Story by Terry Shropshire
Images by Terry Shropshire and Michael Melendy for Steed Media Service.
Jacinta Howard, Amir Shaw, Gavin Philip Godfrey and DeWayne Rogers contributed to the story.
Forty years ago in
Memphis, Tenn., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said he had been to the
proverbial mountaintop and peered over to the other side. Was this the
vision that Dr. King saw? It’s incredible to think that just four years
ago, Barack H. Obama was an obscure state representative on the South
Side of Chicago who was about to become only the fourth AfrIcan
American U.S. senator since Reconstruction, Or that 10 years ago, Obama
had to pay his own way to get to the Democratic National Convention.
The most heavily participated in, most expensive and most historic
presidential campaign in American history is coming to a merciful
conclusion. After a record-breaking primary season that witnessed over
35 million people vote for either Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton, it seems only fitting to have the general election come down
to the final hours. In just five days, it is conceivable that we could
see the first ever African American president of the United States. On
the other hand, we could have the oldest person, Sen. John McCain,
R-Ariz., in the Oval Office along with the first ever woman vice
president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Just 18 months ago, very few people believed they would ever live to
see an African American in the White House who was not vacuuming the
floor. Even the sight of a U.S. senator of African descent is still a
rarity. But it looks like the nation has wrapped its mind around
electing a black commander in chief, judging from the 100,000 people
that came out to see Obama in Missouri recently, or the freshman
senator’s tenuous, but growing lead in important swing states such as
Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The country is percolating with anxious
energy, but it’s not because of the presidential campaign alone. The
country is in the throes of a financial crisis unseen in this country
in 70 years. We have mortgaged parts of our future to bail out
corporations and prevent the total collapse of the national economy.
Whoever occupies the White House will have to sift through the rubble
that is our economy and foreign policy, and begin to rebuild the
American way of life that so many took for granted. –terry shropshire
