It is Tuesday November 4th, 2008, late in the evening and the sun is setting. At this time I lived in a two-
bedroom apartment with my brother in Bloomington, Illinois. We were both sitting in the living room on the
couch discussing the possibility of the outcome of the presidential election and it’s impact on our community,
culture, and race. The television was on Fox 32, which is a Chicago based local network. Fox was running
a special on the presidential election and interviewing political figures throughout the country. I have sat
through a few presidential elections before but this one was astronomically different. It was history unfolding
before our very eyes and not just history of electing another president to run the United States of
America. But this was different on so many levels, especially for the African American community.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am reflecting on the presidential election of Barack Hussein Obama.
The 44th president of this country and the first African American to be voted as commander and chief of our
nation was inspirational. I remember that day quite vividly. As I stated previously, I was in the living room of
my apartment with my brother sitting on our couch. We literally could feel the energy and enthusiasm
created by the possible election of Barrack Obama, and we lived two hours from Chicago at this time. On
television they were showing the people who had occupied every inch of grass at Grant Park, which is
located downtown Chicago. This was the designated location that was chosen for President Obama to
come out and address the public. It was astonishing to see the overwhelming number of people that
decided to attend the president’s speech. CNN reported that it was tens of thousands of Chicagoans that
had converged on Grant Park to witness this historical moment.
My brother and myself felt like we were right there in the mist of the crowd. The television was so loud;
you would’ve thought we were two senior citizens with bad hearing aids in our ears. But we wanted to feel
the emotions of the moment and take in every single sound that was being transmitted through our
console. Then finally, on CNN’s giant screens, they declared Barack Obama the winner over Senator John
McCain. At that moment my brother and me went into frenzy, jumping around, slapping five, and popping
champagne. It became more than just politics, it was about the uplifting of a race of people who felt like
America had forgotten about them. It was about Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream becoming a reality, the
sacrifices of Harriet Tubman, and the memory of Frederick Douglass. It was much deeper than politics to us
personally. The election of President Obama gave us hope, that we might actually be able to become
whatever we aspired to be in this country. It created an attitude that our future was bright and encouraged
us to believe that maybe our country is evolving into that great nation our ancestors dreamed of.
To me it felt like those who fought for civil rights and sacrificed their own freedoms and lives for our
future, was finally paying off somehow. Even though we still have a very long way to go and a lot of work to
do, at that moment it felt like a victory. We just wanted to relish in the moment and not think about nothing
more than the present. Our lives had changed significantly and it felt like for the better. The election of
President Barack Obama on November 4th, 2008, impacted my life and many others in our nation, by simply
giving us hope.