All language subtitles for HBO.Obama.In.Pursuit.of.a.More.Perfect.Union.2021.1080p.x265.AAC.MVGroup.org_track3_[eng]

"We the people,

in order to form
a more perfect union."

Two hundred
and twenty-one years ago,

in a hall that still stands
across the street,

a group of men gathered,
and with these simple words,

launched America's improbable
experiment in democracy.

The document they produced
was eventually signed,

but ultimately unfinished.

It was stained by this nation's
original sin of slavery.

I chose to run for president

at this moment in history
because I believe deeply

that we cannot solve
the challenges of our time

unless we solve them together.

Unless we perfect our union

by understanding that
we may have different stories,

but we hold common hopes,

that we may not look the same

and may not have come
from the same place,

but we all want to move
in the same direction,

towards a better future

for our children
and our grandchildren.

This belief comes
from my unyielding faith

in the decency and generosity
of the American people.

But it also comes
from my own story.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

OBAMA: I am the son
of a Black man from Kenya

and a white woman from Kansas.

I was raised with the help
of a white grandfather

who survived the Depression
to serve in Patton's army

during World War II,

and a white grandmother
who worked

on a bomber assembly line
at Fort Leavenworth

while he was overseas.

I've gone to some
of the best schools in America,

and I've lived in one
of the world's poorest nations.

I am married to a Black American

who carries within her the blood
of slaves and slave owners,

an inheritance we pass on
to our two precious daughters.

I have brothers,
sisters, nieces,

nephews, uncles, and cousins
of every race and every hue

scattered across
three continents.

And for as long as I live,
I will never forget

that in no other country
on Earth

is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me

the most conventional
of candidates.

But it is a story that has
seared into my genetic makeup

the idea that this nation is
more than the sum of its parts.

That out of many,
we are truly one.

Contrary to the claims of some
of my critics, Black and white,

I have never been so naïve
as to believe

that we can get beyond
our racial divisions

in a single election cycle
or with a single candidate.

But I have asserted
a firm conviction...

a conviction rooted
in my faith in God

and my faith
in the American people...

that working together...

we can move beyond some
of our old racial wounds.

And that, in fact,
we have no choice.

We have no choice
if we are to continue

on the path
of a more perfect union.

♪ (THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

REPORTER: Meet Barack Obama,

a Harvard-educated
Chicago civil rights attorney.

Obama has done and seen much
in his 34 years of life.

He was raised in Hawaii,
Indonesia,

and is one
of very few African Americans

who can boast of tangible
living proof of African roots.

My parents made me appreciate
different cultures,

uh, but the notion
that one culture

or one race was superior
to another, uh,

was not in my, sort of,
wiring, so to speak.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

OBAMA:
My parents met in Hawaii.

My father was part of that
first wave of young Africans

to travel abroad
to get an education.

They ended up getting married,
having me.

My father decided he wanted
to get his PhD,

obtained a scholarship
to go to Harvard.

He moved there,

but the separation
made it difficult

for them to stay together.

Not to mention,
this was an interracial couple

at the brink
of the civil rights movement.

My mother was from Kansas,

and she was born to a pair
of fairly typical midwestern,

white Americans
in a lot of ways.

What made them remarkable
was that they ended up

being more open-minded

and accepting of difference
and diversity than, I think,

was maybe typical
of their generation

and their time.

So I don't think that there was
a sense of my difference,

racially, as I was growing up.

I mean, Hawaii was a...

sort of a unique
kind of melting pot.

Then, when I was six, my mother
remarried an Indonesian.

And we moved to Indonesia,

which certainly made me
feel different,

but it had more to do
with the fact

that I was an American
living in a third-world country

than the fact
that I was an African American.

It probably wasn't until
I came back from Indonesia

and I was around ten years old
or so,

that it became an issue.

I obtained a scholarship
to a prep school in Hawaii.

At that point, suddenly,
I looked around and said,

"You know, there aren't that
many folks who look like me."

JOELLA EDWARDS:
When he first came into school,

when Barry first came,
I was excited.

I-- For me, being a little girl,
being--

I haven't been there
from first grade to fifth grade,

I had been by myself,
and when I say by myself,

I just mean because I'm the only
little Black girl there.

And being teased all the time
was very difficult for me.

I didn't like my own skin.

So when I saw him, I thought,

"Oh, he's just like me,
but he's a guy.

But he's the same color skin,
and maybe we can be allies,

maybe we can work together

and they won't tease me
as much."

OBAMA: My mother had inculcated
in me the sense

that being African American
was a-- a wonderful thing.

You know, that it was special
in some way.

I didn't really know my father
growing up.

He had left my mother
by the time I was two,

and I didn't really
meet him again until I was ten.

And basically learned of him

through the stories
my mother would tell

and my grandparents
would tell me.

The consensus was
he was the smartest man

they had ever met.

So, the image that I had
of being a Black American was--

was almost exclusively positive.

It's ironic, you know,
that I got this wonderful

sort of Black history lesson

from this, uh, white woman
from Kansas.

My mother really was somebody
who identified so greatly

with the civil rights movement

that that was almost
our civil religion.

She was constantly talking
about King and Malcolm,

and the struggles
that were taking place

in the United States.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.:
Because of prejudices
and narrow-mindedness,

negroes have been held out
of the political arena,

but I do think
that the day will come

in the not-too-distant future

when the negro vote itself
will be powerful enough

to be in a coalition

with, uh, liberals
in the white community

and thereby elect a negro
president of the United States.

ANTHONY PETERSON:
My first memory
of meeting Barry Obama

is that our mutual friend
introduced us.

There were only
four Black students

out of 1,600 students in the--
in high school that year.

Barry was a freshman,

he had just come
into the high school.

We talked about school,
we talked about girls,

and we talked about whether
the non-Black girls
at our school,

which was all the girls
at our school,

would ever date us.

We were used to being
in situations

where we were the only
Black person there,

or we were bridging
two cultures.

I mean, that was just a part
of how each of us had grown up.

We had a standing meeting
about once a week,

and we called
our standing meeting

"ethnic corner,"
which was tongue-in-cheek.

We talked about social issues

because that was important
to us.

And, so,
one of those questions was,

"Will we ever see
a Black president
in our lifetime?"

Our consensus was, uh,
there will be a Black president,

but it won't be in our lifetime.

OBAMA:
By the time I was an adolescent

and was struggling with issues
of racial identity

and a father not being
in the house,

I reacted by engaging
in a lot of, uh, behavior

that's not untypical
of Black males...

uh, across the country.

-(APPLAUSE)
-(COMMENTATOR SPEAKING OVER PA)

OBAMA:
I played a lot of basketball,

didn't take school
that seriously,

got into fights,

drank and consumed substances
that weren't always legal.

And that was also at a time
when Roots

was first appearing
on television,

and there were just a lot
of icons of Black identity--

Shaft and Super Fly--

forced me to figure out
as I moved through high school,

what did it mean to be
a Black man in America?

And also embrace
my mixed heritage.

We both went
to Occidental College

in the fall of 1979 as freshmen,

and we were
in the same dormitory.

Barack was always
very self-confident,

he was fun to be around
and easy-going

and a good conversationalist.

OBAMA: It turned out
that I really liked to read,

and I liked to argue politics
with my professors,

and I really,
sort of like a sponge,

started soaking up
a lot of, uh, information,

and spent
the first two years there

sort of rediscovering
what was important to me...

(CROWD CHANTING)

...and was active in a lot
of campus activism.

PROTESTORS:
Divest! Divest! Divest! Divest!

There were student groups
that were trying to get

the college to divest
from investing in South Africa.

(APPLAUSE)

And there was a rally in front
of where the board was meeting,

the trustees, and Barack was
the first speaker at that rally.

-All right.
-(CROWD CHEERS)

We called this rally today
to bring attention

to Occidental's investments
in South Africa,

and Occidental's lack
of investment

in multicultural education.

(CROWD CHEERING)

-There is no...
-AUDIENCE MEMBER: Go, Barry!

(CROWD SCREAMING, APPLAUDING)

PHIL BOERNER:
Barack did a staged thing

where he was carted off,

supposedly by Afrikaners,
I guess,

to sort of symbolize what
was going on in South Africa.

It was just one
of the many issues,

along with the 1980 election
and bringing back the draft,

that was being discussed
on campus.

PROTESTOR: (OVER MICROPHONE)
Are we gonna take
the responsibility to change it?

(CROWD CHEERS)

OBAMA: That was the first time
that I had spent

a lot of time
on the mainland United States.

I became close to a collection
of African American professors

and Latino activists,
and international students,

and it was a terrific period
of growth for me.

But after two years
at Occidental,

I decided
that I needed a change.

It was a small
liberal arts college.

So I transferred
to Columbia University

in New York City,

and became very interested
in issues of social change

and politics and public policy
and government,

and started really thinking
more seriously about who I was

and what I wanted to be.

GENEVIEVE AHEARNE:
I was doing a masters

in early childhood education
in New York,

and I was living at home
with my parents.

I was invited
to a Christmas party,

and I'm not much of a partygoer,
so... (CHUCKLES)

I was about to go home,
when Barack stopped me

and, um,
introduced himself to me.

And he must have said something
a little bit compelling,

'cause instead of leaving
as I was ready to do,

we ended up sitting down on a--
on a beanbag by the front door

and talked for a long time.

We both grew up moving around
and in other countries,

and just instantly had a lot
in common.

It was really bizarre
when we both realized

we'd lived in Indonesia
as children at the same time.

It felt extraordinary.

We had very parallel stories,
it seemed.

His mother was an anthropologist
and I was an anthropology major.

There was just this fast
and furious conversation

about who we were
and where we come from,

which, if you grow up
moving around

and feeling like an outsider,

is not at all
a common experience.

OBAMA: For a lot of children,
when you move around a lot,

you don't feel part of things.

You-- you're sort of outside
looking in.

I think that probably
the greatest effect it had on me

was I think it reinforced
my general belief

that, under the skin,
people were the same

and that whatever circles
I traveled in,

um, I could find a common spirit
or a common ground.

AHEARNE:
The week after we met,

we fell into a kind
of relationship.

We just shared such
a similar history

and such a similar sensibility

about what we were doing
in New York

and how we saw ourselves
as actors in a world

where we cared a lot
about what we were

either choosing to do
or about to choose to do.

We just seemed very much
on the same page

as far as being young
and very idealistic.

OBAMA: For a year, I worked
as a financial journalist

to pay off my student loans
and started looking

for work
as a community organizer

or political activist.

And it turned out
that it was actually harder

to find work doing good
than I had expected.

♪ (MELODIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JERRY KELLMAN:
The Indiana-Illinois
bi-state region

was the largest producer
of steel in the country,

and, uh, the steel mills
were closing all over the place.

So I began a project
pulling churches together

to see what could be done
for steel workers.

A large part of the area
was the South Side of Chicago,

and there I was,
a white organizer

dealing with an
all-African American community.

LORETTA AUGUSTINE-HERRON:
Community organizing for us
was so new.

There was actually no one
in our community

that we could tap
as a resource for a director.

We needed someone
who looked like us,

thought like us,
and understood our problems.

KELLMAN:
I put ads in some newspapers.

Barack saw it
in the New York Public Library.

We did a-- a long--
a long phone conversation,

uh, which-- part of which
I was trying to determine

was he Black or not.

AHEARNE: He had the skin
to step into that world,

but he didn't have
the cultural background.

That was what concerned him,

is, "How can I walk
into a community,

not only as an outsider,

but also as a person who ought
to have legitimacy

if it's in the Black community?"

But I think he was reluctant
to talk

about how that was shaping up
to be the next move,

because it also meant
conversations

about breaking up,
which was happening anyway.

There was something about
who we were together

that he really, um,
was plugged into,

very legitimately, but there was

this other part in him
which could see

that there was no good end
to this particular love story.

Yeah.

♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

OBAMA: I drove out to Chicago
not knowing a single person.

