Barack Obama etched his name into the annals of history of his race, his party and the nation Wednesday.
In capturing the Democratic Party’s nomination for president at the national convention in Denver, the 47-year-old Obama became the first black American to head a major political party ticket in an election for the White House.
Black delegates celebrated with unrestrained joy on the convention floor when Obama sealed the win by acclimation at about 5 p.m. in the Mile High city.
“For them it is almost the event of a lifetime,” said Lance LeLoup, a political science professor at Washington State University in Pullman, who watched on television.
“Whether (Obama) wins or loses the election, winning the nomination of a major party will stand on its own merits,” LeLoup said. “We certainly had a day today that will be remembered for a long time.”
David Olson, an emeritus political science professor at the University of Washington, called Wednesday a “landmark event” in the history of blacks in this country that encompasses their arrival as slaves, emancipation and small gains through the civil rights movement.
Even in the bloody street fights and legislative battles of the 1960s, few envisioned the opportunity to elect a black president that exists today, he said.
Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 in order to abet the election of blacks into local and state offices from communities where they were a majority of the population.
In Obama “we are observing a majority of whites who have nominated a racial minority for president,” he said.
Darryl Dieter, instructor of political science at Everett Community College, said Wednesday’s action “is much more significant than we realize because we are more accepting of racial equality.
“Race has been a cleavage in our society. It’s this uncomfortable thing nobody wants to deal with. Perhaps by the Democratic Party nominating Barack Obama, this wound we’ve tried to ignore is, or may be, starting to be healed,” he said.
Wednesday helped the party turn a page on its biography, too.
“This is a major turning point in the history of the United States,” said Tom Gaskin, a history instructor at Everett Community College.
Democrats in the 19th century embraced the values of property-owning Southerners, and Republicans led by President Abraham Lincoln provided blacks with hope and, for the men, the right to vote.
At the 1948 Democratic national convention, Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey caused a stir by criticizing his party for focusing on states’ rights, not human rights. Angry delegates of some Southern states known as Dixiecrats walked out.
“It is historic in terms of the history of the Democratic Party which not so long ago in the South was aligned with the Ku Klux Klan,” said professor of political science Gerald Horne of the University of Houston.
“To think in 2008 this same party would be nominating a black person for the highest office in the country is quite a turnaround,” said Horne, whose 17 books address issues of race in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights and war.
Obama’s nomination “demonstrates that so many of the institutional barriers to equality due to racism are crumbling,” said Martha Cottam, a Washington State University political science professor.
“Having a person like Barack Obama is very different than having laws passed to create racial equality,” she said. “It demonstrates public acceptance of equality.”
While Obama and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain likely won’t directly discuss race on the campaign trail, voters will be thinking about it.
Race has “diminished significantly in affecting the outcome of elections,” Dieter said. “But it is still out there.”
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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