ONE YEAR IN OFFICE AND A LEADER OF THE WORLD

#11 ONE YEAR IN OFFICE AND A LEADER OF THE WORLD

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

CHANGE

On 20 January 2009, the first African American was installed as the 44th President of these United States. It was an extraordinary moment in American political history. God is continuously redeeming America. Many have paved the way for this day.

One day, God reached over into Ohio and picked Carl Stokes of Cleveland to be the first African American Mayor of a major city, but He also picked Douglas Wilder to be the first African American elected Governor of Virginia. God reached up into Massachusetts and picked Edward Brooks and made him the first African American U.S. Black Senator for that state since Reconstruction, and God also reached down into North Carolina and picked Howard Lee to be the first Black Mayor of Chapel Hill.

HALLELUJAH!! Give GOD the glory!! This is a great day and historic time to be alive. WE ALL HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY. We stand on the shoulders of many who suffered physical pain, economic depression, political ostracism and even death so that we might see this day and participate in a new order. Today, in this “OBAMA ERA,’ they speak to us.

OBAMA’S ELECTION IS A CHALLENGE TO THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY.

OUR ELDERS SPEAK

We did not struggle to keep our minds from being shackled

only to have you turn away from learning

and the wise ways of the elders.

We did not endure bondage for you

to become a slave to drugs and alcohol.

We did not die by the millions, for you

to kill one by the thousands.

We did not ward off their insults and claims of our inferiority

for you to hate yourself.

We did not become their human commodity

-their black ivory, their black gold-

for you to put material things over your people,

even your own families and children.

We withstood their slaughterhouse slave ship.

their “seasoning” and “breathing”

for you to walk and live with dignity!

From

The Great Blacks in Wax Museum

Baltimore, MD