On
August 6, 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, intended "to enforce the
fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States." This law was one
of the great achievements of the Civil Rights Movement. Created to ensure that
all citizens be permitted to exercise their political rights, section 2 of the
act states:
"No voting
qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure
shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or
abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of
race or color." Up until this time, many African-Americans had been denied the
right to vote. Despite the language of the fifteenth amendment - "The right of
citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any States on account of race, color, or previous condition
of servitude," state legislators and local election officials had used a
variety of tactics - from poll taxes to literacy tests - to deny suffrage to
African-Americans. Exclusion from voting, for all practical purposes, also
meant exclusion from political office.
Passage of the Voting Rights Act opened the way for
African-Americans to participate in the political process. At the same time,
the law enabled African-Americans to become viable candidates for elected
office. Since 1965 African-Americans have been most successful in winning
election to local office; mayors in several of the nations largest cities
either have been or are black. Two states, Virginia and Massachusetts, have
chosen African-Americans to serve as their governors. Many more have elected
African-Americans to serve in their state legislatures and/or represent them in
the United States Congress.
During the four decades following passage of the
Voting Rights Act, several African-Americans announced their candidacies and
campaigned for the Democratic Partys nomination, thereby proclaiming the
possibility, the promise, that one day a member of their race would become
President of the United States. The election of Barack Obama is the fulfillment
of that promise.
Barack Obama was born in 1961. The Civil Rights
Movement was a powerful force in American society. The Supreme Court in 1954
had declared that segregation in public schools violated the Constitution.
Martin Luther King, Jr., had assumed leadership of the Movement the following
year when African-Americans in Montgomery, Alabama launched a boycott of the
citys segregated buses. By 1961 membership in civil rights organizations was
reaching an all-time high and increasing numbers of Americans - black and white
- were calling for an end to racial discrimination.
In many respects, the year of Obamas birth was a
turning point. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had reluctantly enforced
judicial decisions to end school segregation, had been replaced by John F.
Kennedy. But Kennedy, assuming office at a time when the Democratic Party was
dependent on Southern votes to stay in power, was himself reluctant to use his
authority to protect demonstrators. For over two years, he watched as civil
rights protestors clashed with police. Then, in May 1963, police in Birmingham,
Alabama used fire hoses and German shepherds against African-American children
marching peacefully in support of civil rights. Kennedy realized that the time
had come to propose legislation to ensure the rights of these children and of
all Americans. When A. Philip Randolph proposed a March on Washington later
that summer, Kennedy along with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Vice
President Lyndon B. Johnson met with the organizers to attempt to dissuade
them. John Lewis, who attended the meeting at the White House, writes in his
memoir, Walking with the Wind, Kennedy "was mightily concerned about the
success of the civil rights bill, and he didnt see how this march was going to
help anything." (p. 205) A few days later, Americans watched and listened as
Martin Luther King told of his dream for this nation.
The following year, President Lyndon Johnson pushed
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress. This wide-ranging piece of
legislation prohibits discrimination in public accommodations, makes
discrimination based on race, gender, religion, and ethnicity illegal, and
authorizes the Justice Department to initiate suits to challenge segregation
and protect voting rights.
President
Johnson proposed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 following the murder by a deputy
sheriff of a voting rights activist in Alabama and the subsequent attack by
state troopers on individuals participating in the civil rights march in Selma.
The law outlawed literacy tests and required
jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination to obtain "pre-clearance"
from the Attorney General or a federal district judge for any new voting
practices and procedures. It also gave federal examiners the power to register
voters. By the end of 1968, over 400 African-Americans held elective office in
the South and over fifty percent of the African-Americans in nine southern
states were registered to vote.
In response to conservative criticism in the late
1950s, the Supreme Court decided few civil rights cases following the crisis in
Little Rock, Arkansas. However, with encouragement from both the executive and
legislative branches, the justices in the 1960s again began to tackle issues -
from gerrymandered voting districts to interracial marriage - that would ensure
not only political but also social and economic rights to African-Americans. In
the decades that followed, the Court would place a moratorium on the death
penalty until states could demonstrate that use of that penalty was not
racially biased, uphold affirmative action programs designed to compensate for
years of discrimination, and scrutinize employment practices.
