declaration of Independence introduced this notion to the broad public (Roark et al.). However, while millions of people across the globe look up to the American Promise, Americans themselves cannot cope with this belief.

The American Promise is attractive not only to the residents of small countries but to those of big nations as well. Citizens of China and Russia are sometimes obsessed with America’s interpretation of liberty. The major reason behind this lies in the fact that these counties have risen as a result of continuous formation and dynasty ruling. America, in its turn, has initially derived from several ethnicities and beliefs. Thus, the diversity celebration was the only way to unite such a big and varied nation.

Historically, since the exploration of American lands, the territory of the United States was divided between various European colonists. Hence, Native Americans did not have a chance to experience the feeling of individual freedom due to slavery and constant humiliation. With the emergence of the United States of America, both the Declaration of Independence and the first-ever American constitution estimated the formation of a free state on the lands of hundreds of colonies (Roark et al.). To men and women of that time, such a step meant the possibility to fulfill their deepest desires after years of discrimination.

To keep the American Promise, Americans have been fighting for human freedom for centuries. The US is one of the few countries where people can live their fullest regardless of skin color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender. As the main gist behind the American Promise was to celebrate diversity while remaining a united nation, it might be said that this objective has failed over the years. Although any discrimination in terms of human diversity is now prohibited by law, the notion of unity is still alien to US residents. News is now replete with reports concerning mass shootings on the grounds of racial and sex discrimination.

The history and development of each nation depend highly on ideas and beliefs that unite the state. In the case of the United States, the American Promise has become the primary goal behind the nation’s existence. However, while this promise has become crucial for other countries to follow, Americans themselves fail to bring it to life. Such dissonance is caused by capitalistic social gaps, inappropriately high levels of individualism, and political ignorance. Thus, current Americans’ objective is to unite to empower the country without breaking their individualistic borders, as it was intended by the original American Promise.

Roark, James L., Johnson, Michael P., Cohen, Patricia Cline, Stage, Sarah, and Susan M. Hartmann. The American Promise: A Concise History, Volume 1: To 1877, (6th edition). Kindle ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017.

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The American Promise: Documents Review Essay

The two documents, namely the U.S constitution with amendments and the articles of confederation several distinct differences although they are both political entities meant for smooth running of states and governments through various legislative provisions.

To begin with, it is important to note that a constitution is a set of laws and regulations adopted by a state or government for the purpose of smooth governance. On the other hand, a confederacy is a union of persons, states, governments or political parties who come up together to pursue a common goal or objective. Members within a confederacy have to stick to certain rules which are used as baselines for governance. Moreover, the language at the start of each document tends to signify the dignity, sovereignty and the power which is endowed in people to which the articles or constitution concerns.

One of the remarkable differences appears on the legislative structure. Whereas the Articles of Confederacy proposes only a single legislative house called the Congress, the Constitution provides for a two houses namely the Senate and House of Representatives. Each state is supposed to have at least two members and not exceeding seven according to the Articles of Confederacy. As per the U.S constitution, each state should have two senators. It is the number of people in any given state which determines the actual number of represents to be awarded. On a similar note, the Articles allows only a single ballot power within a federation or state while a Senator or Representative is allowed by the constitution to give a single vote during all ballot processes in Congress. Furthermore, the articles states that members can only be selected by the legislature while the constitution states that it is the Senators who can be picked by the legislative body while Representatives go through an electoral process through a majority vote.

The office tenure in the articles of confederacy is only twelve months while Senators can be retained in office up to six years and Representatives two years according to the constitution. However, the constitution does not have a limitation in office tenure for members of the legislature contrary to the articles which puts a limitation of three years or less within a given six year term. These legislative members are paid differently as well; the states cater for members’ remuneration according to the Articles of Confederacy while the constitution stipulates that Congressional payment is the duty of the government at the federal level.

During recess period, the Articles of Confederacy legally allows committee members within each region to take control of the Congress. However, the constitution notes that when the Congressional sessions are not on, the President has the power to order the Congress back.

He is also the head of the Congress according to the provisions of the Articles of confederacy although the Vice-President and the Speaker chair the Senate and House of Representatives respectively as per the constitution. The President is the chief executive office of the country as provided for in the constitution in contrary to the articles which does not specify such a provision.

New member states can only be admitted when there is a unanimous approval by the Congress as the U.S constitution. However, a total nine states, upon striking a common balance, can allow new members into the union according to the Articles of Confederacy. Nevertheless, Canada is excluded in this clause.

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IvyPanda . "The American Promise: Documents Review." December 29, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-american-promise-documents-review/.

