“Who Then Will Speak for the Common Good?”

In 1976, Rep. Barbara Jordan gave what is widely considered the best keynote address in recent history at the Democratic Convention. Jordan, the first black woman elected to Congress from the South, warned that if Americans did not come together, America could become “a collection of interest groups: region against region, individual against individual.” Also: immigration, the migration of African Americans out of New York City, gender-based college admission and Republican New Jersey State Senator Tom Kean, Jr.