THE GREAT SPEECH OF 1948.

THE GREAT SPEECH OF 1948. Norman Mailer wrote in 1960 that one had not heard a speech as good as Eugene McCarthy’s speech nominating Adlai Stevenson since a Vito Marcontonio speech at Yankee Stadium in 1948. He did not mention what was in fact the great speech of 1948: Hubert Humphrey’s speech at the Democratic Convention. Humphrey’s speech called for a stronger Civil Rights plank (which tracked President Truman’s actual civil rights program) rather than the conciliatory language which was in the draft platform. David McCullough says in his biography of Truman (page 639) that, “Humphrey was warned he would split the party and ruin his own career if he persisted.” Humphrey told the convention, “The time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights,” The convention went wild, adopted Humphrey’s minority plank, some of the southern delegates walked out, the Dixiecrats nominated Strom Thurmond for President and President Truman, already a heavy underdog, went forward without the Solid South. Dramatic events used to happen at conventions.