This was in 1985,
and so I was, uh, 24 years old.

KELLMAN: It was really
a pivotal time in his life.

Coming to Chicago for him
was a chance to get rooted

in a way he'd never had before

and to experience
how things get done

in a big city
in the United States.

He had never dealt with politics

and the kind of naked power
that's in Chicago.

(CROWD CHEERING)

-You want Harold?
-CROWD: Yeah!

-You got him!
-(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: Part of the reason I had
been attracted to Chicago

was reading
about Harold Washington

and the inspiration
that African Americans

across the country had taken
from his election

as the first African American
mayor in Chicago.

The election
of Harold Washington

signified a sea change,
politically,

like nothing we've ever seen
in Chicago.

It finally sent the message
to African Americans

and others who had been left
out of the system

that it was their turn
to have some access

and to have some power
in the community.

-(INDISTINCT CHANTING)
-(BOOING)

KELLMAN: Chicago was an
extremely racially divided city.

Go, go, go!

It was a fact of life,
and it was in our face,

and it was always coming up.

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

LAURA WASHINGTON:
He saw a city that was suffering

under deep inequity,
and he wanted to change that.

And he made no apologies
for that.

He said,
"I'm going to be fair to you.

It doesn't matter
if you're white,

it doesn't matter
if you're Black,

I'm gonna find you
and I'm gonna be fair to you."

KELLMAN: The first few months,

Barack came in,
uh, very serious. (CHUCKLES)

You know, he'd, uh, be reading,

he'd be working
on his notes at night.

He was a bit monkish.

And so I did have a concern
the first few months

that, um, he would burn out.

OBAMA: I was pretty green
behind the ears.

Not really knowing
anything about Chicago,

not knowing that much
about the church.

AUGUSTINE-HERRON:
In the Black community,

the church is usually
the base of everything.

That's where people
get their strength.

And so, during this time,

to bring those churches
together, this is power.

KELLMAN: We'd use the church
as a base for organizing.

I asked him to go to
a different church every Sunday.

You get to know
the church better
if you're there on Sunday.

The pastor appreciates you
being there.

He just asked if he could have
about 15 minutes of my time

to talk about working
in the community,

which was really right
up my alley.

But I think, you know,
in his early days,

he had some real difficulties.

And one of the challenges
that Obama had was that,

you know, he-- he did not talk

like the regular guy
on the street.

And so, I think
that gave some people

some kind of suspicion, uh,
of him as an outsider.

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION)

AUGUSTINE-HERRON:
When I say he did his homework,

he did his homework.

He got to know the people
he was working with.

I came from a community
that was inundated

by waste and pollution,
lack of jobs.

And we needed someone
to encourage us.

To make us want to do the things
that we needed

to improve our community.

(CROWD CHEERING)

AUGUSTINE-HERRON:
We rallied. We did good.

We broke up meetings
behind closed doors.

You're talking
about a sense of power.

You know, and these
are the kind of things

that Barack thought about
and we did.

OBAMA: It was the best education
of my life.

It allowed me to not only
to learn some of the skills

of organizing and politics,

but, uh, more importantly,
it gave me a home.

It rooted me in a community
of African Americans

whose values and stories
I soaked up.

KELLMAN: Sooner or later,
what happens to you,

if you're working
with a lot of pastors,

they want to know...
"Where do you go to church?

Who's your pastor?"

ALVIN LOVE: We talked about
the need for him to be
spiritually grounded

if he was going to do this kind
of work, uh, in the church.

Um, and that even if he wasn't,

he needed
to be spiritually grounded,

and he needed to make
that decision, uh, for himself

and by himself.

JEREMIAH WRIGHT:
I have a friend who,
every time you greet him,

every time you ask him,
"How're you doing?"

He answers...

"Just trying to make it, man.

Just trying to make it."

WRIGHT: When Barack first came
to see me, he said...

"I want to make
an intelligent choice.

I just don't want to join
because I like the music

or it was a great service."

He wanted to make
an intelligent decision

about his faith.

CORNEL WEST:
Reverend Jeremiah Wright
is one of the giants

in the Black prophetic tradition
of the 20th century.

He's deeply influenced
by Malcolm X,

in some ways even more
than Martin Luther King, Jr.

Studied at University
of Chicago,

so he was both a scholar
as well as a powerful preacher.

How about the fact
that we have pledged

to take what we've got
as Black people

and put it back
into the Black community?

That's what I want to ask.

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON:
He was deeply entrenched
in an Afrocentric perspective,

and also a man deeply rooted
in the politics and culture

of African American society,

and brought those to bear
in criticizing racial injustice

and social inequity
in the society around him.

WRIGHT:
In a conversation with Christ,

what the word says about racism
comes through loud and clear.

Now, Jeremiah Wright has always
been one to engage

in a very, very intense critique
not just of white supremacy,

but of the American empire.

Apartheid is wrong!
Oppression is wrong!

-(ATTENDEES CHEERING)
-Anybody who feels white skin

is superior to black skin
is wrong!

The president of the US,

who doesn't even know
his own Black cabinet members,

-is wrong!
-(ATTENDEES CHEERING)

As we talked more
about the Black church...

in one of the conversations,

I mentioned that
at the University of Chicago

I had studied
under Fazlur Rahman.

He said, "The Muslim?"
I said, "Yeah."

That's when I found out
he had family members

who were Muslim.

And we began talking
about the similarities

and differences.

I found him to be
a very intelligent young man

and our conversations increased.

The culture says,
"You are ugly."

The Christ says,
"You are beautiful."

The culture says,
"Your skin is black."

The Christ says,
"And so was mine."

(ATTENDEES CHEER, APPLAUD)

LOVE: Once he made his decision
to join the church,

you could see
a marked difference

in-- in his groundedness.

I think prior to that,

Barack was searching
for himself,

both himself in the
African American community,

but also himself
in the faith community.

I-- I think it had real value
and real meaning to him.

AUMA OBAMA: I got a letter.
I was in Germany studying.

And the letter,
I looked at the sender,

and it was Barack Obama.

And the thing
that really startled me

when I got the letter
was that he had--

it had the same handwriting
as my father's.

And my father used to write
to me, and...

you know, so I was like,
"What is going on?"

This is like, I don't know,
two years or three years

after my father has died.

So I opened the letter,
kind of feeling really strange,

and it turns out
to be Barack Obama, Jr.

I grew up knowing that I had
a brother in Hawaii

because my father was very proud
of him.

And his mother always sent
Barack's school results,

so we knew about him.

But as a child,
you don't really relate.

We got to meet each other
in Chicago, finally.

We, uh, decided on that,

we needed to get to know
each other.

And immediately it was like,

"This is somebody I've known
all my life."

And we didn't stop talking
for about two days.

He asked me so many questions
about family,

about his father--
in particular about his father.

I think it was a big hole
in his life.

We don't know the reasons
why his father

couldn't see him more,
be around him more,

but I could at least
relay to him that

"Your father loved you very,
very much."

He came and visited me in Kenya,

and in that time,
we continued talking.

Although I couldn't fill
this hole

that Barack had lived with
all his life,

I could reduce it

because it was filled
with family

and stories
that were not just made up.

And I think that was something
that he needed to have,

and it helped in his development

and what he was trying to do
with his life.

♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

KELLMAN: We were taking a walk,
and he said,

"I've decided to,
uh, go to law school."

I said, "Okay, um,
that's reasonable. Why?"

You know. And, uh--
uh, he talked about power,

that, uh, he didn't see
having the--

getting enough power
to change things

through community organizing.

He wanted to have
some kind of platform

to be able to create
greater change.

OBAMA: I was 27
when I got to law school.

It meant that I had gotten
a lot of errant, uh, energy

out of the way. (CHUCKLES)

I knew why I was there

and what I wanted
to get out of it.

When I first met him,
he seemed...

He was a Black guy from Chicago
with this African-sounding name,

and I had no idea
of his unusual background.

He had a very sort of
wise presence about him.

He always had something that
was a little different to say

that seemed
a bit more well thought out

than the other students.

OBAMA:
I had learned, as an organizer,

to be able to articulate
a position and express myself,

and I had great enthusiasm
for the subject matter.

And I think when you're
interested in something,

you end up, uh, doing well.

And I ended up elected
as the first

African American president
of the Law Review at Harvard.

It was obvious
from the beginning that

Barack was gonna be
a formidable candidate.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

KEN MACK: He just impressed
people around him.

But when Barack was elected,

I, frankly, was--
was a bit surprised.

Race was a huge issue
in the Harvard Law Review,

as it was everywhere else
in this society.

And everybody understood
that this was gonna be

a huge symbol.

OBAMA: I think it's a good sign.
I think it's a sign of progress.

Although I'm honored
and I think people can, uh,

say that my election symbolizes
some progress,

at least
within the small confines

of the legal community,

I think it's real important
to keep the focus

on, uh, the-- the broader world
out there

and see that, uh...
uh , for a lot of kids, uh,

the doors that have been open
to me aren't open to them.

(PROTESTORS CHANTING)

MACK: Harvard Law School
in the late 1980s, early 1990s,

was a place
where people talked

and argued about racial issues

because it's a reflection
of the larger society,

that's what Americans
were doing.

(PROTESTORS CHANTING)

REPORTER:
There are 1,600 students

here at Harvard Law School.

Nearly a quarter
are people of color

and nearly 40 percent
are women,

yet Harvard Law School's
faculty contains

only five tenured women
professors

and only three tenured
Black professors.

Professor Derrick Bell was
the first Black granted tenure

at Harvard Law School
back in 1969.

Now, he's taking
a leave of absence

until the school tenures
its first Black woman professor.

Bell's protest had its origin in
the faculty diversity movement,

which was a nationwide movement.

And there was
a lot of discussion

about whether
and to what extent

Barack should be involved.

This was
a very controversial thing.

There was the matter of what
are the appropriate things

for the president
of the Harvard Law Review

to speak out on,
and what are-- are not.

OBAMA: I remember that
the Black law students

had organized an orientation
for the first-year students,

and one of the persons who spoke
at that orientation

was Professor Bell.

And I remember him sauntering up
to the front,

and not giving us a lecture,

but engaging us
in a conversation...

and speaking the truth

that I've carried
with me ever since.

Now, how did this one man
do all this?

How has he accomplished
all this?

He hasn't done it simply
by his good looks

-and easy charm.
-(CROWD LAUGHING)

OBAMA: Although he has both
in ample measure.

(CROWD LAUGHING)

OBAMA: He hasn't done it

simply because of the excellence
of his scholarship,

although his scholarship
has opened up new vistas

and new horizons,

and changed the standards
of what legal writing is about.

(CROWD CHEER, APPLAUD)

OBAMA: I spent three years
at law school

continuing the same line
of questioning

that I had been engaging in
as a community organizer.

How do we bring about
a more just society?

You know, what are
the institutional arrangements

that would give people, uh,
opportunity?

PANEL MODERATOR 1: Every day,
on the news, we hear that
we're in a recession.

That violent crime
is increasing,

that millions of Americans,

including so many
of our children, are homeless.

And that our education system
must be reformed.

PANEL MODERATOR 2:
We have assembled
a distinguished panel

to explore these problems.

I really would like
for Mr. Obara to--

uh, Obama to respond to this
since he is young and Black.

Whenever we blame society
for everything,

or blame white racism
for everything,

um, then inevitably,
we're giving away our own power

to some extent.

Um, at the same time,

we can't let the federal
government off the hook

or the judiciary system
off the hook.

I mean,
the fact of the matter is

we can take
individual responsibility

but still mobilize
as communities

to make the kinds
of structural changes

that are gonna be necessary.

As the first African American
president of the Law Review,

I ended up generating
a lot of publicity.

That put me in a position where,
leaving law school,

I pretty much could write
my own ticket...

and decided not to take
what might have been

the more conventional route
clerking on the Supreme Court

and working in a large law firm.

