President-Elect Barack Obama-Change Has Finally Come

NOVEMBER 2008

According to William C. Allen, Architectural Historian for the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, in his report History of Slave Laborers in the Construction of the United States Capitol, "No one will ever know how many slaves helped to build the United States Capitol Building…Indifference by earlier historians, poor record keeping and the silence of voiceless classes have impeded our ability in the twenty-first century to understand fully the contributions and privations of those who toiled over the seven decades from the first cornerstone laying to the day of emancipation in the District of Columbia." Politicians on Capitol Hill have been discussing a memorial for the slaves that built the most well known monuments to freedom from Massachusetts to Virginia since the early 1990s. Advocates for such a monument have stated that the history of the Capitol is incomplete without factual information as to the people that baked the bricks, laid the stones, and cut the timber.

November 4, 2008 marked a turning point in the history of race relations in America and American politics. Interviews across the nation revealed men and women who came to the polls for the first time in the hope that their voice would finally be heard. Faith was restored during this campaign season evidenced by Black senior citizens with walkers and in wheelchairs eager to believe change has finally come. When the winner of the 2008 Presidential Election was announced millions of Black Americans not only cheered, but found their faces awash with tears. Obama’s victory was a testament to the perseverance of the generations of Black Americans who survived the middle passage, the brutality of slavery, racial hatred and violence, the degradation of the Jim Crow era, and the steep uphill climb to breakdown barriers of discrimination in housing, education, and employment. The hope of centuries was realized.

The expectation of President-elect Barack Obama for some is to magically remedy all concerns with the economy in the nation and abroad. For others the expectation has been met. Barack Obama has rewritten the script for Black Americans. Each time his face appears in a newspaper or magazine, in a news report on television, or his voice is heard on a radio, stereotypes are being dismantled. Each time he appears in public with his wife and two daughters, greeting and embracing them affectionately, the image of the Black family is restored. That the first family will reflect what Black Americans know to be the truth of their hard working community means that the work of community leaders that lost their lives to affect change was not in vain. The long awaited paradigm shift in social dynamics has finally come.