In January, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson met with civil rights leaders and told them that he would push for a law protecting voting rights after Congress passed an education bill and Medicare. Civil rights leaders refused to wait. After they were violently attacked on March 7 during a peaceful protest march in Selma, Alabama, an outraged nation, Congress, and the president would no longer wait. On March 15, Johnson appeared before a televised, joint session of Congress to deliver a stirring, historic speech calling on Congress to pass a voting rights bill. The president embraced the rhetoric of the civil rights movement, declaring that the nation “must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And, we shall overcome.” With the exception of Southerners, the entire House chamber stood and cheered, interrupting the president with thirty-nine ovations.