On Nov. 4 we were proud to help bring about a seminal moment in America's history.
Whether one supported President-Elect Barack Obama or not (and believe me, I did), the very fact that the voters of this country chose to elect a "person of color" to the highest office in the land is an incredible event.
Where I live, in Montana, the struggle faced by black Americans is barely comprehensible. There are fewer than 4,000 blacks currently living in the state, according to 2006 census figures. But even in Montana, we live every day with other minorities who have struggled for the right to equal citizenship — Native Americans for one. Women for another. Obama's election means we are one step closer to truly being equal under the law.
How easy it is to take all this progress for granted. But sometimes, looking back at where we have been helps us understand better where we are, and where we are going.
For a closer look, read on...
Many states in the freshly minted country of America originally granted the right to vote to a wide swath of citizens.
The original New Jersey state constitution, ratified on July 2, 1776, guaranteed the right to vote to all citizens who possessed property valued at 50 pounds — including women and "people of color." Women also were granted the right to vote in the states of New York, Massachusets and New Hampshire. In 1807, the law was rewritten to include only white men in the voting process.
It has been a long climb back.
In 1790, the Naturalization Law limited American citizenship to free white immigrants — meaning anybody but Europeans could not become American citizens. Since Native Americans were considered citizens of "sovereign nations," they were denied citizenship and voting rights.
To truly understand how remarkable it is that this country now has a president-elect whose father was a black Kenyan, consider this: Until Sept. 22, 1862, just under 150 years ago, it was legal in parts of the United States to own blacks as property. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on that date, declaring that southern slaves were to be freed if the states did not return to Union control. By July 1865, approximately 4 million former slaves escaped over Union lines.
Slavery continued in some form until a sufficient number of states passed the Thirteenth Amendment on Dec. 18, 1865. Another amendment was passed the following year that guaranteed citizenship to former slaves.
The amendment also changed the law so that they would now be counted asa a whole person, rather than 3/5 of a person. Black men received the right to vote in 1869, although women of all races still were left out of the democratic experience.
The 15th Amendment, 1870, guaranteed that a man could not be excluded based on "race, color or previous condition of servitude."
The right to vote meant little, though, as southern states rapidly passed a series of laws designed to exclude blacks from the polls. The laws instituted literacy tests and poll taxes. Outside the realm of law, black voters were threatened with physical violence and economic hardship to keep them from voting.
Blacks are not the only minority that has suffered voting discrimination. Although Native Americans won the right to become citizens in 1887, it was only if they gave up their tribal affiliation. Many didn't become citizens until 1924, wh en they no longer were forced to give up their tribal affiliations under the Snyder Act. Even then, many Western states continued to deny them the right to vote.
People of Asian and Asian-Pacific descent were restricted from becoming citizens until 1952.
Mexican Americans were supposed to get voting rights in 1848, following the Mexican American war. But since voters were required to own property and be literate, many of these groups were excluded from the voting process.
Women finally received the right to vote in 1920 after a bitter, sometimes violent, struggle, when the 19th Amendment makes it unconstutional to keep a citizen from voting based on gender, was ratified.
Despite apparent legislative progress in the civil rights, the reality was that white men retained power in the United States of America. The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s worked to change equality from a theory to a reality.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his now-famous "I Have a Dream"speech in August of 1963 during the March on Washington, which brought 250,000 Americans to the capital.
In 1964, another constitutional amendment , the 25th, prohibited poll taxes, thereby making it easier for poor people to vote.
Our current, relatively open, voting rights came about thanks to the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provided for federal oversight of voter registration and suspended all literacy tests in states with low voter registration.
Voter rights have continued to expand. In 1984, Congress passed the Voting Accessibility act that requires access for the elderly and handiapped. The Americans with Disabilities Act gave full access to voting facilities for the disabled in 1990.
The federal government has continued to fine-tune its voting system. Sometimes it has worked. Sometimes, it hasn't.
Meanwhile, Obama's vast political army, both paid and volunteer, swept the country in a get-out-the-vote effort that has never been seen before in this country. If there was any hanky panky in the 2008 election, we were going to overwhelm it with sheer numbers.
And on Nov. 4, 2008, Americans overwhelmingly elected a black man named Barack Hussein Obama to the highest office in the land. It is a long road from slavery to the White House — and whether Americans support Obama's presidency or not, they can be proud of the process that put him there.
To paraphrase the old Virginia Slims commercial: We've come a long way, baby!
Congratulations, America.