The original occasion
The archived text identifies Barbara Jordan’s July 12, 1976 Democratic National Convention keynote and its discussion of party values and national community. Barbara C. Jordan Archives · UNT Libraries / Texas Southern University is the source for this event information.
Speech type: Convention keynote. Event date: July 12, 1976. The date belongs to the speech, not to a later digital upload or this reading note.
What to study
A gathering, a community, a responsibility. Use the source material to investigate the questions below. These are study prompts, not claims about what every audience member thought or what the speech alone caused.
- How does the opening define the relationship between speaker and gathering?
- How is a collective idea connected to responsibility?
- What does the archival version establish, and what would require further evidence?
An original practice exercise
Write a short opening for an ordinary group event. Explain what brings the group together, identify one present question, and describe a responsibility participants can realistically share. Use your own language without equating the occasion with the historical event.
Read your draft aloud and ask a listener to explain the central idea. Revise the place where their understanding differs from your intention. Keep your own experience, evidence, and audience separate from the historical example.
Read with the source in view
Keep quotations separate from paraphrases and your own interpretations. Where an archive provides multiple versions, name the one you examine. A recording can support observations about delivery; a text alone cannot establish the original voice, timing, or audience response.
Use the original institutional source above for the speech record and any available transcript or recording. This profile offers context and reading prompts rather than republishing the complete speech. Source organizations and speakers are not presented as partners or endorsers of this site.
Continue your study
Use our close-reading guide to organize your notes, or explore the types of speeches before comparing this occasion with another.