Obama, Dems, America Make History Tonight

Tonight, August 28, 2008, a black man will accept the nomination of the Democratic Party to run for the Presidency of the United States.

Once again, in presidential politics, I didn't get my man. Anna didn't get her woman. And most of our conservative blogging colleagues aren't facing the GOP nominee they wanted.

But Georgia Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis reminds me this morning on NPR that our partisan disappointments pale to insignificance before the historical import of this moment (listen to the audio for the full impact):

"When Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination to become the president of the United States of America and starts speaking, I think all of America and many parts of the world — the hopes, the longings, the aspirations and the dreams — will be hanging on every word he says," Lewis says.

"It's going to be incredible. You know, people died. Some people didn't make it to the March on Washington. They were beaten. They were tear-gassed. Some were shot and killed. And even after the March on Washington, where there had been so much hope, so much optimism, we had to deal with the bombing on a church in Birmingham, where four little girls were killed. But I've cried all my tears," he says.

Lewis says he feels blessed to have lived to see this day come around.

[Linda Wertheimer, "Lewis Sees New Racial Era with Obama's Success," NPR Morning Edition, 2008.08.28.]

As should we all. In a nation with a long history of slavery, segregation, and racism, a black man is running for President, and enough Americans are willing to look him in the eye, shake his hand, and listen to what he has to say that he stands even odds of winning.

Rep. Lewis was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with Martin Luther King on August 28, 1963, to hear King proclaim his dream for America. Lewis will be in Denver tonight, in sight of the mountaintop, to himself address the convention and then to hear Obama proclaim the continued pursuit of that dream.

Lewis was asked what he thought King would say about Obama's nomination. He said he couldn't say for sure, "but I have a feeling he would look down and say, ‘Hallelujah.’”

Hallelujah, indeed.

Lewis addresses the convention in the 5 o'clock hour Denver time (6 p.m. Central). Obama speaks in prime time, 9 Central, 8 Mountain. Tune in. See history.

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Update 10:15 CDT—It's LBJ's dream, too: read Robert Caro, "Johnson's Dream, Obama's Speech," New York Times, 2008.08.27.

Update 11:37 CDT—Can I get another Hallelujah? More on history, racism, fear, and hope from Lewis and other veterans of the 1963 march on Washington who are now delegates in Denver: read Michael Powell, "Witnesses to Dr. King's Dream See a New Hope," New York Times, 2008.08.27