Air of disbelief for those with stadium view of history

By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 29, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Darin Mcgregor / The Rocky

Presidential candidate Barack Obama takes the stage at Invesco Field to deliver his acceptance speech on the final day of the Democratic National Convention.

Thursday night, on a date symbolic of both the worst and the best of recent life for African-Americans, a black man stood in a football stadium in Denver and made history, accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for president.

Barack Obama's moment came exactly 53 years after a black teenager was murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white girl and exactly 45 years after Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a day when his children would live in a world where people would "not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

And it came with two of King's children inside Invesco Field at Mile High, with brown and black faces in every section of the stands, with an air of disbelief for many people who spent decades wondering if such a spectacle would ever occur.

"You never thought it would happen in your lifetime," said Lorretta Johnson, 68, a delegate from Maryland who grew up in segregated Baltimore, the daughter of a longshoreman.

After Obama walked onto the stage before about 80,000 people, he took some of his harshest shots yet at presumed Republican nominee John McCain - on tax policy, on energy, on health care, on equal pay for women, on his basic understanding of the situation many Americans find themselves in - even on the question of who is more fit to lead the military.

"If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have," Obama said.

But he also talked about his story, a story of the American dream, where the son of a man from Kenya and a woman from Kansas could reach for the White House.

"It is that promise that has always set this country apart - that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well," Obama said.

Time for hoops

Accepting the nomination in a football stadium had been seen by some as a risk. But the crowd swelled, filling the vast majority - but not all - of the seats. And even on the Colfax viaduct south of Invesco Field, roughly 200 people gathered along the sidewalk, breaking into cheers when they caught a glimpse of Obama on the big screens nestled into the upper corners of the stadium.

Before Thursday night, Obama himself had been only a fleeting presence in Denver on the first three days of the convention - appearing on the big screen from Kansas City, Mo., on Monday, stepping onto the stage during Wednesday's last act to wave to the crowd and say a few words.

Thursday morning, as he prepared to step into history, Obama slipped in a side door at the Denver Athletic Club with his personal aide, Reggie Love, and adviser Eric Whitaker. It was a superstitious pursuit. Through the long, long fight for delegates, Obama played basketball with Love every day there was a primary or caucus - for luck. So as he prepared for a speech that will define the opening of the fall campaign, he wanted to play hoops.

He surprised the Illinois delegation by visiting their hotel. And he spent much of the rest of the day getting his game face on.

Historic day

Aug. 28 is a day that, for many black Americans, is seared with emotions - outrage and pride, heartbreak and hope.

On Aug. 28, 1955, in Money, Miss., two white men kidnapped Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who whistled at a white girl. The men beat Till, gouged out one of his eyes, shot him in the head, tied a cotton gin fan to his neck with barbed wire, and hurled his body into the Tallahatchie River. A jury acquitted the men. But the incident - and the incendiary images of Till's mutilated corpse published by Jet magazine - galvanized the civil rights movement, then in its infancy.

Only eights years later, on Aug. 28, 1963, King stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial before 200,000 people and looked ahead to a day when the dynamic would be different, when people of all colors had the same opportunities, when a black president might not be unthinkable.

"I have a dream," King said that day, "that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident - that all men are created equal. . . . I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

And on Aug. 28, 2008, Barack Obama became the first black man to accept a major political party's presidential nomination - a moment he shared with tens of thousands of flag-waving, cheering people.

The evening began, in earnest, with three people intimately woven into King's life - U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon and the last living speaker from the 1963 March on Washington, King's daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, and his son, Martin Luther King III.

"For those of us who stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, or who in the years that followed may have lost hope, this moment is a testament to the power and vision of Martin Luther King Jr.," Lewis said. "It is a testament to the ability of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our history.

"It is a testament to the promise of America."

King's daughter recalled one of her father's lines from that 1963 speech.

"Tonight freedom rings," she said. "From the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado, freedom rings. Forty-five years ago today, my father delivered his 'I Have A Dream' speech. Tonight we witness, in part, what has become of his dream - the acceptance by Sen. Barack Obama of the presidential Democratic nomination, decided not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character."

Agenda outlined

But it wasn't just a day about the past. It was also plenty about politics.

Obama's state director, Ray Rivera, implored those in the stadium to send text messages to the campaign.

Former Vice President Al Gore took the stage to raucous applause, taking aim at presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, and at the notion that Obama is not ready to lead, comparing him to another former Illinois state senator, Abraham Lincoln.

And Obama ticked off items from his agenda. Development of natural gas reserves, clean coal technology, and nuclear power. Tax cuts for "working families" and companies that create jobs. Health care for all that is accessible and affordable.

And Obama fired some of his most strident salvos at McCain.

"Washington has been talking about our oil addiction for the last 30 years, and by the way, John McCain's been there for 26 of them," Obama said. "And in that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels.

"And today, we import triple the amount of oil that we had on the day that Sen. McCain took office. Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close."

As he wrapped up, he turned to that day 45 years ago when 200,000 plus gathered on the Mall in Washington to hear King, though he never specifically mentioned him by name, referring to him as a "young preacher from Georgia."

"The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things," Obama said. "They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustrations of so many dreams deferred. But what the people heard instead - people of every creed and color, from every walk of life - is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.

" 'We cannot walk alone,' the preacher cried. 'And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.' "

And then he began the last step on an improbable journey, one that could land him in the White House in January.

Sara Burnett and M.E. Sprengelmeyer contributed to this report.

Inside

* The full text of Obama's speech. 22

* Reporter M.E. Sprengelmeyer analyzes Obama's message. 21

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