Actions taken by the federal government opened the
way for civil rights organizations and individuals - grass roots activists as
well as leaders - to realize the dream of equality cherished by many Americans.
The fulfillment of that dream has been long in coming and, for many, is still a
distant hope - made more tangible perhaps by the election of the nations first
African-American President.
1. Who Is Barack
Obama?
2. Voting Rights of
African-Americans
3. What about Race?
1.
Who Is Barack Obama?
Step 1.
Make a list of the facts that students already know
about Barack Obama. Insofar as possible, arrange the information
chronologically.
Step 2.
Students should read the following biographical
information about Barack Obama:
a.
Short biographical essay provided by the EDSITEment reviewed website
National Constitution Center.
b.
Fact sheet provided in the
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Before
beginning the discussion, review terms such as constitutional law, law
review, racial profiling, point person, and community organizer.
Questions for discussion:
What did you learn from reading these biographies that you
did not already know?
What facts help you to identify Obamas values and
priorities?
What experiences do you think will be most valuable as Obama
assumes the responsibilities of President? Why?
Step 3.
Barack Obama made his first major appearance on the
national political scene on July 27, 2004, when he delivered the keynote
address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Obama began the speech
by introducing himself and concluded by discussing his vision of America.
Listen to this speech and/or provide students with the abridged copy of this speech; both are available at the EDSITEment reviewed website History Matters.
Give students the discussion questions before they
listen to and/or read Obamas speech.
Questions for
discussion:
Why did Obama tell the American
people about his family?
What were the most important
things he shared about his family?
Why did Obama refer to the
Declaration of Independence?
What did Obama say about race in
this speech?
Based on this speech, how would
you describe Obamas vision for America?
What political ideals did he talk
about?
What did you learn about Obama
from listening to and/or reading this speech?
On
behalf of the great state of Illinois, crossroads of a nation, Land of Lincoln,
let me express my deepest gratitude for the privilege of addressing this
convention.
Tonight
is a particular honor for me because, let's face it, my presence on this stage
is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small
village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack.
His father - my grandfather - was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.
But
my grandfather had larger dreams for his son. Through hard work and
perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place, America,
that shone as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come
before.
While
studying here, my father met my mother. She was born in a town on the other
side of the world, in Kansas. Her father worked on oil rigs and farms through
most of the Depression. The day after Pearl Harbor my grandfather signed up for
duty; joined Patton's army, marched across Europe. Back home, my grandmother
raised their baby and went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war,
they studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through F.H.A. [The Federal
Housing Administration], and later moved west all the way to Hawaii in search
of opportunity.
And
they, too, had big dreams for their daughter. A common dream, born of two
continents.
My
parents shared not only an improbable love; they shared an abiding faith in the
possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or
"blessed," believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to
success. They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though
they weren't rich, because in a generous America you don't have to be rich to
achieve your potential.
They
are both passed away now. And yet, I know that, on this night, they look down
on me with great pride.
They
stand here, and I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage,
aware that my parents' dreams live on in my two precious daughters. I stand
here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a
debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on Earth
is my story even possible.
Tonight
we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation - not because of the height of
our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our
pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over
two hundred years ago: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness."
That
is the true genius of America - a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on
small miracles. That we can tuck in our children at night and know that they
are fed and clothed and safe from harm. That we can say what we think, write
what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an
idea and start our own business without paying a bribe. That we can participate
in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will
be counted, at least most of the time.
This
year, in this election, we are called to reaffirm our values and our
commitments, to hold them against a hard reality and see how we are measuring
up to the legacy of our forbearers, and the promise of future generations.
