In signing into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave the federal Justice Department oversight of Southern state elections to ensure their openness and fairness to Black people, he gave a paean not to white generosity but to Black courage and Black virtue. Comparing the recent defiance of Black people against the racists of Selma, Alabama, to the battles at Lexington and Concord, Johnson told a joint session of Congress that the “real hero of this struggle” was the “American Negro.
