I’ll forever remember nearly every detail of the nine hours I spent as history was made yesterday. The celebration of this new era in America was equally memorable at Sunday’s "We Are One" concert. But as I participated in this celebration of America here in the nation’s capital, everything felt surprisingly anti-climatic.
Today was a tranquil realization of a much more tumultuous struggle that epitomizes the American spirit. Although I shed a tear or two this past weekend, what went down on the National Mall yesterday will never rile me up like the movement that made this day possible.
From the dirt roads of Neshoba County, Mississippi to the crowded streets of Harlem, yesterday’s triumphant celebration of the American spirit was the culmination of a movement made up of people who simply gave a damn. Barack Obama may have made history, but the history of the most ordinary Americans made Barack Obama possible.
Be it Rosa Parks’ decision to "stop giving in."
Or John Lewis’ stand for justice in Selma, Alabama
Or Fannie Lou Hamer’s courageous activism on behalf of disenfranchised African-American voters
Or every last one of the 300,000 participants in the March on Washington.
What we witnessed yesterday was a testament to what can happen when ordinary people decide to do extraordinary things.
So as we celebrate and welcome America’s first African-American President, let us remember how this day became possible. Although I treasured every last second of this inaugural weekend, I’d trade away the past 72 hours here in DC for three days of work during Freedom Summer in a heartbeat. While my memories of Sunday’s "We Are One" concert will be in my heart forever, my imagination of what it would have felt like to be where I was standing on August 28, 1963 exceeded my excitement of the present. What I experienced yesterday was the result of what happens when Americans come together, united in the pursuit of justice. It’s been a long time coming but our history finally delivered us a President like Barack Obama.