Marylanders helped pave the way for Obama’s journey

C. Fraser Smith, Baltimore Sun

- Sen. Barack Obama is the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee by virtue of his own talent, but he stands on the shoulders of Americans who built, over many decades, a more welcoming social and political landscape in this country.

At a party before Mr. Obama’s acceptance speech, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House majority leader, observed that Americans have just seen a presidential primary campaign that, for the first time, featured a black man and a woman who each had a serious chance of winning. And just two years ago, he pointed out, a woman, Nancy Pelosi, became speaker of the House. That seems like fast progress. But in the matter of race, in particular, progress has been slow. And some of the most incandescent of transformational leaders were Marylanders.

The Eastern Shore’s Harriet Tubman, quoted at the Democratic Convention here by Sen. Hillary Clinton, counseled those she led to freedom to keep on going. That’s what black Americans have done despite decades of abuse, some of it murderous. Somehow the dream did not die.

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