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He Will Never Be The Second Black President!
Senator Barack Obama’s historical, inexorable, and rapid ascent to the presidency in 2008, a seismic event that activated formerly closeted racists, also brought about a countervailing effect: black people, long denied positions in the highest echelons of the political arena, saw opportunities to seize power.
Today, more black people than ever are running for positions in state and federal legislatures. Not all of them are prevailing, but those who do forcibly assert themselves as representatives for their constituents, creating venerable history and laying the groundwork for enterprising and ambitious black people to rise in the future.
Recently, Wes Moore, a former captain in the United States Army, became the first black governor of Maryland. Jennifer McClellan, a long-serving state senator, became the first black woman to represent Virginia in the United States House of Representatives. And Joanna McClinton, a long-serving state representative, became the first black woman to serve as speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Currently, fifty-four black members are serving in the United States House of Representatives, accounting for thirteen percent of the members occupying the august body, a percentage equitable to the proportion of Americans who identify as black. There are currently three black men serving in the United…
