In Obama, African Americans See Promise of 1776 Fulfilled

As the nation prepares to celebrate its first Fourth of July with a black president, I wondered whether African Americans are feeling more patriotic. So I talked with some students in a summer school class at Howard University, one of the country's most time-honored black colleges.

I was not disappointed. The African American journalism students agreed overwhelmingly that Barack Obama's election has strengthened blacks' enthusiasm for our nation and trust in the democratic ideals we will honor Saturday. (Of course, African Americans, like everybody else, view the holiday primarily as a chance to gobble barbecue, watch fireworks and stalk holiday bargains at the mall, but that's a separate issue.)

Obama's victory "represented the idea that America was changing for the better," said Charnese Wilson, 21, a senior from Detroit. "My peers, that's what they're celebrating, the evolution of America."

The patriotism of African Americans as a group has never been in question. They have fought honorably in the nation's wars and sometimes have suffered disproportionately high casualties.

But African Americans tend to love their country more for what it has promised -- especially on July 4 -- than for what it has delivered. That's hardly surprising, given nearly 2 1/2 centuries of slavery, followed by another century of segregation and, despite progress, continuing discrimination and disproportionate economic hardship.

Sure enough, the Howard students had plenty to say about how hypocrisy has corrupted American ideals. Thomas Jefferson wrote the famous words "all men are created equal," but he was a plantation owner who once said that living without slaves would be an "inconvenience."

Deontay Morris, 19, a junior from Detroit, expressed contempt for the Founding Fathers because of their "horrible legacy" as slaveholders. "I'm pretty sure George Washington didn't want Barack Obama to be president," he said tartly.

A moment later, though, Morris praised the Declaration of Independence as "one of the best documents ever written, because it's evolving over time." That's the key to understanding how the Spirit of 1776 has led to a black president whose election adds to African Americans' faith, or at least their hope, that the country will keep its pledges of equality and liberty.

When the United States was founded, the word "democracy" had a negative connotation, because it was associated with mob rule. Only white men with property could vote.

But "all men are created equal" has proved powerful over the years. It inspired successful efforts to extend the vote to poor white men during the Age of Jackson in the early 1800s. Lincoln quoted it as he led the country to abolish slavery. Suffragists added "and women" when women won the right to vote in 1920. The Declaration animated Martin Luther King Jr. In the movie "Milk," about gay rights activist Harvey Milk, there's a dramatic moment when he tells a crowd, "All men are created equal. No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words."

Now, a black man in the White House is unmistakable evidence of another advance for equality in America. The Howard students, and other African Americans whom I interviewed, recognize and appreciate that.

"For the first time, people looked past color and looked at substance" in the vote, said Kristopher Owens, 20, a junior from Lithonia, Ga.