Delivered the keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention on July 12, 1976, the first woman and first African American to do so.
On July 12, 1976, Barbara Jordan took the stage at Madison Square Garden in New York City to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, becoming the first woman and the first African American to deliver a keynote speech at a major party's national convention in American history.
Her address, titled "We, the People," reflected on the meaning of American democracy and inclusion, echoing themes from her Watergate opening statement. She spoke of a "national community" bound together by shared ideals rather than division, and her powerful delivery captivated the convention hall and television audiences nationwide.
The speech was widely regarded as one of the finest political speeches of the twentieth century, and some polls of convention delegates and pundits at the time even considered her a potential vice-presidential contender, though the ticket ultimately went with Walter Mondale. Jordan's keynote address broke a long-standing barrier in American political conventions, which had exclusively featured white male keynote speakers since their inception.
The historic nature of her speech was magnified by the fact that just twelve years earlier, the Civil Rights Act had only recently dismantled legal segregation, and eleven years earlier, the Voting Rights Act had begun to restore Black political participation in the South. Jordan's prominent role on the national stage in 1976 symbolized the dramatic, rapid change in American political life during this era, and her speech remains a touchstone of American oratory studied in classrooms and civics programs to this day.