Do you bear in mind the place you had been once you heard the information that Barack Obama had gained the 2008 presidential election? Do you bear in mind who you had been with?
November 4, 2023, marks 15 years because the junior senator from Illinois made historical past by defeating John McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, and turning into the forty fourth president of the USA.
An aged Black lady working as a ballot employee handed me my poll, a smile beaming from her face, and I began crying. I nonetheless have my stub from that poll, proof that I used to be a part of historical past. And I bear in mind afterward that night time, after the Obama victory had been introduced, my two sons jumped round, screaming and yelling out the window, “Barack Obama is the President!!!” And I cried some extra.
I took this screenshot of the Chicago Tribune house web page after Obama gained on Nov. 4, 2008.
We at the moment are 15 years faraway from that historic second when the USA, a nation constructed on the backs of our enslaved ancestors, elected a Black man to the best workplace within the land.
In Obama, so many Black People didn’t simply see a politician. We noticed, in him, fragments of our collective selves — the hopes of Harlem Renaissance poets, the dedication of Civil Rights marchers, the ambition of Black college students trapped in intentionally underfunded faculties. And we noticed the deferred goals of our elders.
We’ve lived plenty of life since then — the Nice Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump presidency, the election of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Haris as his vp. Sadly, we bought used to taking to social media and hashtagging the names of Black people killed by the police — Tamir Rice, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a whole lot extra. Yearly, some people mark how outdated Trayvon Martin could be if George Zimmerman hadn’t gunned him down in February 2012 whereas he walked house with a pack of Skittles and a can of Arizona Iced Tea. There’s the ever-present specter of struggle. Fuel, meals, and hire are larger than excessive… the whitelash retains whitelashing, the world is heavy with the burden of ache and struggling, and generally all of it makes it tough to recollect what hope and alter felt like.
So we want reminders of what’s potential, reminders of what occurs once we present up and vote, reminders that regardless of the white supremacy-based efforts of people and establishments who don’t need change, ultimately, progress can’t be stopped. Sure, the work to realize true racial justice and equality remains to be there to be achieved, and as so many individuals have stated, having Barack Obama as president didn’t finish anti-Black racism. However him being president mattered. Having Michelle Obama as our first woman mattered. Having Sasha and Malia within the White Home and watching them develop up like they had been our play cousins mattered. Fifteen years later, let these images function a reminder of what it felt prefer to witness how far Black America has come.
Hope and Change
US President-elect Barack Obama speaks throughout his victory rally in Chicago on November 4, 2008. (Photograph credit score EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Barack and Michelle Obama Casting Ballots
Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL,) his spouse Michelle, and daughter Sasha carry their ballots to the vote tabulation machine November 4, 2008 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photograph by Charles Ommanney/Getty Photographs)
Taking Their Daughters to Vote
CHICAGO – NOVEMBER 04: Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL,) his spouse Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia carry their ballots to the vote tabulation machine November 4, 2008, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photograph by Charles Ommanney/Getty Photographs)
Obama Proving He Voted
US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama reveals a paper proving he forged his vote within the 2008 presidential elections in Chicago, Illinois, on November 4, 2008. (Photograph by EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP through Getty Photographs)
A Black Household Turns into the First Household
CHICAGO – NOVEMBER 04: U.S. President-elect Barack Obama walks on stage alongside along with his spouse Michelle (R) and daughters Malia (crimson costume) and Sasha (black costume) throughout an election night time gathering in Grant Park on November 4, 2008, in Chicago, Illinois. Obama defeated Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) by a large margin within the election to turn into the primary African-American U.S. President elect. (Photograph by Anthony Jacobs/Getty Photographs)
A Black First Girl
Barack Obama and his spouse Michelle embrace on stage throughout Obama’s election night time victory rally at Grant Park on November 4, 2008, in Chicago, Illinois. People emphatically elected Obama as their first black president in a transformational election, which can reshape US politics and the US function on the world stage. (Photograph EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP through Getty Photographs)
Black Kids Headed to the White Home
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his household arrive on stage for his election night time victory rally at Grant Park on November 4, 2008, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photograph by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP through Getty Photographs)
The Obamas and the Bidens
US President-elect Barack Obama (L), his spouse Michelle (2ndL), Vice President-elect Joe Biden (R), and his spouse Jill throughout an election night time social gathering in Chicago, Illinois, November 4, 2008. (Photograph by EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP through Getty Photographs)
The First Black President-Elect
U.S. President-elect Barack Obama smiles as he offers his victory speech to supporters throughout an election night time gathering in Grant Park on November 4, 2008, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Photographs)
Making Our Ancestors Proud
Supporters have fun as Barack Obama’s win of the presidential election is introduced on November 4, 2008, in Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham, together with Selma and Montgomery, had been touchstones within the civil rights motion the place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led huge protests, which ultimately led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ending voter disfranchisement towards African People. Boutwell Auditorium is identical auditorium the place Sen. Strom Thurmond launched his racist “Dixiecrat” presidential marketing campaign in 1948 and the place singer Nat King Cole was attacked onstage by Ku Klux Klansmen throughout a “whites solely” live performance efficiency in 1957. People voted within the first presidential election that includes an African-American candidate, Democratic contender Sen. Barack Obama, who ran towards Republican Sen. John McCain. (Photograph by Mario Tama/Getty Photographs)