Obama Wins!!! How Far We've Come...

I was more proud to be an American last night than I ever have been in my whole life. Barack Obama won the Presidency by a LANDSLIDE. Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought the race would be so one-sided. At current count, it was Obama 349 to McCain's 162 electoral votes.

Even if you were a McCain supporter or you just didn't agree with Obama's policies, I hope you were able to take some pride in the historical night. We elected an African-American to the highest office. Now every parent can TRULY tell their sons and daughters, "This is America...you can be anything you want to be" and mean it.

I'm not going to go into a long tirade about how I think Obama is the best man for the job, or give you a long list of why I voted for him. I looked up some history on the Civil Rights Movement in the USA and I thought you might be interested in seeing how far we've come as a nation to be able to elect Obama to the White House. It makes me proud...even if you voted for McCain, I hope it makes you proud too.


Early civil rights efforts

The history of the civil rights movement in the United States actually begins with the early efforts of the fledgling democracy.

1783 -- Massachusetts outlaws slavery within its borders.

1808 -- Importation of slaves banned; illegal slave trade continues.

1831 -- Nat Turner leads slave rebellion in Virginia; 57 whites killed; U.S. troops kill 100 slaves; Turner caught, tried and hanged.

1857 -- Dred Scott Supreme Court decision rules that slaves do not become free when taken into a free state, that Congress cannot bar slavery from a territory, and that blacks cannot become citizens.

1861 -- Confederate States of America formed; Civil War begins.

1863 -- President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation freeing "all slaves in areas still in rebellion."

1865 -- Civil War ends.

13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, added to the Constitution.

1866 -- Ku Klux Klan formed in secrecy; disbands 1869-71; resurgence in 1915.

1868 -- 14th Amendment conferring citizenship added to Constitution.

1870 -- 15th Amendment barring racial discrimination in voting added to Constitution.

1896 -- Supreme Court approves "separate but equal" segregation doctrine.

1906 -- Race riots in Atlanta; 21 dead, city under martial law.

1923 -- Oklahoma placed under martial law because of Ku Klux Klan activities.

1925 -- Ku Klux Klan marches on Washington.

1943 -- War contractors barred from racial discrimination.

1952 -- Racial, ethnic barriers to naturalization removed by Immigration and Naturalization Act.

1954 -- U.S. Supreme Court declares school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling.

1955 -- Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus as required by city ordinance; boycott follows and bus segregation ordinance is declared unconstitutional.

1957 -- Arkansas Gov. Orval Rubus uses National Guard to block nine black students from attending a Little Rock High School; following a court order, President Eisenhower sends in federal troops to ensure compliance.

1960 -- Four black college students begin sit-ins at lunch counter of a Greensboro, North Carolina, restaurant where black patrons are not served.

1961 -- Freedom Rides begin from Washington, D.C., into Southern states.

1962 -- President Kennedy sends federal troops to the University of Mississippi to quell riots so that James Meredith, the school's first black student, can attend.

1963 -- Civil rights leader Medgar Evers is killed by a sniper's bullet.

1963--Race riots prompt modified martial law in Cambridge, Maryland.

1963--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers "I Have a Dream" speech to hundreds of thousands at the March on Washington.

1963--Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, leaves four young black girls dead.

1964 -- Congress passes Civil Rights Act declaring discrimination based on race illegal after 75-day long filibuster.

1964--Three civil rights workers disappear in Mississippi after being stopped for speeding; found buried six weeks later.

1965 -- March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to demand protection for voting rights; two civil rights workers slain earlier in the year in Selma.

1965--Malcolm X assassinated.

1966 -- Edward Brooke, R-Massachusetts, elected first black U.S. senator in 85 years.

1967 -- Riots in Detroit, Newark, New Jersey.

1968 -- Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee; James Earl Ray later convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison.

1978 -- Supreme Court rules that medical school admission programs that set aside positions based on race are unconstitutional (Bakke decision).

1979 -- Shoot-out in Greensboro, North Carolina, leaves five anti-Klan protesters dead; 12 Klansmen charged with murder.

1983 -- Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday established.

1988 -- Congress passes Civil Rights Restoration Act over President Reagan's veto.

1989 -- Army Gen. Colin Powell becomes first black to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

1989 -- L. Douglas Wilder (Virginia) becomes first black elected governor.

1990 -- President Bush vetoes a civil rights bill he says would impose quotas for employers; weaker bill passes muster in 1991.

1991 -- Civil rights museum opens at King assassination site in Memphis.

1994 -- Byron De La Beckwith convicted of 1963 Medgar Evers assassination.

1995 -- Supreme Court rules that federal programs that use race as a categorical classification must have "compelling government interest" to do so.

1996 -- Supreme Court rules consideration of race in creating congressional districts is unconstitutional.

Isn't it amazing? Just 40 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King was marching in the streets, people were being murdered and just 20 years ago, President Bush vetoed a Civil Rights Act.

Republicans, Democrats, Independents and everyone else: we should be proud of America today. No matter what party you belong to: you belong to the United States and we've overcome centuries of bigotry, hate and exclusion.

To quote President-Elect Obama, "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where anything is possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, on this election, in this defining moment, change is coming to America."

I am proud to be an American today. I hope you all are too and can take pride in our country. We've come a long way.