Today's Articles

People, Locations, Episodes

Wed, 06.04.2008

The First Black Man Wins The American Presidential Nomination

Obama in Texas

On this date in 2008, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois won the Democratic presidential nomination.

This historic step made him the nation's first Black presidential candidate. Obama defeated Hillary Rodham Clinton and set up a five-month campaign with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a race between a 46-year-old opponent of the Iraq War and a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of that U.S. military mission.

Obama, a first-term senator virtually unknown on the national stage four years prior, defeated Clinton, the former first lady, in a 17-month marathon for the Democratic nomination. The young Illinois senator's success amounted to a victory of hope over experience, earned across an enervating 56 primaries and caucuses that tested the political skills and human endurance of all involved.

To Become a Political Scientist

New Poem Each Day

Poetry Corner

He waltzes into the lane ‘cross the free-throw line, Fakes a drive pivots, floats from the asphalt turf in an arc of black light, and sinks two in the chains. One on... MAKIN’ JUMP SHOTS by Michael S. Harper.
Read More