Voices In Color

President Barack Obama: I Have No Words...

As we embark on a new beginning with President Barack Obama, I can hardly believe that I've written those words, President Barack Obama. Whew! I am at once surprised and proud of our country. As the mother of a young African American boy I cannot fully express what immense hope I now have for him. This is a hope that I may have held in my heart but wasn't always sure would manifest itself within the realities of our most recent America. I am so optimistic that this country may finally be moving in a direction of unity and quality. We have just witnessed a piece of history that I, and every (Black) American, never believed could happen. Yes we can!

African American Firsts

Now we can add Barak to this list!

GOVERNMENT

Local elected official: John Mercer Langston, 1855, town clerk of Brownhelm Township, Ohio

State elected official: Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1836, Vermont Legislature

Mayor of major city: Male: Carl Stokes, Cleveland, Ohio, 1967. Female: Sharon Pratt Dixon Kelly, Washington, D.C., 1991

Governor: L. Douglas Wilder, Virginia, 1990

U.S. representative: Male: Joseph Rainey, South Carolina, 1870. Female: Shirley Chisholm, New York, 1969

U.S. senator: Hiram Revels, Mississippi, 1870. Post-Reconstruction: Edward Brooke, Massachusetts, 1966. Carol Mosely Braun, Illinois, 1992

U.S. Cabinet member: Male: Robert Weaver, 1966-68, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Female: Patricia Harris, 1977, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development

U.S. secretary of state: Male: Gen. Colin Powell, 2001-04. Female: Condoleezza Rice, 2005-present

U.S. Supreme Court justice: Thurgood Marshall, 1967

ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS

Pulitzer Prize: Charles Gordone, 1970, for his play "No Place to Be Somebody"

Nobel Prize for Literature: Toni Morrison, 1993

Poet laureate: Male: Robert Hayden, 1976-78. Female: Rita Dove, 1993-95

Grammy Award: Male: Count Basie, 1958. Female: Ella Fitzgerald, 1958

Oscar: Hattie McDaniel, 1940, supporting actress, "Gone with the Wind"

Oscar, best actor/actress: Sidney Poitier, 1963, "Lilies of the Field"; Halle Berry, 2001, "Monster's Ball"

Network television show host: Nat King Cole, 1956, Oprah Winfrey, 1986, "The Oprah Winfrey Show"

Star of a network television show: Bill Cosby, 1965, "I Spy"

Major League Baseball player (modern era): Jackie Robinson, 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers

Olympic gold medalist (Summer Games; individual): Male: DeHart Hubbard, 1924, for the long jump. Female: Alice Coachman, 1948, for the high jump

MILITARY

Combat pilot: Georgia-born Eugene Jacques Bullard, denied entry into the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1917 because of his race, served throughout World War I in the French Flying Corps. He received the Legion of Honor, France's highest honor, among many other decorations.

Congressional Medal of Honor winner: Sgt. William Carney for bravery during the Civil War. He received his congressional Medal of Honor in 1900.

General: Benjamin Davis Sr., 1940-48

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Colin Powell, right, 1989-93

Source:  San Francisco Chronicle

TD Jakes: Obama Win Gives 'Goose Bumps'

Last night, I like most Americans of all stripes, watched with visible goose bumps as history was made. I sat with my 13-year-old son and looked from the screen to his eyes as Sen. Barack Obama became the first African American in history to lead a U.S. major-party ticket when he claimed the nomination for the Democratic Party for president of the United States.

I congratulate Sen. Obama on this historic accomplishment. I thank him for accepting the torch that was lit by our forefathers and proudly carrying it through the darkness of our struggles, trials and tribulations, bringing light and hope to a new generation, and for facing all those who said "No" and "You can't win," or "It will never happen," and firmly, proudly, defiantly saying, "Yes I can!"

However, what I really hope people take away from that night is that this is not just a victory for African Americans, it is a victory for democracy that proves that our country provides possibilities for all people. It is also a sign that a metamorphosis is in progress. Today we saw that Americans respect experience, but are interested in change. I hope that we can somehow merge the best ideas of our differences and emerge with a president who epitomizes our highest and best ideals. While it remains unclear where we are going, last night proves that we as a people have moved beyond business as usual.

Read more:  CNN.com

Clinton Ready To End Bid And Endorse Obama

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will endorse Senator Barack Obama on Saturday, bringing a close to her 17-month campaign for the White House, aides said. Her decision came after Democrats urged her Wednesday to leave the race and allow the party to coalesce around Mr. Obama.

Howard Wolfson, one of Mrs. Clinton’s chief strategists, and other aides said she would express support for Mr. Obama and party unity at an event in Washington that day. One adviser said Mrs. Clinton would concede defeat, congratulate Mr. Obama and proclaim him the party’s nominee, while pledging to do what was needed to assure his victory in November.

Her decision came after a day of conversations with supporters on Capitol Hill about her future now that Mr. Obama had clinched the nomination. Mrs. Clinton had, in a speech after Tuesday night’s primaries, suggested she wanted to wait before deciding about her future, but in conversations Wednesday, her aides said, she was urged to step aside.