I read a newspaper article
one day that indicated

that an African American lawyer
was returning to Chicago.

He had been editor in chief
of the Harvard Law Review.

He wanted-- he was interested
in civil rights.

I did nothing
but civil rights work.

And, so, I figured
what the hell, I'll call him.

He said, "You know, every firm
is recruiting me."

And he indicated that

he wasn't sure
what he wanted to do.

But would I be willing
to have lunch with him,

just-- just to talk.

We probably had three
or four lunches.

And finally after the summer,
he said to me out of the blue,

"Aren't you going to offer me
a job?" (CHUCKLES)

I said, well,
"Are you interested?"

And he said,
"Well, I-- I think I am."

But he didn't come back
here because of me.

(CHUCKLES)

He-- he came to Chicago
because of Michelle.

He had worked the summers
at a law firm in Chicago,

and she was at one
of those law firms,

and he liked Michelle.

I first met Michelle Robinson
when she was thinking of leaving

her private law firm,
and a good friend of mine,

who was the head of the law
department at the city,

sent her resume down to me.

Across the top was written,
"Outstanding young superstar,

wants to leave
the private practice,

interested in government
service."

I invited in Michelle
for an interview,

and rather than selling
her resume, as people often do,

she told me her story.

The story of growing up
on the South Side of Chicago.

Being a product of the Chicago
public school system,

going on off
to outstanding schools,

Princeton and Harvard.

And I was so blown away by her,
I offered her a job on the spot.

JUDD MINER: I told him the firm
was interested in hiring him,

and he shared with me that
he had-- had this contract

to write a book.

And he said to me, um, you know,

"I-- I don't want to
start working

while I'm doing this.
I'll-- it'll be a distraction.

I'd rather finish the book,

so that I can really roll up
my sleeves and practice law."

OBAMA: I had graduated
from law school in 1991.

and I had been fortunate enough
to get a contract

to write a series of essays
about civil rights laws

and-- and civil rights policies
and how they've changed

and how they need to move,

uh, as-- as we enter
the, uh, 21st century.

Um, so I was in the middle
of writing this book

when I got a call
from the national organization,

called Project Vote,

and they were very eager
to have me

direct their voter registration
effort in Chicago.

(CROWD CHEERING)

I want to continue serving
as your president

four more years,

-so from this moment--
-(CROWD CHEERING)

NEWSCASTER 1: Well,
if the economy is the most
important political issue

in this campaign this year,
and it certainly is,

then it's particularly important
to Blacks

because they are hurting
the most.

Black people are
further behind now

than we were thirty years ago!

-BILL CLINTON: What's your name?
-Rodney.

NEWSCASTER 1:
For the Democratic candidates,

Black voters,
traditionally loyal Democrats,
are important.

NEWSCASTER 2: But some now worry
the Black community

is being taken for granted.

NEWSCASTER 3:
Despite voter education efforts,
people are still staying away

from the polls this presidential
primary season.

NEWSCASTER 4:
The decline in voting has been
especially dramatic

among Blacks, many of whom
see no one to vote for.

If the elections were to be held
this evening,

I wouldn't vote at all.

OBAMA:
It was a critical election.

You also had Carol Moseley Braun
on the ticket as potentially

the first African American
senator from Illinois,

and the only one
in, uh, the senate generally.

Average citizens,
working people, women,

minorities don't have
a voice there right now.

And so, uh, my election
will make a radical difference,

uh, by virtue of-- of
giving voice to those interested

-in those concerns.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: About two weeks later,
Carol Moseley Braun

won the Democratic
senate nomination,

and at that point,
I realized that

this presented an opportunity,
in Illinois, to, uh, enfranchise

and-- and engage a lot
of African American voters

that, uh, previously
had not been involved.

RADIO HOST: On the line
with me from Chicago
is Barack Obama,

State Director
of Illinois Project Vote.

OBAMA: At some point, you're
gonna have to have leadership.

Giving people some sense

that the debates
about the issues are real.

That by the time an election
comes about,

people are already plugged in.
They already feel invested.

We have victory
in our hands,

we just have to hold on to it.

(CROWD CHEERING)

CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN:
There was such a tradition
in this country,

particularly with
the Great Migration,

of Black people not getting
involved in electoral politics.

And so, Project Vote said
we're gonna take the message out

to these people
in the communities,

and explain to them why
not only is it their right,

but their obligation.

OBAMA: There's the old story
that when America is sick,

Black folks have pneumonia.

Since Black folks
are suffering even more

than the general population,

what that means is
we're even more cynical

and more skeptical
about the political process.

But citizens can't just remove
themselves from that process.

We've got to get involved

if we're going to make
a difference.

NEWSCASTER 5: The election is
five days away, but business
is already brisk

at the Chicago Board of Election
Commissioners office.

A record number of people
have registered to vote

in the Chicago area.

VOTER: All the programs
that's out right now

saying, "You should vote,"
I've been listening to them,

and now it's time
to take a-- make a stand.

MOSELEY BRAUN: Project Vote had
a lot of grassroots people

active in getting people
signed up to vote,

and they were very successful
doing it.

And I hope that my election
opened up doors for women,

for people of color, for people
from working class backgrounds.

I hope that it cut through some
of these barriers.

INTERVIEWER:
Do you have any plans
to run for political office?

You know, uh, not at the moment.

Uh, I've only been married,
uh, a year,

and so I need to spend
a lot of time with my wife.

♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

I've got a real full plate
at the moment.

I teach a course at the,
uh, University of Chicago,

uh, in civil rights law.

You know, I'm working
in my law practice.

We do a lot of
employment discrimination cases,

voting rights cases.

That keeps me pretty busy.

If you end up being
fortunate enough

to-- to have the opportunity
to serve, uh,

it's because you've got a track
record of, uh, of service

in-- in the community.

Uh, and I think, uh, right now,

I'm still building up
that track record.

INTERVIEWER:
Tell me about the book
that you are working on

about race relations.

Well, you know, it's, uh,

it's actually changed
quite a bit.

As I wrote it,
it ended up becoming

much more of
a personal reflection

on what it means for me
to be an African American.

And a reflection on my father,
in particular,

who passed away
quite a while ago.

CONNIE MARTINSON:
My guest today is truly
the epitome of that word

"African American."

He has written
a wonderful autobiography,

as well as a look at America
called Dreams From My Father.

My guest is Barack Obama.

I did say African American,
and the fact that your father,

who also was Barack Obama,
uh, was from Kenya.

OBAMA: That's right.
My father returned to Kenya,

and essentially became sort
of a mythic figure to me.

-MARTINSON: The icon. Yeah.
-An icon.

-Your father comes back
once when you're ten.
-OBAMA: Right.

And it isn't till years later
that you learn the real story

-of what happened to him
back in Kenya.
-OBAMA: Right.

And then because
he starts to speak up

and because of the changing
political scheme.

You know, the, uh-- uh--
he ends up

being blacklisted
from the government,

uh, and, uh, in fact dies
a very bitter and lonely man.

Uh, and, uh--

There is a tragic element
to that

and-- and part of what
I had to come to terms with

in writing the book,

and in discovering
that entire side of my life

and my family, was to--
was to really recognize

that, uh, he had been shaped
by many of the forces

that I had-- was struggling
with as a youth.

Uh, that he, uh, as an African,

uh, although was not
genetically mixed...

-MARTINSON: Mm-hmm.
-...uh, so to speak,

culturally was caught
in this cross-pollinization,

this hybridization,

this-- this movement
from traditional African society

into suddenly being catapulted
into the modern age.

And-- and, uh,
I think in the end,

he was not ever quite able
to completely bridge

that-- that schism between
modern life and traditional life

that probably, uh,
is a schism that,

for him, at least,
was just as powerful

as any schism
between Black and white.

-Good evening.
-ATTENDEES: Good evening.

Thank you very much.

I, uh...

The section that I'm going to
read for you right now,

uh, takes place
during my adolescence,

and I'm a very angry man,
uh, young man,

partly because my father
is absent,

partly because I'm trying
to struggle--

What does it mean exactly
to be a Black man in America?

"The only thing you could choose
as your own

was withdrawal into a smaller
and smaller coil of rage,

until being Black meant
only the knowledge

of your own powerlessness
and your own defeat.

And the final irony,
should you refuse this defeat

and lash out at your captors,

they would have a name
for that too.

A name that could
cage you just as good.

Like paranoid.
Or militant.

Or violent. Or nigger."

What-- what I discovered--

and I tried to write about this
in the book--

is that, I guess,
that the solution for me

to that sense of isolation

was to throw myself
into a community.

Uh, to basically, uh, decide--

And I-- it wasn't articulated
in my mind at the time,

but in retrospect,
I can see what I was doing.

Um, I ended up, um...

deciding that my individual fate

had to be tied
to something larger than myself.

Okay, thank you very much!

(CROWD APPLAUDING)

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER:
Hyde Park, Chicago, is a place

where you find your people
pretty quickly.

In those years
it was all about dinner,

and dinner
at other people's houses,

and dinner with a lot of people
around the table.

And I think that all of us
were trying to figure out,

uh, what we wanted to do
with the opportunities

that we had, um,
to be useful people.

♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

ALEXANDER: When I met him,
I honestly thought

he was the smartest person
I had ever met.

To all of my other brilliant
friends, I am sorry. (LAUGHS)

There was just a way
that his mind took things

and processed them.

That his curiosity was probing
and deep and relentless.

So, I knew that whatever
he wanted to do,

um, that he could do.

MARTY NESBITT: I was out
in the front yard raking leaves,

and he drove by, he stopped,
and he said, "Oh, you know what?

You don't have my book,
you ought to read my book."

He didn't say, you know--
He didn't give me

any context around it
or anything.

I didn't know anything about him

other than that
we would play ball together

and he was married to Michelle.
And I started to read it,

and I opened the door
and I called my wife

and I said, "Anita...

Barack is an incredible writer.

And he's really smart."
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)

DAVID AXELROD:
I met Barack Obama

as a favor to a friend.

She said,
"I know this sounds crazy,

but I think
he could be the first, uh,

first Black president
of the United States."

And I thought, "Well,
that was pretty grandiose."

I sat down with him,

and while I didn't necessarily
walk away

humming hail to the chief,

it was an interesting
conversation.

I didn't know exactly what his
plans were,

but I knew that he was learning
the system.

Because we weren't actually
sitting at that table

where the power was,
I think at some point,

he realized that he needed
to be at the table.

Chicago was a hotbed

of political
progressive politics.

And I think he was inspired
by that.

We lived in the same area
of Chicago,

and I would see him a lot.

I thought he was a nice-looking
young man, pleasant.

Then all of a sudden,
I heard that he was running

for the state senate spot.

OBAMA: You know, I--
I wasn't really focused

on running for office, per se.

I think, I've been
continually experimenting

with, uh,
ways to bring about change.

I tried community organizing,

I've worked
as a civil rights attorney.

And the idea of participating
in the legislative process

became more interesting
the more I saw the limits

of social change
through the courts.

And then what happened
was a vacancy came up

in the state senate seat
in the district where I live.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

WASHINGTON: Alice Palmer,
a long-time revered

South Side state senator,

had decided that she wanted
to run for higher office

for a congressional seat.

-I'm Alice Palmer, how are you?
-ATTENDEE: How are you?

Fine, thank you.

WASHINGTON: She had promised him
that she would support him.

Well, she lost the primary,
so she wanted her seat back.

She wanted Obama to step back,

and he was not going
to step back.

They'd made a deal.

There was a lot of anger
and tension

and division
in the community about that,

because in the African American
community,

politicians believe that you
should always wait your turn...

and many voters feel
that way too.

BOBBY RUSH:
I think Obama came to Chicago

with the thought and ambition
of getting into politics.

WASHINGTON:
He was extremely ambitious.

Nobody writes a book
about their life

when they're 30 years old.

Unless he's got a plan.

