Read this excerpt from Passage 2.
"Johnson’s efforts to guarantee civil rights and equal opportunity continued...He denounced the violence and called on Americans to embrace the cause of justice and support the fight to ensure civil rights of all Americans. In 1965, Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law…President Johnson had used his tremendous political acumen to move the country forward." (Paragraph 6)
What does the word "denounced" most nearly mean in this excerpt?