In 1906, a young African pygmy by the name of Ota Benga took up residence in the United States of a America. In the Bronx Zoo Monkey House. Visitors to the Bronx Zoo who were curious about him would see a plate describing him that was similar in nature to those describing the animals which were also on display.

The African Pigmy, “Ota Benga.”
Age, 23 years. Height, 4 feet 11 inches. Weight, 103 pounds.
Brought from the Kasai River, Congo Free State, South Central Africa, by Dr. Samuel P. Verner. Exhibited each afternoon during September.

Ota Benga in the Bronx Zoo

Remember, this was over forty years after slaves were freed. This was even a time when African Americans held prominent places in the Federal government and even local and state offices. And yet an African person could still be displayed in the zoo, like an animal. Not long afterward, under the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, those African Americans working in the federal government were kicked out of their appointed offices as the only American President with a pH,D. re-segregated the Federal government.

In the years that followed, things got even worse for the African-American community. Millions of people joined the Ku Klux Klan, which reached its peak in the 1920s. Jim Crow got ever worse during this period, with more and more restrictive laws against blacks all over the country, though especially during the South. This was probably the worst period for African-Americans since the end of slavery.

This was also the period in which the African American community began its fight back. The Harlem Renaissance pushed African-American art and music to the forefront of the American consciousness. The NAACP began its long crusade in the courts against segregation, a crusade which culminated in cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated schools, and Loving v. Virginia, which struck down bans on interracial marriages.

After World War II, returning black veterans helped to begin the core of what became the Civil Rights movement. In the Fifties, the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. and many, many others led to the historic march of civil disobedience against the evils of racial discrimination. These waves of peaceful protest in the 50s and 60s led to the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and slews of other landmark legislation to break the back of racial segregation and discrimination in our society.

And in 2006, one hundred years after Ota Benga was on display in the Bronx Zoo, Senator Barack Hussein Obama of Illinois began his presidential run. He ran an amazingly disciplined campaign, one which treated Americans as adults and spoke directly to their concerns and being straightforward about his policies. One that eschewed slimy personal attacks. One that was unabashedly patriotic and unifying, rather than divisive.

He defeated the Hillary Clinton campaign, which was an amazing accomplishment itself–he took on the establishment and won. He took on a brilliant campaign team and won. He then turned his sights to the general electorate, and took on one of the most popular politicians in recent history, John McCain. And won.

Now, for the first time in its history, the United States of America has elected an African-American to the highest office in the land. This election is a culmination of history that began with Bernardo Las Casas, who fought against the Spanish government’s policies of slavery; moved through John and Abigail Adams, who helped to integrate their corner of Massachusetts; through Frederick Douglass, John Brown, William Lloyd Garrison, Abraham Lincoln, and all the others who fought slavery until emancipation finally came; through the NAACP’s team of lawyers who pushed a slew of anti-discrimination cases through the Supreme Court; through Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and all of the Civil Rights Movement. And none of these heroes could have won their battles without millions of Americans, young and old, who were stirred to look inside their own hearts and allowed themselves to grow past the bigotry taught to them as a child and throw their support behind the American ideals of freedom and justice.

It is with no small amount of joy and pride in my country that I can say that Barack Obama will be my President. Even without the historical first that he represents, I believe that Mr. Obama is a sincere, intelligent, competent, and compassionate man. I do not agree with all of his policies and I can guarantee that I won’t agree with everything he does in office. But he will be my President, and I am extremely proud of that.