--- title: Democratic Convention: Read Michelle Obama Transcript description: Michelle Obama argued for the importance of black and female role models in the White House in a speech at the Democratic convention. canonical: https://time.com/4421538/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-transcript/ author: Will Drabold article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-26T02:54:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:19.953Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read Michelle Obama's Emotional Speech at the Convention og:description: "I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves." og:url: https://time.com/4421538/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-transcript/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0501e9cca82a9fdd/69889f36e20a877998a91bf1/michelle-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: First lady Michelle Obama waves to the crowd before delivering remarks on the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 25, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Michelle Obama's Emotional Speech at the Convention twitter:description: "I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0501e9cca82a9fdd/69889f36e20a877998a91bf1/michelle-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Michelle Obama's Emotional Speech at the Democratic Convention > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 26, 2016 2:54 AM UTC  First lady Michelle Obama waves to the crowd before delivering remarks on the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 25, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. First lady Michelle Obama waves to the crowd before delivering remarks on the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 25, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jessica Kourkounis—Getty Images by [Will Drabold](https://time.com/author/will-drabold/) ## Will Drabold Jul 26, 2016 2:54 AM UTC First Lady Michelle Obama [gave an emotional speech](http://time.com/4423176/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-star/) at the Democratic national convention Monday night, arguing for the importance of black and female role models in the White House. “That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves,” she said. “And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.” **Read More:** [_Here Are Seven Things That Went Wrong On The Democratic Convention’s First Day_](http://time.com/4422851/democratic-convention-troubles/) Read Obama’s remarks as delivered below: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4421538/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4421538/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-transcript/"},"headline":"Read Michelle Obama's Emotional Speech at the Democratic Convention","datePublished":"2016-07-26T02:54:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:19.953Z","description":"Michelle Obama argued for the importance of black and female role models in the White House in a speech at the Democratic convention.","url":"https://time.com/4421538/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-transcript/","keywords":["Democratic National Convention","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Michelle Obama","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0501e9cca82a9fdd/69889f36e20a877998a91bf1/michelle-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Drabold","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/will-drabold/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0501e9cca82a9fdd/69889f36e20a877998a91bf1/michelle-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"First lady Michelle Obama waves to the crowd before delivering remarks on the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 25, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.","caption":"First lady Michelle Obama waves to the crowd before delivering remarks on the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 25, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.","creditText":"Jessica Kourkounis—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/democratic-national-convention/","name":"Democratic National Convention"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4421538/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-transcript/","name":"Read Michelle Obama's Emotional Speech at the Democratic Convention"}}]}] ```