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Transcription by Michael E. Eidenmuller AmericanRhetoric.com Updated 12/31/21 Page 1

Hubert Humphrey
1948 Democratic National Convention Address

delivered 14 July 1948, Philadelphia, PA

AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio

Mr. Chairman, fellow Democrats, fellow Americans:

I realize that in speaking in behalf of the minority report on civil rights as presented by

Congressman DeMiller of Wisconsin that I’m dealing with a charged issue — with an issue

which has been confused by emotionalism on all sides of the fence. I realize that there are

here today friends and colleagues of mine, many of them, who feel just as deeply and keenly

as I do about this issue and who are yet in complete disagreement with me.

My respect and admiration for these men and their views was great when I came to this

convention. It is now far greater because of the sincerity, the courtesy, and the forthrightness

with which many of them have argued in our prolonged discussions in the platform

committee.

Because of this very great respect — and because of my profound belief that we have a

challenging task to do here — because good conscience, decent morality, demands it — I feel I

must rise at this time to support a report — the minority report — a report that spells out our

democracy, a report that the people of this country can and will understand, and a report that

they will enthusiastically acclaim on the great issue of civil rights.

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Transcription by Michael E. Eidenmuller AmericanRhetoric.com Updated 12/31/21 Page 2

Now let me say this at the outset that this proposal is made for no single region. Our proposal

is made for no single class, for no single racial or religious group in mind. All of the regions of

this country, all of the states have shared in our precious heritage of American freedom. All

the states and all the regions have seen at least some of the infringements of that freedom —

all people — get this — all people, white and black, all groups, all racial groups have been the

victims at time[s] in this nation of — let me say — vicious discrimination.

The masterly statement of our keynote speaker, the distinguished United States Senator from

Kentucky, Alben Barkley, made that point with great force. Speaking of the founder of our

Party, Thomas Jefferson, he said this, and I quote from Alben Barkley:

He did not proclaim that all the white, or the black, or the red, or the yellow men are equal;

that all Christian or Jewish men are equal; that all Protestant and Catholic men are equal; that

all rich and poor men are equal; that all good and bad men are equal. What he declared was

that all men are equal; and the equality which he proclaimed was the equality in the right to

enjoy the blessings of free government in which they may participate and to which they have

given their support.

Now these words of Senator Barkley’s are appropriate to this convention — appropriate to this

convention of the oldest, the most truly progressive political party in America. From the time

of Thomas Jefferson, the time when that immortal American doctrine of individual rights,

under just and fairly administered laws, the Democratic Party has tried hard to secure

expanding freedoms for all citizens. Oh, yes, I know, other political parties may have talked

more about civil rights, but the Democratic party has surely done more about civil rights.

We have made progress — we’ve made great progress in every part of this country. We’ve

made great progress in the South; we’ve made it in the West, in the North, and in the East.

But we must now focus the direction of that progress towards the — towards the realization of

a full program of civil rights to all. This convention must set out more specifically the direction

in which our Party efforts are to go.

We can be proud that we can be guided by the courageous trail blazing of two great

Democratic Presidents. We can be proud of the fact that our great and beloved immortal

leader Franklin Roosevelt gave us guidance. And we be proud of the fact — we can be proud of

the fact that Harry Truman has had the courage to give to the people of America the new

emancipation proclamation.

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Transcription by Michael E. Eidenmuller AmericanRhetoric.com Updated 12/31/21 Page 3

It seems to me — It seems to me that the Democratic Party needs to to make definite pledges

of the kinds suggested in the minority report, to maintain the trust and the confidence placed

in it by the people of all races and all sections of this country. Sure, we’re here as Democrats.

But my good friends, we’re here as Americans; we’re here as the believers in the principle and

the ideology of democracy, and I firmly believe that as men concerned with our country’s

future, we must specify in our platform the guarantees which we have mentioned in the

minority report.

Yes, this is far more than a Party matter. Every citizen in this country has a stake in the

emergence of the United States as a leader in the free world. That world is being challenged

by the world of slavery. For us to play our part effectively, we must be in a morally sound

position.

We can’t use a double standard — There’s no room for double standards in American politics —

for measuring our own and other people’s policies. Our demands for democratic practices in

other lands will be no more effective than the guarantee of those practices in our own country.

Friends, delegates, I do not believe that there can be any compromise on the guarantees of

the civil rights which we have mentioned in the minority report. In spite of my desire for

unanimous agreement on the entire platform, in spite of my desire to see everybody here in

honest and unanimous agreement, there are some matters which I think must be stated

clearly and without qualification. There can be no hedging — the newspaper headlines are

wrong. There will be no hedging, and there will be no watering down — if you please — of the

instruments and the principles of the civil-rights program.

My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are

172 years late. To those who say that this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’

rights, I say this: The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the

shadow of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.

People — human beings — this is the issue of the 20th century. People of all kinds — all sorts

of people — and these people are looking to America for leadership, and they’re looking to

America for precept and example.

My good friends, my fellow Democrats, I ask you for a calm consideration of our historic

opportunity. Let us do forget the evil passions and the blindness of the past. In these times of

world economic, political, and spiritual — above all spiritual crisis, we cannot and we must not

turn from the path so plainly before us. That path has already lead us through many valleys of

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Transcription by Michael E. Eidenmuller AmericanRhetoric.com Updated 12/31/21 Page 4

the shadow of death. And now is the time to recall those who were left on that path of

American freedom.

For all of us here, for the millions who have sent us, for the whole two billion members of the

human family, our land is now, more than ever before, the last best hope on earth. And I

know that we can, and I know that we shall began [sic] here the fuller and richer realization of

that hope, that promise of a land where all men are truly free and equal, and each man uses

his freedom and equality wisely well.

My good friends, I ask my Party, I ask the Democratic Party, to march down the high road of

progressive democracy. I ask this convention to say in unmistakable terms that we proudly

hail, and we courageously support, our President and leader Harry Truman in his great fight

for civil rights in America!