Video: 'Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise [on the Voting Rights Act], 3/15/65. MP506.'

(Monday, March 15, 1965, 9:02 p.m. EST; during the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1954–68)) — U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson took the rallying cry of African-Americans into millions of American homes tonight by pledging that “we shall overcome” what he called “a crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.”

Addressing a joint session of Congress, Johnson demanded immediate action on legislation designed to remove every barrier of discrimination against citizens trying to register and vote.

Video: 'American Experience Lyndon B Johnson PBS Documentary' (Mar. 15, 1965, at 26:23)