US Presidency
1965

This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American, in his heart, can justify. The right is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny. In 1957, as the leader of the majority in the United States Senate, speaking in support of legislation to guarantee the right of all men to vote, I said, This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies. Last year I said, Until every qualified person regardless of... the color of his skin has the right, unquestioned and unrestrained, to go in and cast his ballot in every precinct in this great land of ours, I am not going to be satisfied. Immediately after the election I directed the Attorney General to explore, as rapidly as possible, the ways to ensure the right to vote.