Video: '1948 Truman DNC Acceptance Speech (Full)'

(Thursday, July 15, 1948, 1:45 a.m. EDT) — President Harry S. Truman of Missouri accepted the Democratic Presidential nomination in a fighting mood this morning at the 1948 Democratic National Convention, predicted victory in November and announced that he would call the Republican-controlled Congress back into session on July 26, 1948, to deal with housing, education, civil rights and other controversial measures.

Truman spoke to the delegates at Philadelphia Convention Hall in Philadelphia an hour after he won the nomination over Senator Richard Russell, Jr. of Georgia by 926 to 266 votes and Senator Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky was nominated Vice President by acclamation.

“Senator Barkley and I will win this election and make these Republicans like it — don’t you forget that!” Truman said in a fiery speech to the delegates.

The Truman-Barkley ticket would oppose the Reublican ticket of Thomas Dewey and Earl Warren (nominated in June 1948) in the United States presidential election, 1948.

Video: 'American Experience Truman 2' (1948 Democratic National Convention at 47:37)