Op-Ed: A Night For All Americans To Remember

It hardly seems possible that the presidential campaign is in the home stretch. A campaign that has covered the better part of two years has left the nation with two candidates: John McCain and Barack Obama, both members of the United States Senate.

Senator McCain was fully expected to be in the running for his party’s nomination, despite some starts and stops along the way. Could anyone have imagined that Senator Barack Obama would be standing on the stage of the final debate as his party’s nominee? It was four years ago at the then Fleet Center in Boston during the Democratic National Convention, that a young candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois spoke from the podium and became a household name. Still, it was inconceivable then that he would defy all conventional wisdom, overtake Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and shatter all fund raising records in the process to in fact become the leader of the Democratic Party. With the issue of race hovering over this campaign from the day Senator Obama announced his candidacy in Springfield, Illinois, it has been an emotional journey for Black Americans. For certain the campaigns of the late Brooklyn, N.Y. Representative Shirley Chisholm, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson injected a sense of pride in the Black community that will never be forgotten. It is clear to me that we would not be witnessing what we are today in the candidacy of Senator Obama had not those warriors did what they did in 1972, 1984 and 1988. Yet, there is no denying that Senator Obama’s ascendancy has been remarkable and seems touched by destiny. As he meets his challenger for tonight’s debate, 400 years of American history will be stirring on that stage. How remarkable is it that the first Black person to be poised to become President carries an African surname? Is it coincidence that he is the product of a biracial union in a country with a history of racial division? Forty years after Blacks and Whites converged on the nation’s capital to demand civil rights, a Black American could well be on his way to becoming the leader of what is still, despite its current economic problems, the acknowledged world’s superpower. So, as Senators John McCain and Barack Obama step to their podiums, Whites and Blacks alike, should take a moment and relish what we are witnessing. If your children are not in bed, allow them to watch the opening minutes of the debate. And explain to them just what this means. Many of us who are too young or were not yet born to remember or see the tears our parents shed on April 4, 1968 or just two months later in June of that fateful year. Many will be filled with pride and overcome with emotion as we witness the embodiment of our ancestors lives and our countries history.