OBAMA: It was when I started
doing Project Vote in 1992

that I came to appreciate
the need

for a more effective
political movement

within
the African American community.

I represent the children
of the civil rights movement

who've had opportunities
to study

and advance as a consequence

of the sacrifices
that our parents made.

And that provides
this generation

with special advantages...

but also special burdens

or responsibilities that,
maybe, we haven't fulfilled yet.

VALERIE JARRETT:
Barack Obama's mother's death

came quite suddenly.

Her cancer was quite aggressive,

and she wasn't expected to die
as quickly as she did.

DAVID REMNICK:
The compounding tragedy

was that he didn't make it
in time to say goodbye.

He was involved with politics
in such a way

that he felt he couldn't quite
strip himself away

and he got there, you know,
Hawaii's far, far away,

and he just got there--
got there late.

And then he spread her ashes
in the Pacific Ocean

and that was that.

JARRETT: He was shocked by it.
Devastated.

They were very close,

and I think he felt
that his search

for his father
perhaps overlooked

just how fundamentally important

his mother had been
to his shaping.

OBAMA: She was, uh, just
a wonderfully sweet spirit,

and, uh, somebody who was,
at her core,

generous and thoughtful,

and somebody who, uh, rooted
for the underdog, I think.

She ended up working
as a, uh, development officer

for international aid
organizations.

She had a terrific sense
of empathy,

an ability to step
in somebody else's shoes

and imagine how they might
be feeling.

And I think that aspect of her
is probably the thing

that was her greatest gift
to me.

I think that my interest
in public service

in part, you know,

grew out of those early
lessons that she taught me.

And, uh, ultimately, I was
elected as the state senator

for the 13th legislative
district.

CLERK:
We have Senate Bill 1645.

Madam Secretary,
please read the bill.

SECRETARY: I move to concur
with the House in the adoption

of their amendment number one
to Senate Bill 1645.

Motion filed by Senator Obama.

The basic intent of this bill
is to maintain the status quo

with respect to who qualifies

for time and a half overtime pay
and who does not.

It is true and this was
discussed in committee...

DAVID MARANISS:
Barack's experience

as a state senator

is underappreciated
in terms of his evolution.

Most ambitious politicians
in Chicago

would take the route of going
to the city council

and trying to become mayor
and going through city politics.

But that's a hornet's nest.

He was able to sort of learn
his way

through all of the dynamics
of politics in Springfield.

OBAMA: By the time I arrived,
you had a divided legislature,

and-- and discovered
that most of my bills

were going to get killed
before... (CHUCKLES SOFTLY)

...they had even been debated.

In fact,
I remember the first time

I spoke on the floor
of the senate.

One of my Republican colleagues
came up to me

and said, "You know, Barack,
that was a wonderful speech.

I think you changed
a lot of minds,

but you changed no votes."

AXELROD: He came to talk to me
about running for Congress.

He was in the state senate,
he was restless, uh,

wanted to go to Washington.

And he thought that
he could challenge Bobby Rush,

who was the sitting congressman
of the district.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

AXELROD: Bobby in '99
had run for mayor of Chicago.

And got badly beaten.

And Obama sensed
an opportunity,

felt he could contribute more.

REPORTER:
State Senator Barack Obama

says the biggest issue

in the first district race
is leadership.

This was Harold Washington's
seat.

And, unfortunately, we have an
incumbent who has not lived up

to that standard of leadership.

I mean, I'm thinking that Obama
and I are buddies.

You know, we know each other.

We, uh,
walked down the same walk.

We bopped to the same tune,
all right?

And then all of a sudden,
the guy challenges me,

you know, out of the blue!

(CROWD CHEERING)

RUSH:
His biggest challenge is getting
his name recognition up.

I maintain that I got
great name recognition

because I'm an activist.
I'm here.

FRED HAMPTON: Here's a man
that represents the people.

Bad motherfucker. Bobby Rush.

(CROWD CHEERING)

Bobby Rush is a beloved man,
was then, is still now.

A Black Panther.

A man who is closely connected
to Fred Hampton,

a young revolutionary who lost
his life in Chicago,

essentially set up
and murdered by the FBI

and the local police.

They murdered Fred Hampton.
Uh, they're out to murder me.

They-- It's like
they'll murder anybody

that's Black in this country.

Bobby, what's the next move
for you personally?

I haven't-- My-- I'm--
There's no "personally" anymore.

I'm a people's man, so I do
whatever the people decide.

There's nothing personal
about it whatsoever.

INTERVIEWER:
Okay. Thank you very much.

I represented street people,
common people, poor people...

the hungry, the outcasts.

I know who I am.

I know where I-- I stand
at with my community. All right?

They don't always say it right.
Sometimes they call me Alabama.

-(CROWD LAUGHING)
-They call me Yo Mama...

-(CROWD CHUCKLE)
-...but it's Obama.

I was probably one of two
Baptist pastors to endorse him

when he ran against Bobby Rush.

And, um, you know,
the big thing with that was

that he wasn't Black enough.

♪ (INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

DYSON: Who are you?

You know, a lot of Black people,
"This Ivy League person.

Who's your mama?
Who's your daddy?

What's your background?

Uh, what's your weird way
of talking?

What is that weird name
you've got?

You're going to come in
and challenge

our beloved Bobby Rush?"

This is viewed as a key
leadership post

for the African American
community.

And I think that
what's more important

for the constituents
of this district

is somebody who's accessible,
somebody who's energetic,

and somebody who's got a vision
for the future.

Look, man,
I fed hungry children.

I put myself in the crosshairs
of the police department

for my community.

I was on the right side
of history.

So, when did that become
old news,

and to who is it old news?

Hi, how are you?
I'm running for Congress.

First Congressional District.

RUSH: It might not be
relevant to you,

but it's certainly relevant
to those people

who you're asking
to vote against me.

Barack Obama, running for
First Congressional District.

REPORTER:
A still-hopeful Barack Obama

worked the room tonight
greeting constituents

-with hugs and handshakes.
-What's going on, man?

How you doing?
Thanks for coming.

There is a--
a political structure

around any
incumbent congressman,

uh, that is formidable.

I heard somebody
was giving you a hard time.

REPORTER: Touted as
a rising political star,

if he were to win
this congressional race,

he'd be a spokesperson
for African Americans

both locally and nationally.

Some say he appeals
to a broader range of people,

and that works well in Congress.

Well, we've done a wonderful job
in terms of putting, uh,

a message about
a new politics out here.

We're very proud of that.

Uh, and we think that we really
have something to build on

for the future...

How are you? Good to see you.

Well, he had credentials.
Very impressive credentials.

But he didn't have
community credibility.

He was a nice fellow

and he is a very impressive
individual.

And, um, I-- I-- But I won.
(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)

♪ (INTENSE MUSIC FADES) ♪

INTERVIEWER: People say
the one political misstep

he made was running
against Bobby Rush.

-Mm-hmm.
-INTERVIEWER:
There was a whole question of,

he-- he couldn't really relate
to the Black community.

-He wasn't Black enough.
-Mm-hmm.

INTERVIEWER: Did that raise any
of these old struggles

that he'd had even as a teenager

-as to who he was?
-No, I mean-- Right. He--

He grew out of that.

And when you grow up
and you become an adult,

you realize that you are
who you are

and people have to connect
with that or not.

And when people
bring that issue up,

my-- my sense is it's more
their issue than it is his.

I've grown up in this community.
I'm as Black as it gets.

I was born on the South Side,

I come from an, obviously,
Black family,

we weren't rich, you know.

I'd put my Blackness up
against anybody's Blackness

in this state, okay?
And Barack is a Black man.

And he's done more in terms
of meeting his commitments

and sticking his neck out
for this community

than many people
who criticize him.

And I can say that
because I'm Black. (CHUCKLES)

My view has always been,
Barack is who he is.

People need to see that,

and if they want him,
they should vote for him.

If they don't, we move on.

I still have a certain level
of cynicism about politics,

-but I believe in him.
-(SENATORS APPLAUD)

He's done an outstanding job
as a state senator.

He has lived out his values
in that way,

and I'm proud of what he's done.

AXELROD:
In the summer of 2002,

I got a call
from State Senator Obama,

who told me
that he wanted to run

for the United States Senate,

and it-- it was sort of
an existential moment for him,

uh, because he had lost the race
to Bobby Rush by some 30 points,

he was broke,

uh, and though he was
widely admired,

he also was thought to be
damaged political goods.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

He said, "I told Michelle
I've got one race left in me.

If it doesn't work out,
I'll go out and make a living,

but I think I want to take
a shot at this Senate seat."

WRIGHT: He came to talk to me
about running.

He was having qualms. Why?

'Cause he might lose?
No, because he might win.

And if he won,
that would give him

even less time
with Sasha and Malia.

One of his biggest joys in life

was putting them to bed
at night.

They want a daddy,
not a public figure.

I don't get any more joy
than I do

when I'm, uh,
when I'm playing with them

or just watching them.

You know, they're, uh,
they're better than a movie.

We want a man like Barack Obama
to be in office.

Uh, someone who's prepared,
who's worked in the community,

who has integrity,

who's doing it
for the right reason.

(ATTENDEES APPLAUDING)

MICHELLE OBAMA: I always say
I take off my wife hat

and put on my citizen hat,

and say, "Well,
if I weren't his wife,

would I want him to run?"

And the answer
is absolutely yes.

JEFF BERKOWITZ:
Let me turn to Laura Washington.

Let's play a little hardball,
and you ask the first question.

WASHINGTON: Well, I'm wondering
how he's gonna edge out
Carol Moseley Braun.

How are you gonna
convince her not to run,

and if she does run,
how are you going to win

with two African Americans
splitting a-- a good part

of both of your bases?

Well, there is no denying

that, uh, ethnicity plays a role
in Democratic Party politics.

You know,
I think that's inescapable.

Uh, I--

I don't think too much about
the other candidate's potential,

uh, in the race.
My job is to think about

how do I put together a team
and a message

that effectively projects, uh,

why I think
I'd make a good US senator.

♪ (MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

I worked very hard in the Senate
to produce for my entire state.

I thought I tried to do
a good job...

but I didn't win re-election.

WASHINGTON: There were people
that wanted Carol Moseley Braun

to run for Senate again.
There were women in particular

who still wanted to see her
back in office

and felt it was still her turn.

And Obama
was not Carol Moseley Braun.

REPORTER:
The latest on what's turning

into a very crowded race
for the Senate.

And this would have represented
going back.

PHIL PONCE: A few days ago,
former US senator
Carol Moseley Braun

said she would not try
to get her old job back.

And that decision meant
another Democrat

was in the race instead.

REPORTER:
State Senator Barack Obama

is the second
to make it official.

...that I will be a candidate

for the United States Senate
in 2004.

(CROWD APPLAUDING)

REPORTER: The probable candidate
to reckon with at this point

is investment banker Blair Hull,

who is reportedly willing
to spend

up to 40 million dollars
of his own fortune

to finance his Senate bid.

Do the other hopefuls
have the resources

to bankroll their own races?

I certainly don't.

Thank you all!

REPORTER: In any case,
it is a season of proclaiming,

even though the primary
is more than 13 months

down the pipe.

-AXELROD: We cool?
-CREW MEMBER: Mm-hmm.

AXELROD: Barack, let's start
with the question

that you always say
you get first, which is...

-Of course.
-AXELROD: What's

-What's with the name?
-(LAUGHS)

AXELROD:
What's the deal with that name?

Uh... (LAUGHS) Let's start over.

AXELROD: This was the year
after Osama bin Laden

took out the World Trade Center.

And there was this thought
in the political community

that the name Barack Obama
would not be sailable.

In fact, there was someone
who suggested to him

that he run as Barry Obama,

which was his nickname
when he was a kid.

He just laughed that off,
and said, "Yeah, that's fine.

I know it probably tests better
but my name's Barack.

That's how we're going to run."

