Question

Read the following excerpt from Lyndon B. Johnson's Address to Congress in 1965.

"In our time we have come to live with the moments of great crises. 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, or 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 negroes1 is such an issue.

And should we defeat every enemy, and 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're 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.'

And those are not just clever words, and those are not just empty theories."



1This term is no longer acceptable, but it used to accurately quote Johnson's address to Congress as it was delivered in 1965.


Which excerpt from Lyndon B. Johnson's Address to Congress BEST reflects how both passages promote a sense of national unity in the face of division among people?

"Our lives have been marked with debate about great issues, issues of war and peace, issues of prosperity and depression."


"The issue of equal rights for American negroes is such an issue."


"There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem."


"'All men are created equal.' 'Government by consent of the governed.' 'Give me liberty or give me death.'"

Answer 1

"There is no Negro problem. There is no Southern problem. There is no Northern problem. There is only an American problem."

This line explicitly rejects sectional or racial divisions and frames the issue as a single national concern, thereby promoting unity.