40 years later, Dr. King would be proud

King would no doubt be pleased to see this fruit of his labor. Certainly he envisioned a time when his nation might look beyond one’s race or gender in an election, and many Americans did just that in electing Barack Obama.

Of course some did not. Obama doubtlessly won many votes because he is black and lost others for the same reason. Prejudice, not just racial, but all kinds, will always exist, but Obama’s election shows that American voters are open to all possibilities. Voters looked at the ideas and felt the inspiration of the Illinois senator. He won because more voters bought into his message than into that of his opponent.

Forty years after his death, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be proud. The election of an African-American neither solves the nations problems nor ends racial discrimination, but it would make America’s most beloved civil rights figure happy to see how far his nation has progressed.