OBAMA: When I was young,
you know, there weren't that

many people with, uh,
African names.

So, these days, you know,

there are Shaquilles
and Maliks,

but, uh, there were only Toms
and Joes, uh,

when I was growing up.

So, uh, my family
actually called me "Barry"

up until my father passed away,
uh, when I was, uh, 20.

And, uh, at that point, I--

I decided
that I should use the name

that I was born with,
and have used it ever since.

AXELROD: Out of respect?

Out of respect for my father,
yeah.

Now, much-- much to the regret
of political consultants.

-AXELROD: Exactly.
-Yeah. (CHUCKLES)

Senator Barack Obama.

Thank you very much,
I appreciate it.

Sorry to interrupt your meal.

TA-NEHISI COATES:
When, in his book,

Barack Obama says,
"You can't call me--

Don't call me Barry anymore."
(LAUGHS) That's familiar.

That's familiar. I mean,
a decision to say,

"I am Barack,"
you know what I mean?

You think about, like,
Frederick Douglas, you know,

born Frederick Bailey,
recreating himself.

Malcolm Little, you know,
becoming Malcolm X.

You know, myself, you know,
my own name... (LAUGHS)

...you know, is this attempt
for Black folks

to, you know, sort of reclaim,

you know, some--
some sort of identity.

WASHINGTON:
One of the interesting things

that I heard a lot
about was, is he really Black?

And this was different from
the "He's not Black enough."

I was hearing this from whites.

What makes him Black?
His mother was white.

How does he get
to be a Black guy,

and how does he get
to be a Black senator

when he doesn't even really have
an African American background?

I think it-- it said a lot
about race in this country,

and the fact that,
particularly whites,

didn't really understand
our racial heritage.

Senator Obama,
how does being biracial

influence the kinds of issues
that matter to you?

Well, it-- You know, I--

One of the things I think
that I've always felt

is that, uh, I--
I'm hopeful about America,

and although race I think
is at the center

of the American dilemma,
and it always has been,

I think that it's also
our opportunity,

because I think America is--
is, by nature, a hybrid culture.

Everybody comes here.
We all merge together.

We-- we fight, we struggle,
we battle, but, ultimately,

there's some common good
that binds us together.

And I think that I'm always
very sensitive,

in the kinds
of issues I work on,

to focus on, uh, those issues

that we all hold in common,
issues of fairness, justice, uh,

the ability to-- to provide a
better opportunity for our kids.

That's the kind of message,
hopefully, that comes across

during my campaign.

REPORTER: The Illinois primary
is less than two weeks away,

and campaigning is peaking.

REPORTER: Just how has a guy,
who two months ago

garnered only 14 percent
of the vote
in the Democratic polls,

become a double-digit
frontrunner?

Yeah. You're gonna win!
We've gotta vote for you!

I know that my voters
know my track record

and-- and my plans
for Washington

because, uh, when your name
is Barack Obama,

you don't get any free votes.

If Bush gets re-elected,

even if we've got
a Democratic Senate,

then all we're gonna be able
to do is play defense.

It's gonna be hard
to play offense.

AXELROD: He had a young man
who traveled with him

who called me from the road.

He was down
in deep Southern Illinois,

closer to, uh, Little Rock
than Chicago

in a small town in a VFW hall,

and the kid said,
"Boy, it went over great."

Obama called me that night
and I said,

"Gee, I--
I heard it went great."

I really appreciate it,
thank you for taking the time.

It's very kind of you.

And he said,
"Why do you sound so surprised?"

And I said, "I don't know,

a Black guy named Barack Obama
from the South Side of Chicago.

I thought it might be
a little challenging."

And he said, "No, no.
You don't get it.

We'd talk about my grandfather
who marched in Patton's army,

and my grandmother who was
a Rosie the Riveter,

and we get along great."

PONCE: Mr. Obama,
one of your supporters

has raised the concern
that perhaps

you're not connecting
with African American voters

as much as you should.

Well, look, the African American
community isn't monolithic

any more
than the white community

or Latino community
or the Asian community is--

is monolithic, and I think
that's a healthy thing.

That's a part of our democracy.

I-- I certainly don't think
that I would want

to restrict my support
to African Americans

any more than Dan
would want to restrict, uh,

hi-- his support to whites.

Part of what I think makes
the Democratic Party rich

is the fact that we have
to build coalitions.

PONCE: Mr. Hull,
you moved to Chicago
in 1980, is that right?

MICHELE NORRIS: I was doing
a story about Chicago

and the Democratic Party's
ability to reach voters

through its messaging.

And I was calling around
and I was saying,

"Who should I talk to?"

Several people said,
"You need to talk to

this guy named Barack Obama."

And it was really interesting,

he was saying things
that were in some ways

in line
with the Democratic Party,

but he had a different way
of thinking,

and he had a very expansive
way of thinking.

And he was thinking
that they needed--

they, the Democrats, um,
and he, as a politician,

needed to try to message
in a way

that reached all voters.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Today's newspaper right here.
Obama wins the primary.

It is history today, right here,
in today's newspaper.

-Read all about it!
-Thank you, I appreciate it.

-Fantastic, brother, Keep going.
-Thank you, thank you,
thank you.

-Congratulations, Trinitarian!
-Thank you so much.
Hey, fellow Trinitarian.

Thank you very much.

MICHELLE OBAMA:
There are many reasons
why this election is important,

and unfortunately,
one of them is that

there are no, uh,
people of color

in the highest governing body
in the land, and it's 2004.

And I don't think
that anyone would think

that we would still
be saying that

in this day and age.

He's gotten attention

because after winning
the primary so soundly,

he could potentially be,
you know,

the only African American
candidate

in the United States Senate,
and that's news.

That's huge!

I think the people of Illinois
will make it happen.

-Good morning. How are you?
-REPORTER: (SHOUTING) Wait!

This is a TV moment.
What do you think?

Watch yourself. Watch yourself.

MICHELLE:
He's focused on the issues

and he has been driven
by a positive message of hope,

and the notion that people--

We are all connected
in some way,

and I think that people
want to hear that now.

Some of you may know
that my first job

out of law school was directing
a project called Project Vote.

You know, my first love
is getting people

to participate
in the political process

because all the other stuff
we do is dependent on folks

being engaged
and feeling a part,

and feeling that
their participation

is actually going
to make a difference.

If all of us keep our eye
on the ball,

if all of us work hard
between now and November 2nd,

I have no doubt John Kerry
is gonna be the president,

John Edwards is gonna be
the vice president,

and Barack Obama's gonna be
the next US senator.

-So, thank you so much, guys.
-(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

I appreciate it. Thank you.

I appreciate it.

After he won the primary,
there was a fundraiser.

And John Kerry,
who was poised to become

the Democratic nominee
for President, came in to speak.

There were only two
other speakers.

One was Rich Daley,
the mayor of Chicago.

The other was Barack Obama.

And Obama gave a rousing speech.

(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

AXELROD:
In late June, we got a call

from the manager
of the Kerry campaign...

and she said, "We'd like you
to be the keynote speaker

at the Democratic Convention."

He said, "I'd be honored."

And as soon as he hung up,
he said,

"I know what I want to say."

It's good to see you.
How are you?

AXELROD:
And, for the next few weeks

as he drove around campaigning

or was at the state senate
in between votes,

he'd be scribbling notes down.

One day this fax came,
and it was the draft.

And, I read the first page,
and handed it to my wife.

I read the second page
and handed it to my--

By the third page,
I-- I just turned to her

and I said,
"This is going to be one

of the great convention
speeches of all time."

(MALIA OBAMA SCREAMING)

BRIAN WILLIAMS:
The Democratic Party today

made it clear they think
they have discovered

the biggest potential
political star of either party

to come out of Illinois
since Abe Lincoln.

His name is Barack Obama,
and he's running for US Senate.

The party announced today

he'll be the keynote speaker
at their Boston convention.

REPORTER: Democrats could have
picked someone more famous,

but the pros saw
something special

in Barack Obama.

MICHELLE: Barack's candidacy
isn't just energizing

the Democratic Party,
but it's energizing people

and giving them a renewed hope
for politics, period.

OBAMA: How are you?
Nice to meet you.

MICHELLE: You know, they're
tired of a politics of division,

so it's very uplifting to see
this wonderful young man

who reminds so many people
of their own sons and grandsons

regardless of race.

(MALIA LAUGHS)

TIM RUSSERT: Do you think
the Democratic Party

selected you in part
because they wanted to present

an African American,
young, rising politician?

Well, I-- I think
that John Kerry cares a lot

about diversity in the party.

And I think that certainly
made a difference.

I also think that the manner
in which we won

our primary in Illinois
was a hopeful sign,

because the conventional wisdom

was that, uh,
I would get the Black vote

and then a sliver of,
uh, a white vote,

and instead we won in places
people didn't expect us to win,

in-- in suburban areas,
in rural areas.

And it indicates that people
are really ready

for a message for change.

What they want is somebody
who has a positive message,

who has a tone in their politics
that says,

"We can disagree
with the other side

without being disagreeable."

And I think that's the kind
of message

that John Kerry
is going to be projecting

at the convention
during this week.

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

AL SHARPTON: The, uh,
Black caucus of delegates

to the 2004
Democratic Convention

had their sessions,
and they invited me to speak

'cause I was one
of the candidates
for president that year.

And they invited Mr. Obama.

And he says, "I just want
to explain to you, Reverend,

that, uh, you know, I'm doing
the keynote tomorrow night,

and I'm probably
gonna be more expansive

and unifying, uh,
than, uh, a lot of people

are-- are used to."

And I stopped him then and said,
"Don't worry, Senator,

you do what you have to do
tomorrow night

'cause you have to win
for the US Senate.

I'm gonna take care
of the brothers
and sisters tonight."

And he kind of looked at me

the way he kind of looks
his head and he laughed.

And I think that began
a relationship

where he and I understood, uh,
that we play different roles.

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you.

Let me express
my deepest gratitude

for the privilege of addressing
this convention.

Tonight is a particular honor
for me

because, let's face it,
my presence on this stage

is pretty unlikely.

JELANI COBB: When I first saw
Barack Obama, I was skeptical.

And my introduction to him
was like very many
people's introduction,

the 2004 Democratic
National Convention

where he gave
the keynote speech.

But I was intrigued,
even as I was skeptical.

OBAMA: I stand here knowing
that my story

is part
of the larger American story,

that I owe a debt to all
of those who came before me,

and that, in no other country
on Earth,

-is my story even possible.
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

AXELROD: We wanted to create
a movement that inspired people

to believe that
we could overcome

some of these really, uh,
great barriers in our politics.

That we could overcome
the cynicism.

You know, I thought
that this speech

was going to have
a galvanic effect for Obama.

Didn't realize how much until
I was in the room in Boston.

This year, in this election,

we are called to reaffirm
our values and our commitments,

to hold them
against a hard reality

and see how we are measuring up,
to the legacy of our forbearers,

and the promise
of future generations.

And fellow Americans, Democrats,
Republicans, Independents,

I say to you tonight,
we have more work to do.

SHARPTON: I was sitting
up in one of the box seats,

and I had some activists
with me.

And they were like, "Well,
why isn't he talking

about voting rights,

and why isn't he talking
about some of our issues?"

John Kerry believes in America.

And he knows
that it's not enough

for just some of us to prosper.

I understood that he had to deal

with a broad range of issues,

and that he was running
for the US Senate

to represent everybody
in Illinois.

If there is a child
on the South Side of Chicago

who can't read,
that matters to me,

even if it's not my child.

SHARPTON: And I actually got
into arguments defending him.

I would say, "Wait a minute.
We-- we cannot fight

to get our best
to the mainstream,

and then tell them,
'Don't talk to the mainstream

about mainstream issues.'"

OBAMA:
It is that fundamental belief,

I am my brother's keeper,
I am my sister's keeper,

that makes this country work.