And
fellow Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents - I say to you tonight:
we have more work to do. More work to do for the workers I met in Galesburg,
Illinois, who are losing their union jobs at the Maytag plant that's moving to
Mexico, and now are having to compete with their own children for jobs that pay
seven bucks an hour. More to do for the father that I met who was losing his
job and choking back the tears, wondering how he would pay $4,500 a month for
the drugs his son needs without the health benefits that he counted on. More to
do for the young woman in East St. Louis, and thousands more like her, who has
the grades, has the drive, has the will, but doesn't have the money to go to
college.
Now
don't get me wrong. The people I meet - in small towns and big cities, in
diners and office parks - they don't expect government to solve all their
problems. They know they have to work hard to get ahead. And they want to.
Go
into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you they don't
want their tax money wasted, by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon.
Go
into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone
can't teach our kids to learn. They know that parents have to teach, that
children can't achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the
television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book
is acting white. They know those things.
People
don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in
their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure
that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of
opportunity remain open to all.
They
know we can do better. And they want that choice.
If
there is a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read, that matters to
me, even if it's not my child. If there's a senior citizen somewhere who can't
pay for their prescription drugs, and [has] to choose between medicine and the
rent, that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent. If there's an
Arab American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due
process, that threatens my civil liberties.
It
is that fundamental belief, it is that fundamental belief, I am my brother's
keeper, I am my sister's keeper that makes this country work. It's what allows
us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American
family.
E
pluribus unum. Out of many, one.
Now
even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin
masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of 'anything goes.'
Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative
America; there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America
and a White America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United
States of America.
Hope
in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of
hope. In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this
nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.
I
believe that we can give our middle class relief and provide working families
with a road to opportunity. I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes
to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from
violence and despair. I believe that we have a righteous wind at our backs and
that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices,
and meet the challenges that face us.
2.
Voting Rights
One
of the major achievements of the Civil Rights Movement was passage of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, which - to quote President Johnson - gave "teeth" to
the fifteenth amendment. While much work still lay ahead to ensure that blacks
registered and voted despite serious threats of harm, the federal law was a
critical step toward allowing African-Americans to exercise their full
political rights as American citizens.
Coincidentally,
the Vietnam War raised questions about sending young Americans to war while, at
the same time, denying them the right to vote. Congress responded by proposing
an amendment that would lower the voting age from 21 to 18, and state
legislatures ratified the amendment. The twenty-sixth amendment became part of
the Constitution on July 1, 1971.
These
changes in federal law, statutory and constitutional, dramatically increased
the number of Americans qualified to vote; however, many have been reluctant or
disinterested in participating in the political process. Barack Obamas
candidacy changed that, bringing citizens - notably African-Americans and
younger voters - to the polls in record numbers.
Students
should read the following documents:
(1)
The Fifteenth Amendment (Amendment XV)
on the EDSITEment reviewed website
The Avalon Project.
Passed by Congress
February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.
1. The right of citizens
of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.
2. The Congress shall
have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
(2)
Sections 1 and 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965
on the EDSITEment reviewed website
The Avalon Project.
Voting
Rights Act of 1965; August 6, 1965
AN
ACT To enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United
States, and for other purposes.
[SEC,1.] Be it enacted by
the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled, That this Act shall be known as the "Voting Rights Act of
1965."
SEC. 2. No voting
qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure
shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or
abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of
race or color.
OPTIONAL: You might also wish to assign President Lyndon B. Johnson's address to Congress in support of the Voting Rights Act. This can be found at the EDSITEment reviewed website History Matters.
(3) Letter written by New Jersey Senator Harrison A.
Williams to the Senate subcommittee that was reviewing the Voting Rights Act to
determine whether it had achieved its goals or should be changed before being
renewed. The law was extended in 1970 for five more years and, in subsequent
years, has been further extended. The letter is available on the EDSITEment reviewed website History Matters.
July
22, 1969.
Hon.
Samuel J. Ervin, Jr.
Chairman,
Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, Judiciary Committee, United States
Senate, Washington, D.C.
