Barack Obama Elected America’s first Black President
WASHINGTON(NNPA) – After a fierce fight of two years to change the course of history, U. S. Senator Barack Obama has been elected the first African-American president of the United States.
His win culminates an American history that expands from Black slavery to Jim Crow to a modern day civil rights movement still marked by institutional racism.
“America is in the process and has taken the first step of turning from darkness unto light, turning from war unto peace, turning from exploitation of the poor by the powerful to equal opportunity and economic justice,” said civil rights icon the Rev. Joseph Lowery in an interview. “It’s a great moment for America.”
In awe, America has paused to celebrate this victory.
We Have Pled Our Own Cause
By Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
On Election Day, I was riding in a cab on Georgia Avenue in Washington, D.C. when I saw, at a red light, about a dozen African-American kindergartners crossed in front of the car.
There was one adult leading the way and another instructing from behind.
It was the woman watching carefully over the children from behind who called out to them a momentous remark. She said, “Hey president, vice president, secretary of state, national security advisor! I know you’re all in there. Get on across that road!”
At that time, many had not even voted, the polls were not nearly closed. Yet, there was already an atmospheric hope and a belief that defied history. It seems just about everybody I talked to in the few days leading up to the election of Sen. Barack Obama as America’s first Black president – like the kindergarten teacher – had an unexplained certainty about what was about to happen.
It’s called faith – the “substance of those things hoped for.”
That faith has for years been reflected in the editorials and on the front pages of Black newspapers across the nation, which – like the kindergarten teacher – has for nearly two centuries called “those things that be not as though they were.”
In 1827 when John B. Russwurm and Samuel Cornish founded “Freedom’s Journal”, they declared, “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.”
They dared to believe and; in fact, they dared to know that someday by their pushing and prodding and commanding justice – even when perceptually behind – Black people would some day rise.
In recent weeks, I have noticed that same historic defiance in those modern day newspapers that make up the Black Press of America. From the Chicago Crusader’s “In just a few days we can make history and change the nation” to the Los Angeles Sentinel’s “The vote of our lifetime” to the hundreds of other Black newspapers, editors and publishers across America, you have led by the spirit of faith – not just hope – daring to rally the troops, articulating the vision of greatness like that kindergarten teacher.
This is why Barack Obama was elected president. It was because, the Black Press of America, Black civil rights organizations, Black churches and Black colleges and universities refused to doubt that Americans – Black and white – would someday heed the united voice of the believers.
Given this noble history of leadership, it is crucial now that these same institutions and America as a whole recognize that it’s not over. The rise of President-elect Obama is indeed a significant tide that has lifted the tiny boats of even the kindergartners crossing Georgia Avenue and we are indeed beholding fruit of our long and painful labor.
But the struggle has never been left up to one person – even the president of the United States. So, now is where a new challenge begins. That challenge – even as we see Black unemployment stats in double digits and twice that of whites – is to celebrate, but not rest. It is to pray, support, admonish and encourage our new president, but it is also to act as we did on Tuesday and as we have for the past 181 years because “faith without works is dead.”
And so, let us now celebrate this moment even as we continue to plead the cause. We shall not cease until we see the fruition of that noble American ideal: “One nation, indivisible, With liberty and justice for all.”
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, if you’re still wondering if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, if you still question the power of our Democracy, tonight is your answer,” Obama began his victory speech before a screaming Chicago crowd of more than 250,000. “It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches and other places like I’ve never seen, people who waited three hours, four hours, many for the first time in their lives because they believed that this time…That their voices could be that difference.”
He recalled his campaign strategy, which involved connecting people from all walks of life from both traditionally Democratic and Republican states.
“It was spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native-American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states, we are and always will be the Unites States of America,” he said as Blacks and whites celebrated the win together.
In an exclusive election eve message to Black leaders, Obama credited Black voters for his pending win, saying, “You have done this.”
The Black Press is partially responsible for that victory.
“The Black vote has taken the high road,” said Ray Boone, editor/publisher of the Richmond Free Press in Richmond, Va., the former Capital of the Confederacy, which elected a Democratic president for the first time in more than 40 years.
