#TBT: John Lewis at the 1988 Democratic National Convention

Brut America

"We can be proud that we are the party of compassion."  Here's how civil rights icon John Lewis described the Democratic party at the 1988 DNC...

Transcript

00:00We have come a great distance since the 1960s.

00:04When we look across this convention hall,

00:07it is self-evident that we are the party of inclusion.

00:12We are an interracial democracy.

00:15When we marched across the bridge in Selma, Alabama,

00:31for the right to vote in 1965,

00:34just 23 years ago,

00:37I did believe, deep in my heart,

00:40that those hands that pick cotton

00:42would one day pick a president.

00:46But never in my wildest dream

00:49did I believe that this barefooted boy,

00:52a sharecropper's boy from true Alabama,

00:56would have the honor to stand on this platform

00:58as a member of Congress

01:00and welcome you to Georgia's 5th Congressional District,

01:03the district I am proud to serve.

01:06We have come a great distance since the 1960s.

01:10When we look across this convention hall,

01:14it is self-evident that we are the party of inclusion.

01:19We are an interracial democracy.

01:22One people.

01:24One nation.

01:26One family.

01:28The American family.

01:30We can be proud that we are the party of compassion.

01:34The party of concern for the common good.

01:37The party of hope.

01:39In the days ahead, we will have the opportunities

01:42to return to our home communities,

01:45to share our vision with America.

01:48We must reach out and build coalition of compassion and concern.

01:54We must speak to the needs of the homeless,

01:57to the helpless,

01:58those who have been left out and left behind.

02:02Our party is broad enough

02:04to include Jesse Jackson,

02:06Mack of the Caucus,

02:08and Lloyd Benson.

02:12We have a mandate.

02:14A mandate from our children

02:16and a mandate from unborn generation

02:19to elect Mack of the Caucus as president.

02:22We have a mandate to win and win in November.

02:27With the election of Mack of the Caucus,

02:30we will move closer to the fulfillment of the creeds

02:34upon which this nation was founded.

02:37With Mack of the Caucus as president,

02:40we can once again be proud of our government and its policies.

02:46By working together,

02:48we have transformed the city of Atlanta

02:51into the capital of the New South.

02:54Let us continue our journey to the White House,

02:57where we will transform the city of Washington

03:00into the capital of the new America.

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