The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue.
Should we defeat every enemy and conquer every star and still be unequal to this issue, then we fail as a people and as a nation.
Explanation:
The two lines written above are the lines from the speech of Johnson which speak the attitude of Johnson towards this problem. It says that Johnson was totally against the problem of inequality. He could not bear the sight of inequality towards the Negroes.
He thought that even if a country conquers everything in the world and wins over all it's enemies also, then also it fails as a nation if there exists the problem of inequality in the country. For him, the issuing of equal rights for the Negroes community was a big issue that needed to be resolved at any cost.