How Far We Have Come

Okay, I’m not the best writer so you’ll have to bear with me during these first few blogs. Grammatically they should be correct (thanks to Jessica) but interesting and enticing elements will hopefully get better with time. However, someone once told me, “What doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger,” and I definitely need strength in the writing area. Now with my disclaimer out of the way, let’s move to the real stuff.

We are embarking on what could be the most historic presidential election in history. We have all heard of the race between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. Each was largely popular within the political arena during the mid 1800s. In fact, the presidential campaign was not even their first competition. In addition to the 1860 presidential election, the two squared off against each other in 1858 to become the U.S. senator from the state of Illinois. It was during that campaign that the two started what would lead to many heated debates carrying over to the 1860 campaign. What you may not know is Douglas actually defeated Lincoln in the senate race but Lincoln gained national notoriety for his antislavery views. Two years later when Lincoln was elected to office the south was not very excited. So began the southern secession and in 1961 our country entered into what might have been its lowest era in history, the Civil War. Five years later the war ended and slavery was abolished shortly after.

Over the years our country has been impacted by many African American leaders. Many of our citizens have gained inspiration from heroic people such as Rosa Parks to great speakers such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Books like Roots written by Alex Haley have helped to bring awareness to oppression. Laws have been enacted to ensure equality in the workplace and fair education across all races and cultures.

Now 150 years after President Lincoln began to publically speak against slavery, we have seen the nomination of the first minority presidential candidate of a major political party in history. Whether you are in favor of Senator Obama’s political views on abortion or how religion should be used when determining policy, he embodies change. America has changed from a point when Americans treated Africans as commodities and objects that we possessed allowing them no freedoms to trusting their descendants to lead the free world.

Senator Obama may or may not be forth right with his abilities to change how our country is governed. You may or may not agree with how he plans to implement that change. You may even not agree with the changes he wants to make or the changes he doesn’t. However, you cannot be disappointed that our country has come this far in its efforts for racial equality.

Information for this blog was pulled from the following:
http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=atb015b10&templatename=/article/article.html
www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2967.html