Over the course of American history there have been many steps taken to repair the damage of centuries of racial injustice and common fairness and the faded realization of the unique quest embedded in the United States Constitution and founded within the Declaration of Independence that "all mean are created equal" and that each person is "endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, chief among them are the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness."
The spiral upward steps toward that objective are scattered across the historic time-line of the United States. In the Post-Civil War movement the Union required the Rebel States to adopt the 13th and 14th amendments; bringing in an era of Reconstruction which saw former slaves enter into society as politicians and created pockets of success in places like Oklahoma and Texas in the form of small towns with names like Freedman. But after eight years the rise of the Klan and the retreat from federal mandates placed that progress on pause.
In the sixties, in places like Montgomery, older African-Americans stood up and walked instead of riding buses that forced them to the back seats. In places like Greensboro young African-Americans protested their status by sitting down at lunch counters where they were told they could not place orders and be true customers. In places like Birmingham they mourned the death of four little girls who died in a feat of hatred but used those tears to move the country forward by demanding dutifully required rights. In the end those cries ended with the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. But fights over education and busing lead to increased tensions and placed that progress on slow motion.
So society sped up the proverbial tape to November 4th, 2008, where a young man named Barack Obama from the south side of Chicago, who by his own admissions says he was the unlikeliest of candidates was rewarded with an overwhelming victory to become the 44th President of the United States of America and by that very fact became the first African-American to hold the highest elected office in the land. Throughout his campaign President-elect Obama attracted the truest sense of the "American Melting Pot" while his opponents looked more like a black and white television show except the black was missing. President-elect Obama proved that at the end of the day the country can truly judge each other by the content of character if given an unfiltered opportunity to do so. In the end the polls proved correct and the projections of electoral wins proved right -- not one state, which he lead -- even slightly on the Monday before turned on the once-feared Bradley Effect. Progress has been made. But, the journey is far from complete.
If anything the election of Barack Obama shows what the model of success for a once powerless people should look like and exposes what happens when those opportunities are shut off. His ability to journey to the best schools and receive a wider view of access; his foundation on building society up from the ground up and not forgetting the least of those; his abilities to use his talents to increase his income and provide his own children with the same opportunities he has had and thus putting them on the road to success.
The struggle, which his election does not erode is that that door is still barred to too many who look just like him. In too many inner cities unemployment still stands double the national average and in the even more targeted black male category it is 40 to 50%. In the halls of too many public schools young minority children still are three and four grade levels behind in math, reading and science and even worse almost six out of ten of them who make it to high school won't end the day with a diploma. In the neighborhoods the wealth gap is increasing to the point where the black middle class is fleeing its enclaves leaving all but the poor to suffer in crime riddle streets.
The "Haves" may have more blacks in their mix but the "Have Nots" continue to have more of them -- and the opportunities for them to move to the other side of the line are few and increasingly so.
Only in America could a young man who had to sleep in an alley in New York City less than 20 years ago could one day be President of the United States. It is undeniable that progress has been made -- the struggle that continues is how to ensure that the progress that made President Obama possible is provided to everyone who wants it and probably more importantly need it.
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