On an extraordinary day in the life of America, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States on January 20th 2009. Before a crowd of more than a million, Obama became the first African-American to take command of a nation founded by slaveholders.
Two and a half months earlier, on November 4th 2008, the president-elect spoke to another great crowd in Grant Park, Chicago. These are excerpts from his speech:
"If there is anyone out there...
more »On an extraordinary day in the life of America, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States on January 20th 2009. Before a crowd of more than a million, Obama became the first African-American to take command of a nation founded by slaveholders.
Two and a half months earlier, on November 4th 2008, the president-elect spoke to another great crowd in Grant Park, Chicago. These are excerpts from his speech:
"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voices could be that difference.
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America."
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