“This marks a definitive departure from our shameful past. This only gives hope and pride to the fact that Virginia contributed to the advancement of the country and gives hope to the entire world,” Boone said.
Obama graciously congratulated Republican Sen. John McCain for his hard fight in a tone that caused the audience to cheer.
In contrast, McCain had to shush an audience who booed when he congratulated Obama in his concession speech. Still McCain graciously congratulated Obama and even paid homage to the Black community for its victory.
“He managed to do so much by inspiring the hopes of some millions of Americans who once wrongly believed they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president,” McCain said.
“It is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving. This is an historic election. I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.”
Civil rights leaders reveled in the victory. Tears streamed down the face of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights icon, watching Obama speak in Chicago.
“This victory is the fruit of the struggle of many people who’ve gone by,” said National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial. “People can now quit asking when will the day come when a Black man can be elected president of the United States.”
The Obama win comes after a hard-fought race over the past two years as he struggled to prove himself; even in the Black community, which initially did not believe he could win due to white racism.
The son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas, Obama initially received a slow reception from Black voters.
In January and February of 2007, an ABC News-Washington Post poll showed his Democratic Primary opponent Hillary Clinton at 40 points higher than Obama among African-Americans who had been asked their preference for the Democratic Primary.
An earlier poll in December of 2006 showed that 65 percent of whites to only 54 percent of Blacks thought America would be willing to elect a Black president.
“A lot of Black people, especially in the South, really didn’t think that a Black candidate could be elected president. And they weren’t looking for a symbolic candidate. They were looking for somebody who was going to win,” says David Bositis, a specialist on Black electoral politics at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Adding to the Black support for Clinton was the popularity of her husband, former President Clinton.
But then there was a shift.
“Once he won Iowa, there was some significant movement,” Bositis points out. The Jan. 3 Iowa primary caused the world to gasp that a Black man in America could win a presidential primary in a state that was more than 95 percent white.
Immediately, the pace of Obama’s support among Blacks escalated. An ABC News poll showed him at 60-40 percent Black support over Clinton by mid January. Winning broad-based support, he consistently maintained more pledged delegates than Clinton, a key factor in winning the nomination.
After Obama won the South Carolina primary Jan. 26, his Black support skyrocketed and solidified at more than 90 percent. That support remained consistent for the remainder of the campaign.
Still, Obama weathered blistering racism, which included criticism of him after the airing of strong statements by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright about America’s shortcomings and failures in international conflicts.
White males have always held the office of U. S. President. But, McCain had an uphill battle. His obstacles were a strongly unpopular war in Iraq, a devastated economy, and a Bush approval rating at its lowest in two years, 29 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.
The race appeared close toward the end, but even polls that periodically showed McCain running close to Obama couldn’t be believed, said David Bositis, senior analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. That’s because the current telephone polls are not able to survey the cell phones of thousands – perhaps millions – of new youth voters who had become engaged in the race, primarily excited about Barack Obama, who they often greeted like a rock star.
The swell of voters among youth was largely due to the excitement of a new role model, the possibility of making history and also because of the issues, said Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation.
“We tend to vote our emotions, not blind emotions, but we have to feel that this is really meaningful.
The issues of the day, such as Katrina and what happened on the Gulf Coast had an impact in 2006. We were upset and angry, but we also understood politically that we had to weigh in on the process,” Campbell says.
The aspect of race or agenda is more than just about the skin, but it’s about the experience of disparities, prejudices and discrimination, Campbell says. “It’s kind of the pain and the promise. It’s the pain of what we’re going through and the promise that somehow this vote can help impact that. I feel that we’re in that pain vs. promise moment.”
In some Black districts, the electorate expanded as much as 188 percent such as Virginia’s Tidewater District during Democratic Primaries, Campbell illustrates.
The Joint Center determined last year that the top issues for African-Americans were the war, health care and the economy, including jobs. Youth also talked about lowering tuition rates, increasing Pell grants and the prospects of higher paying jobs when they graduate.
Even after a bitter campaign, it seems McCain – in defeat – finally came to agree with Obama.
“I’ve always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that too,” McCain said.
Obama concluded, “It’s been a long time coming. But tonight, because of what we did on this day at this defining moment, change has come to America.”
