November 5, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Barack Obama has made history as the first African-American to win the White House. University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Associate Professor Horace Huntley, Ph.D., offers his perspective on the historical significance of Obama's win. Huntley teaches African-American history at UAB.

"In 1963, when Dr. [Martin Luther] King Jr., made his 'I Have a Dream' speech in Washington D.C., he said that this country has given black people a check and that check is from an account with insufficient funds," said Huntley. "What Barack Obama has done is he has made a deposit in that account. Now what we can see is that the account will not be insufficient at this juncture.

"But that is just the beginning. We are in a new era. We are at a place now where we have to decide whether we want to move forward or will we move backward. Because of the win of Barack Obama, it would say to me that, as a nation, we have decided to move forward. Now all of us have to get together and continue that forward movement because this election was not just an election for black people. It's an election for the nation and the world."

Huntley said Obama's victory will have a positive impact on young African-Americans.

"Our parents always told us that we could be anything that we wanted to be," said Huntley, "but we knew intuitively that we could not be president of the United States. ... Now I can tell my grandchildren, and be honest about it, that you can be anything you want to be."