• Rise of the United States Confederacy
• Ballot Initiative in the 13th Amendment
• Protagonist in Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces”
• William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and the Confederacy
• California Cash Bail Ballot Proposition
• Financial Strategies of the Confederacy vs. Union Governments’ Economic Choices
• Antisocial Personality Disorder in Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces”
• Academic Tenure and Its Abolishing
• The United States Congressional Committees
• Malcolm X’s “Ballot or the Bullet” Speech
• Supreme Court’s Interpretation of Democracy
• The Housing Right and Duties Bill
• Miranda vs. Arizona: Background and Implication
• National Prohibition Paradox in the United States
• Supreme Court Decision: Corporations and Freedom of Speech

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Enrique's Journey — A Look at the Reality of the American Promise

A Look at The Reality of The American Promise

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Published: Nov 20, 2018

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The Reality of the American Promise

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The American Promise – Analyses

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Indledning In this paper, I will address the topic " The American Promise “. The purpose of my rhetorical analysis is to gain a better understanding of the rhetorical pentagrams, language skills, forms of appeal, and the elements of Obama's speech.

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Uddrag The American dream is the belief that America is a great country full of possibilities for everyone, disregarding of social class or where they were born. The belief that anyone can achieve great success and turn their life’s around trough sacrifices, and hard work, not by chance. But what is the American Promise? Barack Obama himself defines it as: “The idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother ́s keeper; I am my sister ́s keeper.” The speaker is a man named Barack Hussein Obama, He is an American attorney, politician and the 44th President of the United States. Obama was the first African American to hold office, and he is from the Democratic Party. Instantly he earned a reputation as one of the greatest contemporary speakers, due to his admirable speaking skills. He delivered the speech” The American Promise” on August 28, 2008,. The speech was held at the Democratic convention In Colorado when he was fighting to win the presidential election after being accepted as a candidate in 2008. ” With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States ”. Obamas’ speech is a very acknowledged speech, targeting the American population. The language does not have a high degree of difficulty, although Obama's language is partially formal it is still easy to understand for the many voters.

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The American Promise, Volume 2

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Psychology in Everyday Life

A history of the united states ninth edition | ©2023 james l. roark; michael p. johnson; francois furstenberg; sarah stage; sarah igo, learn more about achieve for the american promise →.

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A question-driven narrative featuring the diverse voices of ordinary and extraordinary Americans

The American Promise has long been a classroom favorite for its scholarly foundation and its approach to history as a discipline rooted in inquiry and debate. Shining a light on the diversity of America, the ninth edition amplifies more of the individual voices that animate our nation’s history. Primary source documents in every chapter and an extensive full-color map and art program engage students in historical thinking skills. Our robust online learning platform, Achieve, delivers the full e-textbook and an integrated reader with dozens of additional primary sources, along with adaptive quizzing for self-study, tutorials, activities to engage students, and assessments for instructor insight.

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“ The American Promise is an excellent, affordable textbook with many built-in online activities and supporting materials for students and instructors.” – Natalia Starostina, Oklahoma City University “ The American Promise is a comprehensive textbook that covers American history from a variety of viewpoints. It does an EXCELLENT job with organizing the chapters around driving questions. . .  . Each chapter is wonderfully bookended by vignettes that tie it together.” – G. Patrick O’Brien, Kennesaw State University “This is the best text I have found. . . . It provides just enough information to students without overwhelming them, but doesnt leave out crucial topics. More importantly, it has a good amount of visuals, such as maps, that provide context to the information.” – Joel D. Rudewicz, Erie Community College “Aside from the excellent visuals, I really enjoy the format of the book. This edition is very engaging for the teacher and students. I love the discussion questions [in the boxed features.]” – Victoria L. Johnson, Lawson State Community College

Ninth Edition | ©2023

James L. Roark; Michael P. Johnson; Francois Furstenberg; Sarah Stage; Sarah Igo

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Table of Contents

James L. Roark

James L. Roark (Ph.D., Stanford University) is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor Emeritus of American History at Emory University. He received his universitys Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award, and in 2001–2002 he was Pitt Professor of American Institutions at Cambridge University. He has written Masters without Slaves: Southern Planters in the Civil War and Reconstruction and coauthored Black Masters: A Free Family of Color in the Old South with Michael P. Johnson. He has also co-edited No Chariot Let Down: Charleston’s Free People of Color on the Eve of the Civil War with Michael P. Johnson.

Michael Johnson

Michael P. Johnson (Ph.D., Stanford University) is Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. His publications include Toward a Patriarchal Republic: The Secession of Georgia ; Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil War: Selected Speeches and Writings ; and Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents , the documents reader for The American Promise . He has also coedited No Chariot Let Down: Charleston’s Free People of Color on the Eve of the Civil War with James L. Roark.

Francois Furstenberg

François Furstenberg (Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University) is Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. From 2003–2014 he taught at the Université de Montréal. His publications include In the Name of the Father: Washington’s Legacy , Slavery, and the Making of a Nation ; and When the United States Spoke French : Five Refugees who Shaped a Nation .

Sarah Stage

Sarah Stage (Ph.D., Yale University) has taught U.S. history at Williams College and the University of California, Riverside, and she was a visiting professor at Beijing University and Szechuan University. Currently she is Professor of Women’s Studies at Arizona State University. Her books include Female Complaints: Lydia Pinkham and the Business of Women’s Medicine and Rethinking Home Economics: Women and the History of a Profession .

