On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated John
McCain in the general election with 365 electoral
votes to McCain's 173 and became the first African
American to be elected President of the United States.
 In his victory speech, delivered before a crowd of
hundreds of thousands of his supporters in
Chicago's Grant Park, Obama proclaimed that
"change has come to America".
In the past few decades, African Americans have begun to
uncover a history that was largely discarded, overlooked,
and ignored. After all, history books are written by and for
those in power and reflect their point of view.

European exploration of the New World in the 15th, 16th,
and 17th centuries revealed both alien peoples thought to
be in need of civilizing and vast tracts of underutilized
land. As European traders tapped into the centuries-old
internal African slave trade, they began to realize the
potential benefits of slavery. They could draw on the
tropical farming experience and disease resistance of
Africans and work enormous tracts of land for only the
upkeep of the slave population. In the process of
developing the New World, Europeans transported millions
of people from Africa. And as they sought to justify this
practice and retain their advantages, they also created a
racial system that would define social relationships
throughout the world.

Despite all this, Africans and African Americans after them
would rise above the positions to which they had been
relegated. They created poetry, drama, literature, and film,
for justice and equality.
Click on images for additional information
Montford Point was a United
States Marine Corps recruit depot
in North Carolina. Created in 1942
as a satellite of the newly
constructed Camp Lejeune,
Montford Point was established
for the training of black Marines
during segregation.
555th Parachute Infantry Battalion
"Triple Nickles," succeeded in
becoming the nation's first all-black
parachute infantry test platoon,
company, and battalion.
The USS Mason was the only ship crewed
by black sailors to see combat. Although
known as "Eleanor's Folly," the Mason
served with distinction during World War II.
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was
one of the first official black units in the United
States armed forces[1], an infantry regiment that
fought in the American Civil War.
The Women's Army Corps 6888th Battalion
was a World War II unit. Composed of
approximately 850 black women, it was
services were segregated
The Golden Thirteen were the
thirteen African American enlisted
men who became the first African
American commissioned officers
in the United States Navy.
The Tuskegee Airmen
dedicated, determined young
America's first black military
airmen, at a time when there
were many people who
thought that black men lacked
intelligence, skill, courage and
patriotism