Elections
The opening event showcased the diversity of the Democratic Party and, at many times, centered on Black voices in politics, both past and present.
The first night of the Democratic National Committee Convention was one of jubilee as thousands gathered inside the United Center in Chicago to coronate Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee.
The opening event showcased the diversity of the Democratic Party and, at many times, centered on Black voices in politics, both past and present. It was fitting for an evening celebrating the party’s first Black and South Asian woman nominee who aims to make history on Election Day.
Here are five significant “Black” moments that took place at the DNC during night one:
Kamala Harris drew thunderous applause as she unexpectedly took to the stage on the first night of the Democratic National Convention, kicking off a week that will culminate with the vice president’s soon-to-be historic nomination as the party’s presidential nominee.
Harris was not scheduled to attend or make remarks until Thursday night when she will accept the party’s nomination. However, in being true to the unconventional nature of this year’s election, Harris took to the stage with Beyoncé’s “Freedom” blaring and addressed her party and the nation.
The vice president used the time to praise the “historic leadership” of President Joe Biden, who notably sacrificed his political ambition to drop out of the 2024 race against Donald Trump and endorsed Harris as his successor.
“Joe, thank you for your historic leadership, for your lifetime of service to our nation, and for all you will continue to do. We are forever grateful to you,” said Harris.
Acknowledging the other night’s theme of the party’s diversity, the vice president said, “Looking out at everyone tonight, I see the beauty of our great nation, people from every corner of our country and every walk of life are here united by our shared vision for the future of our country.”
She added, “This November, we will come together and declare one voice as one people, we are moving forward.”
Since going viral for her “Beach, blonde, bad-built, beach body” catchphrase, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, has showcased her alliterative way with words. The congresswoman turned to the art of alliteration yet again on Monday night while comparing Harris’ candidacy to Trump.
“The question before us is, will a vindictive, vile villain violate voters’ vision for a better America or not,” said Crockett, drawing a roaring applause from the audience. She added, “I hear alliterations are back in style.”
Crockett used much of her speech to draw illustrative comparisons between Harris and Trump, using colorful statements like, “Harris has a resume. Donald Trump has a rap sheet,” referring to the Republican presidential nominee’s 34 felony convictions.
While Harris “worked at McDonald’s while she was in college at an HBCU,” Crockett noted that Trump was “born with a silver spoon in his mouth and helped his daddy in the family business — housing discrimination, that is.”
She declared, “We deserve a president who can be a bright light in a sea of darkness, one who will … pull us forward because we won’t go back.”
Crockett was joined by other notable speakers from the Congressional Black Caucus, including Reps. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., and Senator Laphonza Butler, D-Calif.
Senator Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., took it to church during his DNC speech on Monday night, clearly drawing from his role as senior pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Channeling the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose church he now leads, Warnock delivered a rousing performance. He decried child poverty and called for national and global unity.
“I need all of my neighbor’s children to be OK; poor inner-city children in Atlanta and poor children of Appalachia. I need the poor children of … Israelis and Palestinians,” said the senator, adding, “I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine. I need American children on both sides of the track to be OK. Because we are God’s children!”
Warnock drew on the racial history of chattel slavery and Jim Crow in the South, noting that his then-82-year-old mother went from picking cotton and tobacco in the fields of Georgia to “[picking] her younger son to be a United States senator” during the 2020 election.
Warnock slammed Trump for instigating the deadly and violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol based on the “big lie” that he lost to Biden in the 2020 election due to voter fraud.
“But behind the big lie was an even bigger lie,” said the senator. “It is a lie that this increasingly diverse American electorate does not get to determine the future of the country.”
He later added, “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz represent the new way forward. We’re not going back. “
The Democratic National Committee was intentional about centering the convention with a (Black) history lesson on a historic night — something that had been decades in the making.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson and Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Civic Participation, hit the stage early in the night to connect the DNC’s historic moment to America’s civil rights history.
“Let us not forget the history that preceded this moment or the history makers who prepared us for it,” said Johnson, who later declared, “Black history is American history.”
Johnson spotlighted history makers who made Harris’ ascent in politics possible, including voting and women’s rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Rev. Jesse Jackson, who ran a historic run for president in 1984 and 1988.
Campbell, who is also the convenor of the Black Women’s Roundtable, championed women leaders like Shirley Chisholm, the first African American – and first Black woman – to run for president.
“President Kamala Harris’ path to becoming the Democratic nominee for president of the United States has been paid by the leadership sacrifice, faith, and patriotism of generations of Black women,” said Campbell.
Later in the evening, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton also noted the history of Chisholm, telling the audience, “Her determination let me and millions of others dream bigger. Not just because of who she was but because of who she fought for.”
Jackson, who is wheelchair-bound and battling Parkinson’s disease, later appeared on the stage with civil rights leaders — including Rev. Al Sharpton — and his sons, Jesse Jackson Jr. and U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill. The pioneering leader waved to the crowd as he received applause. The moment was likely full circle, as the DNC’s co-chair is Minyon Moore, who got her start on Jackson’s presidential campaign.
During his 40-minute address, President Biden gave a full-throated endorsement of his vice president as his successor. It was a significant moment for his presidency as he used the moment to pass the torch to a Black woman.
If Harris is successful on Nov. 5, Biden will stand in history as the vice president to America’s first Black president and a president who ushered in America’s first woman and first Black and South Asian woman president.
Though much has been reported about his decision to drop out of the race, Biden admitted he was “too old to stay as president.”
The 46th president said selecting Harris was “the very first decision I made … when I became our nominee,” adding, “It was the best decision I made my whole career.”
Biden used much of his speech to carefully walk through what he and Harris have been able to achieve while in office together, including actions that particularly impacted Black communities across the country, like investing a record $15 billion in HBCUs, canceling billions in student loan debt and passing the most comprehensive gun control law in nearly 30 years.
President Biden described Harris as “tough,” “experienced,” and someone with “enormous integrity.”
“She’ll be a president our children can look up to. She’d be a president respected by world leaders because she already is,” Biden added. “She’ll be a president we could all be proud of, and she will be a historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future.”
Mariel Turner
Gerren Keith Gaynor
Michael Harriot
April Ryan
Jacob Gardenswartz for KFF Health News
Gerren Keith Gaynor
Associated Press
Gerren Keith Gaynor
Weekly New Episodes
Stream Now