The African-American Continuum

From 3/5's Compromise To The Highest Office In The Land

Jan 18, 2009 Paul Hamilton

It is perhaps most fitting that Mr. Barack Hussein Obama the offspring of both black African and white American parents will become the first black to take the oath.

When Mr. Obama takes the oath of office on January 20th 2009 to become the 44th President of the United States, he will have been the first African-American ever to do so. In addition, he will be only the 5th American President to take that oath of office the day after the national Martin Luther King holiday celebration. And because many long-suffering civil rights activists in the U.S. are viewing both MLK day and the presidential inaugural as decades old, especially hard fought for and won seminal events in the war for equality, perhaps a little walk down memory lane is both necessary and proper.

Lincoln, King and Obama

While many seek to draw on the numerous and somewhat ironic political comparisons between Mr. Obama and his iconic political hero and fellow Illini, Civil War era President Abraham Lincoln, still others are awash in the memory of the King legacy and the numerous sacrifices that have been made by ordinary everyday citizens during the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's culminating in the minds of some with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

So as America prepares for Mr. Obama's inauguration perhaps remembering much about both historical scenarios related to President Lincoln and Rev. Dr. King may in fact be appropriate as they are both imbued by the 3/5th's Constitutional Compromise and the horror of the North American chattel slavery system, to include President Lincoln's revocation of John Fremon's and David Hunter's emancipation orders during the Civil War era, the debacle that was the first Civil Rights/ Reconstruction era, the Compromise of 1877, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson 163 U.S. 537 (1896), which in turn ushered in the Separate But Equal Doctrine, culminating in the Klu Klux Klan and Jim Crow era.

Lincoln, King And Obama Part II

And after some major victories for equality during the 1950's like the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka 347 U.S. 483 (1954), which began the process of desegregation of the U.S. public school system and was the precursor to the aforementioned 1960's Civil Rights era progress in terms of equality; unfortunately, with the assassinations of some of the movements heroes, King included, it may have seemed at the time as if a death blow had been dealt to equalities vaunted progress in the U.S. Leaving many to feel that perhaps all hope was lost, having been left with an overly anxious American culture that seemed all to ready to embrace the normalcy of all forms of covert racism.

The Torch Has Been Passed To Obama And He Now Carries America's Hopes And Dreams

So perhaps it is appropriate that on this day as we remember some our greatest American's the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., at the same time we are hailing President Obama as the incoming Commander-in-Chief. It might also be appropriate to remember the likes of revolutionary war hero Crispus Attucks, underground railroad conductor Harriet Tubman, the African-American elder statesman of Lincoln's day, Fredrick Douglas. We should also remember more modern day American champions like educator and author W.E.B. Dubois, social and political activist, Mary McLeod Bethune, Civil Rights martyrs Medgar Evers, James E. Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman, Montgomery bus boycotter Rosa Parks, beaten freedom riders like U.S. Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), lunch counter sit-ins at Woolworth's in Greensboro, N.C., slain human rights leader Malcolm X, and the peaceful brothers who attended the million-man march.

Let The Celebration Begin

So as we celebrate the triumph of Mr. Obama as literally the first African-American President, it is perhaps also good to remember our collective American journey, as the whole world has not only watched but often participated in numerous American highs and lows through out history to this point. And as we enjoy the festivities, we should also recall that Mr. Obama stands on the many shoulders of people of every race, color, and creed, that have worked for his success even before he was born. But what we should probably never ever forget and the one fact that we cannot escape as Americans is that this day has been a long, long, long time in coming.

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