Black History Month - Obama's Election - Many Faces But One Voice, Part 4

Part IV -- Obama's Election - Many Faces But One Voice

This is the last in our four part series for February, Black History Month 2009. This time we take a new look at America with the top down.

In creating the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrated last month, we proved that it was possible to have a black leadership group that spoke with one voice. Today in 2009, Black America joins with nations around the world in celebrating the election of our first African-American president.

The race was historic: the nomination of the oldest and largest political party in the world came down first to a contest between an African-American and a woman. Then to an older Republican and finally, to a young Democrat who just happened to be black. The voters responded. A nation founded on the original sin of slavery elected its first African-American president.

Where once mostly slave owners became presidents, now the son of a Kenyan father and a Kansan mother is our nation's leader. The election of Barack Obama is not just symbolic; it is a defining moment in our history. America is maturing, growing and getting better.

For many, this golden moment has been a long time coming and it will be hard to let it slip away. But as we celebrate this proud moment and cling to what was once but a comfortable illusion, we must also face a much more complicated reality.

As we continue with this series for Black History Month -- a month in which we bear witness to the progress, richness and diversity of African-American achievement -- let's step back and remember the fact that five of the first seven presidents were slave owners.

As our new President has often stated, he was inspired and influenced by President Abraham Lincoln whose famous and immortal Gettysburg Address added meaning to "the last full measure of devotion" that northern American soldiers had given on the battlefield. To build our more perfect union, they had given their lives dedicated to the proposition that all men were created free and equal. Thus Lincoln injected "equality" more firmly into the definition of a more perfect union, adding profound value to Thomas Jefferson's "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The New Direction Is Forward

It's time for a shift in thinking. There is a need for a greater awareness of our cultural identity in order for us to become stronger thinkers. And so it is during Black History Month that we recognize the need to promote culturally responsive education by exposing our younger listeners to their history.

We must go beyond a one-month celebration and recognition so that our young people see their culture reflected in the curriculum and valued in the classroom by teachers and administrators who may not be from the same culture.

Historically, for those of us who have been around long enough to remember the last four decades, each decade, each year was a journey we associate with some event, some song. This was true whether we were small children, newly coupled in young adulthood or experiencing perhaps for the first time, the endearing rites of passage. For those of us who experienced love for the first time in one of these decades, the world had paired off and brazenly flaunted its couplehood.

Life was a celebration of the least important aspect of love -- the infatuation, the giddily addled effervescence of discovering that someone else on this planet listened to and liked the same artists, the same jams on the radio that you did. Real love, of course, is much deeper, and needs no day of its own, no month of its own, no decade of its own -- just perhaps a song of its own.

That's because there are and will continue to be generational gaps. Regardless of which generation you represent, we hope you will continue to enjoy and learn from our Black History Month series. Keep in mind that in 2009, along with the current economic crises, layoffs and restructuring there is also an ongoing, emotional tug of war that is taking its toll on each of us. To help us get through this tough period in our lives, it helps as we continue to celebrate Black History Month, to remember that there is a certain freedom that lies in remembering the past.

As we look at the new America with its top down, let's keep our eyes open to different ways of thinking about a lot of things. And remember that our present circumstances don't determine where we can go; only where we start.

Word.