--- 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: 2026-02-22T23:30:47.859Z 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read Michelle Obama's Emotional Speech at the Democratic Convention 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":"2026-02-22T23:30:47.859Z","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 topic","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"}}]}] ```