Forty Years Later

In 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in the spring. In August that year Kathleen and I were in Chicago for the Democratic Convention, protesting the war in Vietnam. She had gone back to Louisville to work but I was still there in Grant Park the night of the “police riot” that filled the air with tear gas and the Chicago jail with protestors, many seriously injured by the police. Last night as over one hundred thousand people gathered in that same park to see Barack Obama proclaim victory in the presidential election it was a great day for the United States and for the world.

I would not possibly have believed forty years ago that I would see the United States elect a Black President. Not in my life time, but yesterday we did.

We said then “The whole world is watching.” Last night the whole world was watching this unprecedented, historic moment.

Thanks be to God!