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DNC 2024 Day 1 live updates: Women share stories of struggle, pain after Roe revoked

Three groups spoke about reproductive rights.

Last Updated: August 19, 2024, 7:32 PM EDT

In a presidential campaign like no other -- and just four weeks after President Joe Biden bowed out of the race -- Democrats are gathering in Chicago this week to nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as their candidate to take on former President Donald Trump.

10 hours and 41 minutes ago

Delegates adopt party platform, 'USA' chants break out

Democratic National Committee delegates passed the party’s 2024 platform in a voice vote.

A full, 92-page draft platform was unveiled by the party late on Sunday night. The document, which was written before President Joe Biden left the 2024 race, was voted upon by the DNC's Rules Committee in July. It was not updated significantly since Harris replaced him at the top of the ticket.

"USA" chants broke out in the stadium after the platform was adopted.

10 hours and 42 minutes ago

Rep. Maxine Waters remembers Fannie Lou Hamer

During her remarks, California Rep. Maxine Waters reflected on a Democratic National Convention she attended when she was 22, when civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer "made her presence known" as vice-chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

"It was in 1964, in Atlantic City, and she arrived with a group of Black delegates from Mississippi," Waters said of Hamer. "She simply asked that her delegates be seated in place of the state's all-white delegation."

PHOTO: Representative Maxine Waters  gestures at the United Center, on Day one of the Democratic National Convention  in Chicago Aug. 19, 2024.
Representative Maxine Waters gestures at the United Center, on Day one of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Aug. 19, 2024.
Mike Segar/Reuters

Waters said that Hamer, after talking about the "violence she suffered at the hands of white police because she, a Black woman, had demanded her right to vote," then asked the country a "simple but profound question: Is this America?"

Decades later, with Harris as the party's nominee, Waters said she will be thinking about Hamer in November after Americans elect Harris as their president.

"We can ask ourselves, 'Is this America?' And we will be able to say loudly and proudly, 'You're damn right it is!'" Waters said.

10 hours and 38 minutes ago

NAACP president: 'I'm here to do my Black job'

Before paying tribute to Black political trailblazers, NAACP President Derrick Johnson took an apparent jab at former President Donald Trump.

Johnson introduced himself saying, "Good evening, I'm Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, and I'm here to do my Black job."

"We must all understand Black history is American history, and in this historic moment, we will write the next chapter together," he said.

(Trump, while speaking at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention in July, again tried to claim that migrants are taking "Black jobs" -- comments he has faced backlash over.)

Derrick Johnson (L), President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), speaks on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Aug. 19, 2024.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

10 hours and 54 minutes ago

The Rev. Jesse Jackson gets a standing ovation

US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson is honored onstage during the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, on Aug. 19, 2024.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader and 1988 Democratic presidential candidate, received a standing ovation when he was wheeled on stage, right after a video on the civil rights movement ended.

Jackson was joined by other civil rights icons, including the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader and 1988 Democratic presidential candidate, received a standing ovation when he was wheeled on stage.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader and 1988 Democratic presidential candidate, received a standing ovation when he was wheeled on stage.