Question

excerpt from Barbara Jordan’s Keynote Address to the 1976 Democratic National Convention

Barbara Jordan represented Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the first African American congresswoman from the Deep South. Below is a keynote address she gave at the Democratic National Convention, the first keynote address delivered by an African American woman at a national convention for either major political party.

This is the question which must be answered in 1976: Are we to be one people bound together by common spirit, sharing in a common endeavor; or will we become a divided nation? For all of its uncertainty, we cannot flee the future. . . . We must address and master the future together. It can be done if we restore the belief that we share a sense of national community, that we share a common national endeavor. It can be done.

There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals, and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.

As a first step, we must restore our belief in ourselves. We are a generous people, so why can't we be generous with each other? We need to take to heart the words spoken by Thomas Jefferson:

"Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and that affection without which liberty and even life are but dreary things."

5
Select all the correct answers.
What are two reasons that Jordan includes a quotation by Thomas Jefferson, the nation’s third president, in her speech?

to prove that no president can veto a move for national community
to align herself with a long tradition of calls for unity
to ridicule Jefferson’s ideas about harmony
to support a theme about the need for community
to show that she is not intimidated by power

Answer 1

- to align herself with a long tradition of calls for unity
- to support a theme about the need for community

Explanation: By quoting Jefferson she invokes a respected founding voice to endorse unity and reinforces her argument that Americans must restore a sense of national community.