Dear
Mr. Chairman: The ability to control ones own destiny and have a proportional
voice in directing the course of ones country is the foundation of the
democratic principle upon which this nation purports to rest. In the fifteenth
Amendment to the Constitution, this right was assured to all citizens of the
United States regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
The Amendment commands the state governments not to deny the right to vote to
anyone on this basis.
For
95 years, this promise was ignored and often repudiated. In 1965, however, the
Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act. The Act stands as a landmark of
political equality as it implements the Constitutional mandate. However, the
hedging, indecision, and recent pronouncements of the present Administration
concerning extension of this Act might prove to be catastrophic for the rich
promises of democracy contained in the law.
At
present, we have three courses of action with regard to the Voting Rights Act
of 1965. The first is to do nothing and merely allow the integral parts of the
act to expire (as of August 6, 1970). Our second alternative is to accept
Attorney General Mitchells position. Thirdly, we can extend the application of
the Act and then explore other avenues to broaden the scope of the Act. As a
sponsor of S. 2456, I have formally approved the last alternativethe only
approach we can choose in good conscience.
Those
who would urge that we permit the Act to expire have two possible arguments:
The Act has failed to fulfill its objectives; or, the Act has served its total
purpose, thus it is useless. Statistics alone will invalidate these arguments.
Here
are facts that clearly demonstrate great strides under the Act:
[In
percent]
|
<
States
|
1964
|
1969
|
|
Mississippi
Alabama
Georgia
Louisiana
South
Carolina
Virginia
|
6.7
19.3
27.4
31.6
37.3
38.3
|
59.4
56.1
52.6
58.9
51.2
55.6
|
These
figures represent non-white voters registered to vote immediately prior to the
passage of the Act, as compared with the present, in the six Southern states
primarily covered under the legislation. This laudable increase of 800,000 new
voters has contributed to the election of 400 black officials in the past four
years.
The
Act has not failed. Rather, it has created a political citizenry that is
essential if our legislators and elected officials are to represent all
Americans. Token representation is not democracy. "Political power" is
democratic and within the American spirit.
Source:
Amendments to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Hearings before the Subcommittee
on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States
Senate, 91st Congress, 1st and 2nd Sessions, on S. 818, S. 2456, S. 2507, and
Title IV of S. 2029, July 9, 10, 11, and 30, 1969, February 18, 19, 24, 25, and
26, 1970. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970.
(4) The Twenty-Sixth Amendment (Amendment XXVI) available on the EDSITEment reviewed website The Avalon Project.
This Amendment altered
Article 1 Section 9 Part 4
Passed by Congress March
23, 1971. Ratified June 30, 1971.
The right of citizens of
the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.
The Congress shall have
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Questions for discussion:
-
What is the relationship between the fifteenth
amendment and the Voting Rights Act?
-
Why was the Voting Rights Act necessary?
-
What were the intended consequences of the
Voting Rights Act? How successful was this act in achieving its intended
results?
-
What were the intended consequences of the
twenty-sixth amendment?
-
Of what importance were the Voting Rights Act
and the twenty-sixth amendment to the 2008 Presidential election?
3.
What about Race?
On
March 18, 2008, in the midst of his campaign for the Democratic nomination,
Barack Obama delivered an address in Philadelphia titled "A More Perfect
Union." This address was written in response to inflamatory remarks made by
Obamas former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who had been serving as an
unpaid advisor to the campaign. While race had been mentioned frequently
throughout Obamas campaign, primarily by the press and political pundits, it
did not become an "issue" until the Rev. Wright expressed his anger publicly.
For political reasons, Obama felt compelled to distance himself from the pastor
yet, at the same time, explain the reason for the resentment felt by Wright and
other African-Americans of his generation. Obama used this occasion to share
his own ideas about race.
For
homework, give each student a copy of the abridged speech (provided below) with
instructions to read and mark what s/he considers the most important ideas.
In
class, create small groups where students can share what they learned from
reading the speech, discuss the ideas they found most important, and explain
why they high-lighted specific passages. This should take between 20-30
minutes.
