Voters get fired up at rally for Gov. Pat Quinn featuring President Barack Obama

IMG_9527

Standing on a media platform in the midst of about 6,000 mostly black faces at Chicago State University’s Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center, a media counterpart (older white guy … about 50 years old) leans over and says to me, “Most people don’t even know where they got that slogan from.”


I raise my eyebrow and say, “Oh, yeah. Where’d they get it from?”


He continued, “There was an older black woman from the South that Obama met in 2007 on the campaign trail. It started from there.”

Now … said slogan is “Fired up, ready to go.” Anybody involved in movement building, civil rights or otherwise, has probably said this chant countless number of times. I can remember being in Atlanta during my induction into community organizing alongside civil rights stalwarts including Hosea Williams, James Orange, Joseph Lowery, and the like, chanting the phrase as we marched about affirmative action. I told my counterpart that I’ve heard that phrase for awhile now, and that it was probably first used during the Civil Rights Movement if not before.


He leaned back. “Oh really?” he said. “The woman from South Carolina was an older woman so … that probably makes sense.”

Yeah. It makes sense. And after correcting this small piece of revisionist history (one that’s been continuously played up by Barack himself), it felt great to be in a room full of engaged people, who all, beautiful in their own right, are still fired up, and ready to go (vote).

Check the gallery to see what that looks like.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Join our Newsletter

Sign up for Rolling Out news straight to your inbox.

Read more about:
Also read