History Is Made!!!!

On tonight, at roughly about 6:47 PM, history was made in Denver, CO during the Democratic National Convention. For the very first time in the vast 232 year history of these United States of America, a major political party has elected an African-American as its representative during the general election for the office of President as its nominee. This great event sparked cheers, excitement and an arena full of tears. This monumental occurrence touched the lives of nearly every delegate, members of the media, and most of all, millions of people who watched with baited breath and great anticipation on television.

I immediately began to think about people like Fannie Lou Hamer, the leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, who went to the Democratic Convention in 1964, in Atlantic City, NJ, to protest the fact that there were no black delegates from Mississippi being allowed be seated at the convention. This resulted in the Democratic Party's declaration in 1968 that all states must treat their representation equally.

I began to think about people like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was drafted into the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery, AL by the Montgomery Improvement Association to come to the aid of Rosa Parks, who was arrested for failing to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. From there he championed the cause for all black people to have equality which included the ability to cast their vote in any election. This stand for our people by Dr. King, led to the famous signing of the Voters Rights Act in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

I began to think about people like my own mother, a woman born in the heart of Jim Crow Americus, GA in 1933, to a sickly mother and sharecropper father, who worked on a peanut farm owned by the parents of President Jimmy Carter. She had to endure the witnessing of the murder of both of her parents at the age of 10 by intruders. Leaves Georgia in 1950 at the age of 17 to travel to Newark, NJ to make a better life for an infant daughter, but what she encountered was more inequality and hard times even in the "promised land" of the North. She raised 5 children to believe in the power of God to change things and to change people as well. But in 2006, Hattie Louise Mann, made her transition from earth to glory without ever seeing true equality in America.

I wish Fannie Lou, Dr. King and my Momma, were able to sit down with me at the television to witness the things they had lived for, fought for and died without seeing all of their dreams come true: a black man IS THE NOMINEE for the Democratic Party. I wish that young people in our communities would take the time to see the magnitude of the history of this event. But instead of appreciating history, they are engulfed in the trappings of this world and the evil one named Satan. I challenge each and every one of us to stand up and let the coming generations know that we owe it to our fore-fathers to take advantage of doors that have been opened in our lives and to reach levels never seen before.