It's what allows us to pursue
our individual dreams,

and yet still come together
as one American family.

E pluribus unum.
Out of many, one.

It's his position.
As an American politician,

his goal is to represent
the best interest

of the entire nation
from a particular position

and standpoint as a Black man,
but broadening out,

not only what that Blackness
might mean,

but how it might also encompass
and include all of America.

Now, even as we speak,

there are those
who are preparing to divide us.

The spin masters,
the negative ad peddlers,

who embrace the politics
of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight,

there is not a liberal America
and a conservative America,

there is
the United States of America.

(CROWD CHEERING)

There is not a Black America
and a white America

and Latino America
and Asian America,

there's the United States
of America.

(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: The pundits,
the pundits like to slice...

COBB: You know,
he made that statement,

"There's not a Black America
or a white America,

there's the United States
of America."

Now, that's not true.

There's totally a Black America
and a white America.

And there's a Latino America,

a gay America, a poor America,

uh, there's a America that is
disproportionately incarcerated,

there are all of those things.

We are one people,
all of us pledging allegiance

to the stars and stripes,

all of us defending
the United States of America.

COBB:
But you also had to understand

that he was speaking
aspirationally...

that people wanted to belong
to a country

in which
those were not permanent

and impermeable distinctions.

(CROWD CHEERING)

In the end--

In the end, that's what
this election is about.

Do we participate in a politics
of cynicism,

or do we participate
in a politics of hope?

CROWD: Hope!

I don't think Obama
had any illusion

that everybody
had transcended race

and had transcended
historical animosities

and all the rest,

and everybody was
in full embrace of great unity.

It was a new kind
of American optimism.

Voiced by somebody who embodied
this melding of identity.

It's the hope of slaves sitting
around a fire

singing freedom songs,

the hope of immigrants
setting out for distant shores,

the hope
of a young naval lieutenant

bravely patrolling
the Mekong Delta,

the hope of a millworker's son
who dares to defy the odds,

the hope of a skinny kid
with a funny name

who believes that America
has a place for him too.

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

DYSON:
I was there at the convention,

and it was riveting,
electrifying.

It was comparable
to King standing

at the summit of expectation
in 1963,

where he identifies
a golden thread

of the American dream
and weaves it into a tapestry

of American
democratic possibility.

Hope.

Hope in the face of difficulty.
Hope in the face of uncertainty.

The audacity of hope.

In the end, that is God's
greatest gift to us.

The bedrock of this nation.

Now, I'm not saying
that the 2004 speech

measured up to
the "I Have a Dream" speech

in terms of
rhetorical eloquence,

though it was eloquent.

Thank you very much, everybody.
God bless you.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-OBAMA: Thank you.

DYSON: But it did have
an electrifying effect

in that same way.

That was a tremendous
coming out party
for Barack Obama.

-OBAMA: Thank you.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

PANELIST: Barack Obama.

DAVID BROOKS: Well, this is why
you go into this business,

to watch a speech like that.

RICHARD SMITH:
He's the only speaker

who's come to this convention
without any expectation

because people didn't know him,
and boy, they know him now.

PANELIST: This is a guy
who transcends labels,

um, clichés, racial,
ideological, cultural.

He mixed it all up,
he reinvented it,

he gave us a whole new vision
of the United States.

-SMITH: Yeah.
-PANELIST:
This guy's going places.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-♪ (TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

Six hundred...
and fifty-six days ago...

I announced in a room
a little smaller than this--

(CROWD LAUGHING)

All right, it was a lot smaller.

That I was announcing
for the United States Senate.

And at the time,
as many of you know...

people were respectful,
but nevertheless skeptical.

They felt that in a nation
as divided as ours,

there was no possibility
that someone who looked like me

could ever aspire
to the United States Senate.

They felt that
in a fearful nation,

someone named "Barack Obama"

could never hope
to win an election.

And yet, here we stand

because we had
a different concept,

a different notion
of the American people.

And for those skeptics,

I say to them,
look at this crowd tonight.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-Look at this election today.

And I have three words for them!

-What are those words?
-ALL: Yes we can!

Thank you, Illinois, I love you!
Thank you!

Hey, guys!

ELIJAH CUMMINGS:
Good morning, everyone,

and I thank you
for joining us today

as we stand here in the midst,
once again,

of a very historic election.

(REPORTERS CLAMORING)

CUMMINGS:
I'm extremely excited to welcome

Senator-elect Barack Obama

to the Congressional
Black Caucus.

Only the third African American
since Reconstruction

to be elected
to the United States Senate.

REPORTER: This is such
a historic race. Any pressure?

Well, you know,
I don't feel pressure

in the sense that, uh,
most of the issues
that I'm concerned about

are issues that
the African American community
is concerned about.

But when it comes to
speaking out on issues

that are
of particular importance

to the African American
community,

I don't think
that's a conflict with my role

as a, uh, effective legislator
for the people of Illinois.

(REPORTERS CHATTERING)

INTERVIEWER: The expectations
are so high for you.

How do you possibly meet
those expectations?

Well, I don't think that anybody
expects me, realistically,

to single-handedly
transform politics in America,

certainly not before
I'm sworn in.

DICK CHENEY: ...that you will
bear true faith and allegiance
to the same...

GEORGE W. BUSH:
I think it's important

as we head into a new session
to confront problems...

to not pass them
on to future congresses

or a future president.

And so,
I want to confront problems,

and I will.
I'll call upon Congress

to take on... big issues.

And I look forward to working
with members

of both parties to do just that.

Am I making a right
or a left here?

AXELROD: For the first year
of his Senate tenure,

we really tried to be
very low key

for two reasons.

We didn't want to signal
to the people of Illinois

that somehow
Obama was using Illinois

as a stepping-stone
to something else.

And--
and that wasn't his intent.

We also didn't want
to aggravate his colleagues

who were naturally resentful
of all the attention.

He could've done
a Sunday show every week.

And then in late 2005,
Katrina happened.

REMNICK: In August 2005,
the Gulf is underwater.

New Orleans is underwater.

And it is very evident
that not only

are the preparations
for this abysmal,

but the racial disparity
in the way people were treated

and cared for was appalling.

And the indifference
from Washington

and other levels of government
was appalling.

INTERVIEWEE: They told us,
"Go to the Superdome.

If you want to be rescued,
go to the Superdome."

All of a sudden, now they're
telling us, "Go to the bridge."

We all have very few resources.
What are we supposed to do?

REPORTER: When asked if race
played a role in his response,

the president had
a stern answer.

My attitude is this,
the storm didn't discriminate

and neither
will the recovery effort.

DYSON: President George Bush
said that the storm

was indifferent to race.

But people who could afford
to live higher

and better were
not as vulnerable

to those who were more
in the storm's path.

So, where you lived
in the storm's path

was determined by pre-existing
economic condition.

COBB: What do you do
when you see

the richest nation in the world

and there are hundreds
and hundreds

of dead Black people
floating in the streets?

And the government,
alternately, saying

that it's powerless
to intervene in any way

that would save
these people's lives.

This was a visual reminder
of the disposability

of Black people's lives
in the United States.

Especially poor people.

The important thing for us now
is to recognize that

we have situations in America

in which race continues
to play a part,

that class continues
to play a part,

and when disaster strikes,
it tears the curtain away

from the festering problems
that we have beneath them.

And Black and white, all of us
should be concerned.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

COBB: For, I think, a lot
of African Americans,

Hurricane Katrina was like 9/11

in terms of shaking
the foundations

of their relationship
to this country.

I think that was
probably central

to the narrative that wound up
ultimately giving

Barack Obama an opportunity

to run for president
of the United States.

Hi, how are you?
Good to see you.

-How've you been?
Happy new year to you.
-Hi. Happy New Year.

Throughout 2006, the drumbeat
was building for him

to become a candidate
for president.

(CROWD APPLAUDING)

AXELROD:
We postponed a trip to Africa

because he was trying
to keep a lower profile.

Finally, in the summer of 2006,
he went.

(PEOPLE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)

OBAMA: I'm on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee

and so I wanted to make sure
that I was getting information

that would help me do
my job better as a US senator.

-We're really grateful.
-Yeah, thank you.

-Nice to see you.
-Best of luck to you guys.

-Thank you very much.
-Good. Good.

OBAMA: I think I can be helpful
in putting a different face

on US foreign policy
and the US government.

My wife and I are going
to get tested for HIV/AIDS.

So I just want everybody
to remember

that if a US senator
can get tested,

then everybody
in this crowd can get tested.

And everybody in this city
can get tested

because you need
to know your status.

(CROWD CHEERING)

I have stopped expecting things
in my life

as the wife
of Senator Barack Obama

because everything
is a surprise.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-See you, guys.

MICHELLE: But it was
completely overwhelming

to see hundreds and hundreds

and thousands and thousands
of people

just lining the streets
cheering this man, my husband.

It's sort of like, "Do you--
you know him?" (CHUCKLES)

LEADER: (SINGING)
♪ Senator Obama! ♪

ALL: (SINGING)
♪ Senator Obama... ♪

SUPPORTER:
His coming here is a message,

not only to us,
it's an inspiration,

-but to the entire world.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: Who's the artist?
Who made it?

-CROWD MEMBER: Who made it?
-OBAMA: This guy?

-Yeah.
-OBAMA: Hey!

-This is a beautiful gift.
-Thank you.

-Thank you so much.
-Welcome.

OBAMA: This is beautiful! Yeah!

Except I think he's-- he looks
better-looking than I am.

(CROWD LAUGHING)

Come here!
Come, come, come, come.

My sense is that,

as I talk
to individual Africans,

their appreciation of someone
with my background

being able to rise up
and have some influence

over the course of events
in the United States

was impressive for them.

Once we got
to my father's compound,

there wasn't much room
for family visitation...

and I think it was a little
overwhelming for my grandmother.

OBAMA: Auma, just-- just, uh,
come and translate for Granny.

AUMA: Okay.

REPORTER: How does she feel...

-(CROWD HUSHING)
-...to have the man
she raised's son here again?

(SPEAKING LUO)

(SPEAKING LUO)

She said she feels
very, very good.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

That's it.
That's a soundbite right there.

(LAUGHS) We're not wasting
any time.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-AUMA: He's not all ours.

The last time he was here,

you know,
it was all about family,

it was all about visiting us.

REPORTER: Senator,
coming back 14 years later...

AUMA: And now, we have
quite limited time with him.

This time around, we really
are just there to support him.

OBAMA: The first time
I came here...

He's-- he's on official business
and it's very, very obvious.

I didn't expect the attention
to be that great, nationally.

Because, I mean,
he's on the national news

more than the president is
at the moment.

He's very big,
and I didn't realize that.

I didn't realize how--
how important he's become.

(CROWD CHEERS)

OBAMA: (OVER PA) I'm having
a wonderful time in Kenya.

All of you are my brothers,
all of you are my sisters.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-I want to thank everybody here!

AUMA: And as his sister,
to be honest, it's very worrying

because I think
at the end of the day,

it's a lot to put
on the shoulders of one person.

And he's really quite
a young politician.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING,
SHOUTING)

OBAMA:
Hopefully, what is taken away

by, uh, Africans who met me
is that...

(CHEERING)

...an effective country

is not going to be based
on tribe,

it's not going to be based
on an ethnic majority

imposing its will.

But it's going to be based
on a credo

that says every individual,

regardless
of their background...

should have equal rights
and equal opportunity.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

OBAMA: I want to say
to everybody,

thank you, I appreciate you,

and I look forward
to coming back soon.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER,
SHOUTING)

AXELROD: The reaction
to him there was so kinetic...

and really signaled
that this guy

was a--
a globally important leader.

I-- I said to the senator,
"He can't-- can't be a senator.

I mean, who's this--
who's this young boy?"

-And, uh...
-(BOTH LAUGH)

But we're very, very impressed
with you.

You're-- you're going to be
a very credible,

-uh, presidential candidate.
-Wow.

