Stepping Stones - How Was Lyndon B. Johnson's Speech, "we ShAll Overcome" a Huge Stepping Stone?

STEPPING STONES

Think of Johnson's preeminent speech "We Shall Overcome" as one more step closer to equality on the stepping stones of American history. The first stones were placed when slavery was introduced to us more than two-hundred years ago in the United States. Discrimination and segregation were directed primarily towards people of colour and it is still like that today all around the globe, being silenced by the media. Johnson strived for equality in America; he carved out a path for freedom from oppression. Both of these ideologies don’t just exist in the United States, they still exist all over world. Johnson carved out a path for freedom from oppression, and it is up to us as humans to place the stones needed for any progression to occur. We will never truly reach our goal of autonomy as a whole as long as we keep on treating each other as if we are inferior to one another. This is not what Johnson would have wanted for us. For freedom and equality to become a true status quo in today's society, it would require for there to be a Utopia, which is nearly impossible, because there will always be some kind of opposite force trying to push us back from our desires... Many of the stones placed hundreds of years ago are now crumbling; people are not able to continue to tread upon the path of freedom and equality because of our careless faults. We have to forgive each other and fill the cracks, or else the people who are trapped will never be able to cross over and continue on the path. If we don’t fulfill our deeds, then Johnson's speech will never live up to its name and core message, "We Shall Overcome". "This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose" (LBJ).