President Johnson addressed Congress on March 15, 1965, barely a week after the events of Bloody Sunday. In his speech “The American Promise,” Johnson urged all Americans to confront the injustice of racial prejudice. “The harsh fact is that in many places in this country men and women are kept from voting simply because they are Negroes…I will send to Congress a law designed to eliminate illegal barriers to the right to vote…this bill will strike down restrictions to voting in all elections--Federal, State, and local--which have been used to deny Negroes the right to vote…the real hero of this struggle is the American Negro. His actions and protests, his courage to risk safety and even to risk his life, have awakened the conscience of this Nation.” The language of Johnson’s bill was mainly written Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, and Senators Mike Mansfield and Everett Dirksen. Less than five months later, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act with broad bipartisan support.