Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

Still considered one of the finest speeches ever given at a political convention, Representative Barbara Jordan (D-TX) took the stage in the 11th hour (literally) of the first day of the Convention on this day fifty years ago.

"We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community," she stated, "We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, unemployment, inflation, but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America. We are attempting to fulfill our national purpose, to create and sustain a society in which all of us are equal."

Watch an excerpt here: https://short.do/eXxkcy