Jill Porter: A reminder of how far we've come, and of what lies ahead

0 Comments | Philadelphia Daily News, August, 2008

I WENT to the most obvious

place yesterday to celebrate the Democratic Party's epic nomination of Barack Obama: the African American Museum at 7th and Arch streets.

Where else to honor the momentous event that marks the end of this country's racial past?

It was early and no other visitors had yet arrived. I had the place to myself.

Part of the permanent timeline etched on the museum's partition walls says: "Dr. Martin Luther King assassinated 1968. Harold Washington elected Mayor of Chicago 1983."

I imagined the thrilling inscription that could bring the information full circle:

"Barack Obama elected president of the United States of America 2008."

It's almost impossible to grasp, this culmination of King's dream 45 years after he evoked...