Ask
students from the groups to report on their discussions. This can be done
either by asking them to list key points on the board or by presenting their
ideas orally. When the reports are complete, ask the class to formulate a
statement summarizing the main idea of Obamas speech and choose two or three
key points that support that idea. The main idea should answer the question:
"What role does President Obama believe race should play in this country?"
This
speech is available both in audio and print format
An
abridged version follows:
We
the people, in order to form a more perfect union ..." 221 years ago, in a
hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with
these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy.
Farmers and scholars, statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean
to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of
independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of
1787.
The
document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was
stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the
colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to
allow the slave trade to continue for at least 20 more years, and to leave any
final resolution to future generations.
Of
course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our
Constitution a Constitution that had at its very core the ideal of equal
citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty and
justice and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And
yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or
provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and
obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were
Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part through
protests and struggles, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war
and civil disobedience, and always at great risk to narrow that gap between
the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This
was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this presidential
campaign to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for
a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I
chose to run for president at this moment in history because I believe deeply
that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together,
unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different
stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not
have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction
toward a better future for our children and our grandchildren.
Throughout
the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we
saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the
temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding
victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In
South Carolina, where the Confederate flag still flies, we built a powerful
coalition of African-Americans and white Americans.
This
is not to say that race has not been an issue in this campaign. At various
stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or
"not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the
week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every single exit
poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white
and black, but black and brown as well.
And
yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race
in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On
one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is
somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire
of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the
other end, we've heard my former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary
language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial
divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our
nation, and that rightly offend white and black alike.
But
the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply
controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's efforts to speak out
against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted
view of this country a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that
elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with
America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily
in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the
perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As
such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at
a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come
together to solve a set of monumental problems two wars, a terrorist threat,
a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating
climate change problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian,
but rather problems that confront us all.
But
race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now.
We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending
sermons about America to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to
the point that it distorts reality.
The
fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced
over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that
we've never really worked through a part of our union that we have not yet
made perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective
corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like
health care or education or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding
this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William
Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even
past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this
country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities
that exist between the African-American community and the larger American
community today can be traced directly to inequalities passed on from an
earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim
Crow.
This
is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his
generation grew up. They came of age in the late '50s and early '60s, a time
when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was
systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the
face of discrimination, but how many men and women overcame the odds; how many
were able to make a way out of no way, for those like me who would come after
them.
For
all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American
Dream, there were many who didn't make it those who were ultimately defeated,
in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on
to future generations those young men and, increasingly, young women who we
see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or
prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of
race and racism continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the
men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and
doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of
those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white
co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or the
beauty shop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by
politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a
politician's own failings.
In
fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most
working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been
particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant
experience as far as they're concerned, no one handed them anything. They
built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to
see their jobs shipped overseas or their pensions dumped after a lifetime of
labor. They are anxious about their futures, and they feel their dreams
slipping away. And in an era of stagnant wages and global competition,
opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at
my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across
town; when they hear an African-American is getting an advantage in landing a
good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they
themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in
urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Just
as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments
distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze a
corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices
and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special
interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish
away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even
racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns this too
widens the racial divide and blocks the path to understanding.
This
is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for
years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have
never been so nave as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions
in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy particularly a
candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But
I have asserted a firm conviction a conviction rooted in my faith in God and
my faith in the American people that, working together, we can move beyond
some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to
continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For
the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our
past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a
full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means
binding our particular grievances for better health care and better schools
and better jobs to the larger aspirations of all Americans: the white woman
struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who has been laid off, the
immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility
for our own lives by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time
with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may
face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb
to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own
destiny.
The
profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism
in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no
progress had been made; as if this country a country that has made it
possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land
and build a coalition of white and black, Latino and Asian, rich and poor,
young and old is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know
what we have seen is that America can change. That is the true genius of this
nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope the audacity to hope
for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.