(LAUGHS)

-No, don't get me
into trouble there with the...
-He's-- he's-- he's--

he's-- he's-- he's shy.

(BOTH LAUGH)

It became clearer and clearer
that he was going to have

to take a look at running
for president

and that he may be interested
in running for president.

Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer

had called him
into Reid's office

to say, "You really ought
to think about running."

Which shocked Obama,

that the Senate leaders would
take that step to encourage him.

And he said, "You know,
I-- I gotta think about this."

-RESIDENT: Welcome to Iowa.
-Thank you, I appreciate it.

-Did you guys practice that?
-(ALL LAUGH)

AXELROD: He went and spoke
at the Harkins Steak-Fry,

which was an iconic event.

It was a gathering place
for Democrats

and a trial setting for all

Democratic
presidential candidates.

And Obama took that place
by storm.

Right now, I'm focused on '06,

and we're gonna get
all these Democrats elected.

SUPPORTER:
Yes. That's exactly right.

And then after the election,
you know,

we're gonna then think
about '08. All right?

SUPPORTER 2: And it's gonna
take groups like...

JOHN LEWIS: I invited him
to come to Atlanta.

We walked downtown Atlanta
from my office for lunch.

And along the way
people kept saying,

"Mr. Obama,
are you going to run?

Are you going to run?"

And he just sort of, uh, said,
"Oh, maybe. I don't know."

He took a seat
in the little restaurant...

and the waiters and waitresses,

other people
just kept coming up to him.

They said, "Run, Mr. Obama.
Run. Run."

I was sitting in my office, and
he came in unannounced, um...

White Sox cap on, blue jeans.

I-- I think most people
in the office

didn't even see him
passing through.

And he plopped down in a chair
and said,

"You know, I'm close to making
a decision to do this."

I told him,
"My concern for you, Barack,

is not that you're gonna lose.
It's that you're gonna win."

♪ (THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BARACK OBAMA: I stand
before you today

to announce my candidacy
for President

of the United States
of America.

(CROWD CHEERS)

SPEAKER:
Early in the campaign,

Black people were feeling
somewhat neglected.

Is he going to represent us?
Is he going to take
our issues seriously?

People felt he wasn't
Black enough.

DAVID AXELROD:
McCain's crowds turned uglier.

OBAMA: The discussion
of race in this campaign

has taken a particularly
divisive turn.

This is not a man
who sees America

the way that you and I
see America!

(CROWD CHEERS)

A Black man from Kenya

and a white woman from Kansas,

and in no other country on Earth
is my story even possible.

I was interested in issues
of social change,

and I tried
community organizing.

I worked
as a civil rights attorney.

I've been continually
experimenting

with ways to bring about change.

He was restless,
he was broke.

Wanted to go to Washington.

BOBBY RUSH:
Well, he had credentials,

but didn't have
community credibility.

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: Who are you?

You know, a lot of Black people,
"This Ivy League person.

Who's ya mama? Who's ya daddy?
What's your background?"

JELANI COBB:
Where I first saw Barack Obama

was the 2004
Democratic National Convention

where he gave
the keynote speech.

There is not a liberal America
and a conservative America.

There is the United States
of America.

That was a tremendous coming out
party for Barack Obama.

DAVID AXELROD: It became clearer
that he might be interested

in running for president.

I told him my concern for you,
Barack,

is not that you're gonna lose,
it's that you're gonna win.

INTERVIEWER:
Okay, you're rolling?

You, uh-- Obviously, you put
a lot of thought

into, uh,
the decision to do this.

Have you given thought to,
when you're successful,

what would you want people
to say...

-Yeah.
-...about how America

was different than the day
you walked in the door?

Well, I-- I don't think
that we're going to solve

all of our problems
in eight years,

uh, or ten years.

You know, one of the things
about life,

both for each of us
and for the country as a whole,

is that there're always
going to be new challenges.

There are always going to be
new difficulties.

But I hope that at the end
of an Obama administration,

people will look back and say
"We changed our politics," uh,

so that people could take pride
in their government again

and could feel
that the government

was working for the people
and not just for the few.

That, at the end
of an Obama administration,

this country's
a little more fair,

and a little more just.

That our economy
is a little more balanced

and that people have
a-- a slightly better chance

of achieving the American dream.

And if we set this country
on the right trajectory now,

then we-- we won't have solved
every problem,

but we will have laid
the foundation

for future generations
to continue

what's been this
great experiment in democracy.

♪ (THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BARACK OBAMA: So this is
the Old State Capitol.

REPORTER: One thing you can say
with certainty

about Barack Obama is that
there has never been

another presidential candidate
like him.

He is ambitious
and just daring enough

to invite comparisons to one
of the few American presidents

who was elected with even
less political experience

than he has.

STEVE KROFT: Three years ago,
you were a state legislator

here in Springfield.

What makes you think
that you're qualified

to be president
of the United States?

It-- You know, I think we're
in a moment of history

where... probably
the most important thing

we need to do is to bring
the country together.

-Nice to meet you. Hi.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

OBAMA: And, one of the skills
that I bring to bear

is being able to pull together

the different strands
of American life

and focus on what we have
in common.

Hi, how are you?

-I'm Hillary Clinton...
-(CROWD CHEERING)

REPORTER 2:
Senator Hillary Clinton
has burst

onto the campaign field.

I'm running for president,
and I'm in it to win it

-with your help!
-(CROWD CHEERING)

REPORTER 3:
A recent CBS news poll shows

that Black voters,
who could provide the key

to winning early
Democratic primaries,

are weary of Obama.

How important is race
in defining yourself?

I am rooted in
the African American community,

-but I'm not defined by it.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

OBAMA: I am comfortable
in my racial identity,

but, uh, that's not all I am.

REPORTER 3: The stage is set
for tomorrow's announcement.

Senator Barack Obama
will make it official.

He is in this race
for president.

And while he has never
positioned himself

as "the Black candidate"...

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-...the question of his race

is, of course, and will continue
to be much discussed

and debated, especially
among African Americans.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-KROFT: You think
the country is ready

-for a Black president?
-Yes.

You don't think
it's going to hold you back?

Well-- No. You know, the--

I think i--
if I don't win this race, uh,

it will be
because of other factors.

It's-- It's going to be
because I have not shown

to the American people

a vision for where
the country needs to go

that, uh, that they can embrace.

JEREMIAH WRIGHT:
I was scheduled the next morning

to be in Springfield.

Due to the implication,
Senator Obama called me.

He called me three times
that day.

He was very worried
about my prayer. (CHUCKLES)

And I said, "Why?"

He said, "You know,
I go to Iowa the next day,

don't say anything
in your prayer

that's gonna upset farmers."

And I said, man,
I'm the one talking about

how you brought
Southern Illinois together

to stop distrusting
and mistrusting Chicago.

I wouldn't do that in a prayer.

He called back,
"David's worried." Axelrod.

"David's worried.
Are you-- Are you sure?"

I said, "I'm straight."

The third call, he said, "Rev...

Rolling Stone has got
their hands

on one of your sermons...

and David feels that
if I take you out

on the stage with me

to open up the ceremony
with a prayer,

the press will only focus
on you.

You know, you can be
over the top sometimes."

I said,
"What are you talking about?"

-♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

...oppressions.

JEREMIAH WRIGHT: I'm thinking,
what have I done?

What have I said?

What sermon of mine
have you heard

that's over the top?

Maybe we need
to declare war on racism.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-WRIGHT: He said,

"I still want you to pray for me
and my family.

Can you do that
before I go out?"

I said, "Yes, I can do that."

He said,
"I'll see you in the morning."

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

WRIGHT:
I landed in Springfield.

There was a car waiting for me
that took me to the Capitol.

We joined hands in a circle,
and I prayed for the family,

I prayed for him,

I prayed
a non-partisan prayer...
(CHUCKLES)

...and asked
that the candidate...

most dedicated to the principles
of the founders

would be elected,

and that God would keep him
and his family safe.

Secret Service then took Barack
out to the platform.

I walked up with Michelle
and stood next to her

as he announced.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-It was here in Springfield,

where North, South, East
and West come together,

that I was reminded
of the essential decency

of the American people.

Where I came to believe
that through this decency,

we can build
a more hopeful America.

And that is why, in the shadow
of the Old State Capitol,

where Lincoln once called
on a house divided

to stand together,

where common hopes
and common dreams still live,

I stand before you today
to announce

-my candidacy...
-(CROWD CHEERING)

...for President
of the United States of America.

AL SHARPTON: When he made
the announcement

that day in Illinois,
at the same time in Virginia

there was
a Black Agenda Conference.

That I was there.

SHARPTON: I wish, you know,
all of this about,

uh-- uh, our friend, Barack,
announcing today,

I wish Obama had announced here.

-Because Lincoln--
-(CROWD CHEERING)

Lincoln did not free us,

the abolitionist movement
freed us.

And I was not yet there
supporting him.

We've got to quit
giving the wrong people credit

for our history.

(CROWD CHEERING)

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON:
Black leaders
were kind of resentful

'cause he kind
of did an inrun

around Black leadership.

Most Black people
who rise in Black communities

have to come through
and kiss the ring

of the Black political
dignitaries and potentates.

-Obama leap frogged over them.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

By ourselves,
this change will not happen.

Divided, we are bound to fail.

But the life of a tall, gangly,
self-made Springfield lawyer

tells us that a different future
is possible.

(CROWD CHEERING)

CORNEL WEST: He makes
the announcement at Springfield,

tied to the legacy
of Abraham Lincoln,

which is a rich one.
So, we-- we understood--

Okay, I mean,
political calculation,

every politician has to do that.

And you don't want to alienate
your white fellow citizens

-coming out of the box.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

He tells us that there is power
in words.

He tells us that there's power
in conviction.

That beneath all the differences
of race and region,

faith and station
we are one people.

WEST: He's got large numbers
of white brothers and sisters

who have fears and anxieties,

and he's got to speak to them
in such a way

that he holds us at arm's length
enough to say he loves us,

but doesn't get too close
to scare them off.

-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
-So, he's walking
this tightrope.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-I want us to take up

the unfinished business
of perfecting our union

and building a better America!

I'm not for or against him
as a brother,

if there's any
white supremacist perception

of Barack, I defend him. Why?
'Cause I hate white supremacy.

But he's gotta be accountable.

And starting off
in Springfield, Illinois,

is not impressive to me.

-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
-Hey.

He called me up.
He said "Professor West,

I-- I heard what you said
about my speech,

why did you say it?" I said,
I said it because I believed it.

(CROWD CHEERING)

WEST: He said "I was wondering
whether you would work with me?"

I said, "I've got one question.

What is your relation
to the legacy

-of Martin Luther King, Jr.?"
-CROWD: Barack Obama!

WEST: "And how
will your campaign

enact the struggle
against poverty,

militarism, racism,
and materialism?

Those are the evils
that Martin Luther King, Jr. saw

right before he was murdered."

I can still sing
"We Shall Overcome!"

We shall overcome
because the arc

of the moral universe is long

-but it bends towards justice.
-...bends towards justice.

-It bends towards justice.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

WEST: He was very honest
with me and he said,

"Professor West, you know that
I'm-- I'm not as radical
as you are,

but I do see myself
directly connected

to the legacy
of Martin Luther King, Jr."

I said, "That sounds wonderful
to me."

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

-Hillary!
-(CROWD CHEERING)

REPORTER: Forty-two years ago,
it would have been unimaginable.

Two Democratic
presidential contenders,

one a woman,
another an African American,

courting Black voters
in Alabama,

preaching
to overflowing churches.

Are you ready to march?

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

DAVID REMNICK: Every year,

there's a commemoration
of Selma,

a great encounter
between the forces

of the civil rights movement
led by John Lewis and others...

