Oprah Winfrey speaks onstage on the third day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago on Aug. 21, 2024. | Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty
Media mogul Oprah Winfrey on Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) celebrated Kamala Harris in part by linking her legacy to that of a pioneer of school desegregation in an effort to paint the vice president as being among “the best of America.”
Winfrey delivered an energetic speech at the United Center in Chicago, the same city from where she broadcast her legendary eponymous talk show for so many years.
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The speech’s contents, of course, included obligatory swipes at Donald Trump, though he was never mentioned by name. Instead, Winfrey spoke in broader terms about why “decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.”
Winfrey added, notably: “Let us choose loyalty to the constitution over loyalty to any individual. Because that’s the best of America.”
But before she went there, Winfrey told the story of Tessie Prevost, a member of the so-called New Orleans Four group of little Black girls who integrated public schools in the Louisiana city 70 years ago stemming from the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“That paved the way for another young girl who nine years later became part of the second class to integrate the public schools in Berkeley, California,” Winfrey said of Harris growing up in the Bay Area.
Winfrey isn’t particularly known for her politics.
However, back in 2017 following Donald Trump’s election, the media mogul said she considered making her own run at the White House.
“I never considered the question even a possibility,” Winfrey said during an interview on The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations. “I just thought, ‘Oh.’ I thought, ‘Oh, gee, I don’t have the experience. I don’t know enough.’ And now I’m thinking, ‘Oh.’”
Less than a year later, unverified reports claimed Winfrey wanted to add “president” to her already impressive resume.
Winfrey was “actively thinking” about running for president in 2020, two sources close to her, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told CNN on the heels of Oprah’s epic speech at the 2018 Golden Globes during which she became the first Black woman to win the Cecil B. DeMille Award.
“I want all the girls watching to know a new day is on the horizon. And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure they are the leaders to take us to the time where nobody has to say ‘me too’ again,” Oprah said during her acceptance speech.
Her speech was so powerful that it elicited responses from across the Twitterverse with #Oprah2020 calls for her to make a presidential run.
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