“We pledged to support her to the end,” Representative Charles B. Rangel, a New York Democrat who has been a patron of Mrs. Clinton since she first ran for the Senate, said in an interview. “Our problem is not being able to determine when the hell the end is.”

Read more: The New York Times

Obama's First Test: Handling Hillary

Barack Obama would like to remind you of something: He won and she didn’t. It’s about him now and not her. He has made history, and she is history.

Not that Hillary Clinton admitted to any of that in her nonconcession concession speech Tuesday night, after Obama attained the delegate votes he needs for the Democratic presidential nomination

For someone giving indications she would like to be Obama’s running mate, Clinton was surprisingly ungracious. In fact, if you had just awakened from a (blissful) 17-month sleep, you would have thought she had won.

“Because of you, we won together the swing states necessary to get to 270 electoral votes,” she told the crowd in New York City. “I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard and no longer to be invisible.”

But her fighting words only increased the need for Obama to show that he can be strong, tough and in charge. Clinton’s unwillingness to recognize Obama as the victor only increased the need for Obama to act like a president and not like a doormat. And denying her a vice presidential slot may be a way of doing that.

Read more: Yahoo! News

Obama Clinches Nomination; First Black Candidate To Lead A Major Party Ticket

With Senator Barack Obama crossing the threshold of delegates he needed to claim the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday evening, party leaders began to move on Wednesday to bring their lengthy primary battle to a close and unite the party, even as questions swirled about Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s next move.

Four top Democratic leaders on Wednesday morning asked all uncommitted superdelegates to make their preferences known by Friday. While they did not formally endorse Mr. Obama or urge Mrs. Clinton to exit the race, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Harry Reid and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said in a joint statement: “Democrats must now turn our full attention to the general election.” They added that the party needed to “stand united and begin our march toward reversing the eight years of failed Bush/McCain policies that have weakened our country.”

But Mrs. Clinton’s top aides on Wednesday morning continued to sidestep questions about when she would suspend her campaign, even as some of her supporters began ratcheting up pressure on Mr. Obama to take her on as his running mate.

Read more: The New York Times

Next on Agenda Is Clinton’s Role

Senator Barack Obama heads into the general election with obvious advantages: He is a Democratic candidate running in a sour atmosphere for Republicans, in a contest where voters are hungry for change and coming out of a campaign in which he filled arena after arena with supporters.

Yet while he would like to shift his attention fully to the onslaught already coming from Senator John McCain and the Republicans, Mr. Obama still has problems in his own party that may overshadow everything else until he addresses them: How to repair relations with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her supporters and whether to offer her a spot on the ticket.

Mrs. Clinton used her final hours of the long primary season to make clear that she would be open to being Mr. Obama’s running mate. If there was ever any hope in Democratic circles that she would let Mr. Obama off the hook with an evasion or a flat declaration of no interest, Mrs. Clinton dashed it on Tuesday.

Read more: The New York Times

Barack Obama: Calm In The Swirl Of History

He gives the appearance of a strikingly laid-back victor, this presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

On the day before the night he made history, Barack Obama shot hoops at the Back Bay Club in Chicago, and called the odd superdelegate or two. Then he and his wife, Michelle, kissed their daughters goodnight and, with a half dozen of their best friends, rode to Midway Airport to catch a flight to St. Paul to claim his prize. He sat on the plane, legs crossed, chuckling, chatting, giving little hint of what roiled within.

Mr. Obama has written of his “spooky good fortune” in politics, and vaulting ambition and self-possession define his rise.

Read more: The New York Times

Puerto Rico Moves Obama Closer To Nomination

Hillary Rodham Clinton won most of the delegates in Puerto Rico's primary Sunday, but Barack Obama crept closer to clinching the Democratic nomination for president.

Clinton won 38 delegates and Obama won 17, according to an Associated Press analysis of election results. All of the Puerto Rico delegates have been allocated.

Obama has a total of 2,071 delegates, leaving him 47 shy of the number needed to clinch the nomination, with two primaries remaining. Clinton has 1915.5, according to the latest tally by the AP.

Obama also picked up two superdelegates Sunday, which means he has made up most of the ground he lost Saturday when the national party's rules committee voted to reinstate delegates from Michigan and Florida. The delegates had been stripped because the two states violated party rules by holding primaries before Feb. 5.

Read more:  The Associated Press

Clinton seeks To Go After Obama Superdelegates

As Barack Obama turns to concentrate on his general election challenge, his rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is mounting a last ditch campaign to stay relevant in what is left of the Democratic presidential contest.

The former first lady enters this week with an insurgent strategy not only to win over undecided superdelegates but to peel away Obama's support from those party leaders and elected officials who already have committed to back him for the nomination.

"One thing about superdelegates is that they can change their minds," she told reporters aboard her campaign plane Sunday night.

Read more:  The Associated Press