Sarah E. Igo (Ph.D., Princeton University) is the Andrew Jackson Professor of American History and Director of American Studies at Vanderbilt University. Previously, she was an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she won the Richard S. Dunn Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2003. She is the author of The Averaged American: Surveys , Citizens and the Making of a Mass Public and The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America .

Ninth Edition | 2023

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An extraordinary documentary about race, family and education that's at once epic and intimate, "American Promise" took 14 years to complete since its premise is to follow two boys from kindergarten through high school. Actually, co-directors (and spouses) Joe Brewster and Michele Stephenson initially set out to film the scholastic careers of several children, including girls, but when all the subjects dropped out except for their own son, Idriss, and his best friend, Seun Summers, they were left with a film about two African-American boys entering a privileged, predominantly white academic environment – a focus that is essential to the film's provocative fascinations and cultural importance.

When we meet them at age five, in the late '90s, Idriss and Seun are as fortunate as they are cute. The eldest sons of stable and motivated black professional couples in Brooklyn, the boys are selected to attend Manhattan's tony, private Dalton School, an opportunity that evidently stems both from the school's new commitment to "diversity" (which involves trying to mirror the city's racial makeup) and their parents' desire to give their sons the best educations possible. Although "American Promise" wasn't the project's initial title, it perfectly captures the feeling of hope that both families evince as the boys embark on their big educational adventure.

But achievement doesn't follow opportunity as readily as one might hope. Both the lithe, delicate-featured Idriss and shy, husky Seun, in addition to being very likable kids, are smart and articulate, and their teachers and counselors seem to go out of their way to help them. Yet from early on, they seem unable to match or surpass their classroom peers, mostly kids from well-to-do white families. It's almost as if there's some invisible cultural barrier holding them back. Idriss, who slips into hip-hop patois when he goes out to play basketball with boys from the projects lest he be accused of "talking white," also perceives that he's punished at school more readily than the white kids. Is it because as a black kid he's expected to cause problems?

By middle school and the onset of adolescence, the challenges have multiplied and the parents' frustrations mounted accordingly. While Idriss and Seun seem to feel that their folks are pressuring them too relentlessly about schoolwork, the Brewsters and the Summerses say that they don't think they are being tough enough. After arriving late for a martial arts ceremony and being told by his dad that he's screwed up due to being given too much freedom, Seun turns to the camera and smirks, "They think waking up by yourself is freedom." Falling further behind academically toward the end of middle school, he leaves Dalton and moves over to Benjamin Banneker Academy, a distinguished Brooklyn public school with a mostly black student body.

The central perplexities here are summed up by a Dalton administrator who says that at their school "African-American girls do okay. But there seems to be a cultural disconnect between independent schools and African-American boys, and we see a high rate of the boys not being successful. And the question is, why? What are we doing as a school that is not supporting these guys?" Another angle on that question, meanwhile, comes from a teacher at Benjamin Banneker, who suggests that diversity itself may be a misguided goal, pointing to his school's success rate as an indication that black students often do better academically among their fellows than in situations where they feel isolated and constantly compared to more privileged classmates.

While they didn't set out to make a film about what newspaper columnists refer to as the "black male achievement gap," Brewster and Stephenson have done just that, and it's hard to imagine a more penetrating and powerful one. Since it's filmed in direct-cinema style (Michael Apted's " Up " series was an inspiration) there are no interviews with experts mulling the reasons for this gap. But that's no doubt for the best. Rather than pretending to offer any encompassing explanations or solutions for what is obviously a very complex and multi-faceted problem, the filmmakers explore it in the intimate context of two families. Seeing it that up-close and personal provides a vivid and immediate basis for discussion, and indeed, it's easy to believe that "American Promise" will be the basis for many discussions in U.S. homes and schools for years to come.

Yet as illuminating as the film is regarding one crucial issue, it is also much more than that. Watching Idriss and Seun from the time they enter school till they set off for college (a happy-enough ending for their arduous academic journeys) is a rich and rewarding experience, one that will surely make most viewers reflect on their own lives and family situations. In the cases of the families here, the challenges are sometimes overwhelming. Hit by unexpected tragedy in the latter stages of filming, the Summerses dropped out of the project for a while, but later returned, perhaps sensing that telling Seun's story in this way might well benefit others. One can only admire the courage of their decision.

A film of this scope is obviously a monumental undertaking, yet it's one that Brewster and Stephenson managed to complete while negotiating several technological changes that led documentary filmmakers from shooting on tape to digital. For all that, "American Promise" is beautifully shot (by several camera operators) and assembled. Credited editors Erin Casper, Mary Manhardt and Andrew Siwoff obviously deserve kudos for a film that is eloquently structured and consistently engaging.

Godfrey Cheshire

Godfrey Cheshire is a film critic, journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. He has written for The New York Times, Variety, Film Comment, The Village Voice, Interview, Cineaste and other publications.

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