-(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
-...and police with truncheons.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

REMNICK: And Hillary Clinton
and Barack Obama

want to make
an impression in Selma.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

REPORTER: Many black voters
say they're torn

between voting
for the African American, Obama,

-or sticking
with the Clintons...
-(CROWD CHEERING)

...who've supported civil rights
for years.

That's the agonizing choice
for John Lewis,

bludgeoned
during the Selma March,

and now a congressman.

It was tough, it was very--
It was tough.

I supported, uh,
President Clinton

and got to know Hillary.

It was one
of the tough decisions

of my political life.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

REMNICK: The Clintons felt
that they had deep inroads

with the African American
community and with--
with reason.

You'll remember in the-- in a
certain New Yorker magazine,

Toni Morrison wrote
that Bill Clinton

was the first Black president,
said with some irony,

said with all kinds of...
But mostly with admiration too.

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

REMNICK: Obama gives his speech
at Brown Church.

And Hillary is down the street
at another church.

Yes, that long march to freedom

that began here has carried us
a mighty long way.

It's-- It's a contest.

-Thank you, thank you.
-(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

Oh, giving all praise and honor
to God...

-CROWD: Amen!
-...for bringing us here today.

I just want to talk
a little bit about... Moses,

and Aaron and Joshua...

because we are
in the presence today...

-of a lot of Moseses.
-ATTENDEE: A lot.

Uh, we're in the presence today
of giants...

whose shoulders we stand on.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

REMNICK: He begins
paying tribute

to what he calls
the "Moses generation."

Who's Moses?

Martin Luther King,
who did not see--

Famously says it in his speech,

"I might not get there
with you."

As great as Moses was...

despite all that he did...

leading a people
out of bondage...

he didn't cross over the river
to see the Promised Land.

God told him, "Your job is done.

We're going to leave it
to the Joshua generation...

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-...to make sure it happens.

There are still some battles
that need to be fought.

Some rivers
that need to be crossed."

Obama pronounces himself

the head
of the Joshua generation.

S-- That's incredibly nervy.

Moses told
the Joshua generation,

"Don't forget
where you came from."

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

And I worry sometimes
that the Joshua generation

in its success
forgets where it came from.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Thinks it doesn't have
to make as many sacrifices.

SHERRILYN IFILL: You think
people in the 1940s

and 1950s woke up and said,

"We are the civil rights
generation, let's do this,"

as though it was,
you know, fantastic?

Our nostalgia has made us
look back

at that period of time
as though it was great,

but it was not great
getting hit in the head

on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

These weren't fun times.

These were times of commitment,
when people decided

that they weren't gonna
take it anymore

and that they could make
this country better.

OBAMA: Folks complaining about
the quality of our government,

I understand there's something
to be complaining about.

-(CROWD CHUCKLING)
-I'm in Washington.

I see what's going on.

It means
we can't sit out elections.

It means we can't just vote
for people

and then not show up
to hold them accountable.

It means we can't think
that government

-is something other people do.
-But I'll tell you what.

I also know that,
if cousin Pookie would vote...

(CROWD CHEERING)

...and... if Uncle Jethro
would get off the couch

-and stop watching
SportsCenter...
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

...and go register some folks
and go to the polls,

we might have
a different kind of politics.

That's what the Moses generation
teaches us.

Kick off your bedroom slippers.
Put on your marching shoes.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-Go do some politics.

Change this country!

That's what they teach.

To me, that event is
as much his declaration

to run for president...

as his announcement speech
in Springfield...

but it's made particular
to the Black community.

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

SPEAKER: You got my vote.
You got my vote, man.

SPEAKER: He got my vote.
You got my vote.
You got my vote.

Hey, I appreciate that.

I think that
there is a assumption

on the part
of some commentators

that somehow,
the Black community

i-- is so unsophisticated

that the minute you put
an African American face

up on the screen,
that they automatically say,

"That's our guy."

-I wanted to say hello.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

OBAMA: A Black candidate
has to earn Black votes

the same way that
he's gotta earn white votes.

Uh, and-- and that's exactly
how it should be.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

People were asking me,
"Who you gonna support?"

And I said that,
"Well, everybody

that's my color
is not my kind."

I bring you the senator
from Illinois,

-Senator Barack Obama.
-(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

SHARPTON: He had always said
to me,

"I'm not asking you
to support me,

-just don't hurt me."
-Thank you!

There was concern.
Is he going to represent us?

Is he going
to take our issues seriously.

What does he know about us?
Who-- We don't really know him.

I am proud to be a candidate

for the presidency
of the United States of America.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-DYSON: And Black people
are practical,

we're no longer interested
in symbolic politics run

as a-- a reaction
to white supremacy,

run as, you know, a--
a candidate who will protest.

No, we want real people
who are able to really win.

-(CROWD APPLAUDING)
-I am mindful

-that I wouldn't be here...
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

...if it had not been
for Reverend Al Sharpton

-running for president...
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

...and Carol Moseley Braun
running for president,

and Jesse Jackson
running for president,

and Shirley Chisolm
running for president.

My candidacy changes
the present course

of our nation.

I got involved
as a protest, really.

Resisting how liberals
were taking us for granted

and dismissing us
and marginalizing us

in the process.

And so one thing led to another.

I felt that
we had the right to run

and the reason to run
and the capacity

to take our case
to the next level.

-Who would have thought?
-ATTENDEE: I would.

DYSON: We love Jesse Jackson.

In '88 he really, what?
Got seven million votes?

So that was tremendous.

After 38 contests...

I would be in front.

That's more than symbolic,
that was substance

-but we need more of that.
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

I sense all across America
a desire for something new,

-a desire to turn the page...
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

...a desire to write
a new chapter

in American history.

And if I have all of you working
with me,

then I guarantee you

that not only will we win
this election,

but we are also going
to transform America.

Thank you very much!

I appreciate you guys,
thank you!

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

SHARPTON: The more
I talked to him, the more I felt

that Barack Obama was authentic,

because he wouldn't say to me
what he knew I wanted to hear.

But he said to me
what I needed to hear.

And that was,
"I really do believe

we can make the country
go forward,

and that our community
can get what they want."

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

HOST: All right!
We're ready, thank you.

-How's it going, Cedar Rapids?
-(CROWD CONTINUE CHEERING)

Thank you! Thank you!

VALERIE JARRETT:
Early in the campaign,

our strategy was all hands
on deck in Iowa.

And the theory of the case was
that if we can win Iowa,

then he would be credible.

Not just to people
in white America

but also people
in Black America,

who were hesitant
about his chances of winning.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

-REPORTER: Is this fun to do?
-I love doing this.

This-- This is what politics
is all about.

Can I say hello?

-SPEAKER: Yeah.
-SPEAKER 2: You sure can!

JARRETT: But that strategy came
with a cost,

and the cost was Black people
feeling somewhat neglected.

Now we came up
with a magic solution,

which was we asked Michelle
to go to South Carolina.

JELANI COBB: I don't think
that any of us ever thought

that we would see
a Black president in our lives.

I used to say that in 2007

there were only four people
in the United States

who thought that
it was possible

for a Black man
to be elected president,

and they all lived
at the same address

on the South Side of Chicago.

-Hi, how are you?
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

-I'm Michelle Obama.
-Yes, ma'am.

Nice to see you.

DYSON: Black people
were very skeptical.

Any Black man that rises, boy,
it's gonna be tough,

and white folk
are gonna be pissed,

and you gonna be vulnerable,
and it might not work out.

MICHELLE OBAMA: Now I know
folks talk in the barbershops

and beauty salons.

I've heard it myself.
See people say, you know,

"That Barack Obama
he's a nice guy,

but I'm not sure America's ready
for a Black president."

She gave
an extraordinary speech

that really spoke
to the feelings

in the
African American community,

the feelings of fear.

Of worrying, "Would he lose?"
Worrying, "Would he be hurt?"

I know that people understand
that Barack is special.

-(CROWD CHUCKLES)
-You don't see

this kind of man often.

And I equate it to like,
you know,

we all have that aunt,

that grandmother that bought
all that new furniture?

Spend her life savings on it,
and then what she do?

She puts plastic on it
to protect it.

(CROWD LAUGHING, APPLAUDING)

JARRETT:
Everyone in the audience,

which was comprised of primarily
African American women,

all knew
about their grandmother's couch.

I think folks just want to...
protect us...

from the possibility
of being let down.

(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)

Not by us, but by the world.

She gave them permission
by acknowledging their fear,

but then said "Look,
I have the most to lose."

If you're willing to heed
Coretta Scott King's words

and not be afraid of the future,
but have faith in God's grace,

then I truly believe
that together,

there's no challenge
that we can't overcome.

-Thank you.
-(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

KROFT:
There are African Americans

who don't think
that you're Black enough,

who don't think that you have
had the required experience.

The truth of the matter is,
you know,

when I'm walking down
the South Side of Chicago

and, uh, visiting my barbershop,
and...

playing basketball in, uh,
in some of these neighborhoods,

those aren't, uh, those aren't
questions that I get asked.

ZARIFF: I didn't know
he was this or that.

Normally when you come
into a shop,

into Hyde Park Hair Salon,
you're just-- you're yourself.

No titles.

There were some reporters
in the shop at one point

during the campaign, and one
of the reporters asked me,

"Oh, do you cut his hair
to appear like he's white?"

I'm like, "Excuse me?"

I said, "How do you do that?"

That was my reply,
but it stunned me.

It was unnecessary.

But it's necessary, I guess,
for a lot of people.

(CROWD CHEERING)

REPORTER: Barack Obama has said
that the big-city cab drivers

who once refused to pick him up

had no doubt
about his Blackness back then,

nor should anyone else now.

But recent polls show
Hillary Clinton

is the choice
of more Black Democrats,

and it's clear
that Obama's racial identity

gives pause to some.

SHARPTON: He was loudly
condemned by some.

And in private even more loudly,
"He wasn't Black enough.

He didn't have
the slave experience."

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-Thank you, Apollo!

COBB: There's always been
a kind of heterogeneous idea

of like what it is to be Black
in this country.

And so, what was more important
than his name

or his lineage was his ability
to culturally interact

on terms with African Americans.

(CROWD CHEERING)

COBB: One of the things
the campaign did

in South Carolina
was they released this DVD

of him going around
and talking to voters.

-Retired Sergeant Major, sir.
-Man, retired Sergeant Major.

-He still looks like
a Sergeant Major.
-(CROWD LAUGHING)

And there's one point
where he goes into a barbershop

and he starts, uh,
cracking on this guy's shoes.

-How you doing, President?
-I'm doing good, man.

(LAUGHS)

And check out those shoes too.

Check 'em out.

-Man.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER, LAUGHTER)

You got some, you got some.
What's that?

-I dunno--
-You got some alligator?

And that was just something

that only a person
who was comfortable

-in this culture would do.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

-Are you fired up?
-CROWD: Fired up!

Are you ready to go?

REPORTER: Of course
there are whites
who will never vote for Obama

-because he is Black.
-Let's go change the world.

I don't want to sound prejudiced
or anything, but for one, um,

I'm not gonna...

I don't want to vote
for a-- a colored man

-to be our president.
-(BUS ENGINE REVVING)

REPORTER: Barack Obama's bus
rode through rural Iowa Monday,

as he takes his message
to small towns in the state.

We'll show that we value farming
in this country

by launching a program
that gives a hand

to the next generation
of farmers

and helps them buy
their first farms.

REPORTER 2:
It's an interesting move

just two weeks
before the caucus,

because rural Iowa is certainly
not Obama's base.

The question is whether
or not Obama can connect

with the primarily-white
rural voters here.

VOTER: It's still my neighbors
in small towns

who don't have jobs.

Uh, it's still people
in my parish

who are struggling
with retirement incomes,

and those are no different
whether we live in Chicago

or-- or in, uh, Laurens, Iowa.

OBAMA: How many people here
definitely plan

to caucus tomorrow?
Raise your hands.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-That's what I'm talking about.

DAVID AXELROD: The campaign
picked up momentum

over the course
of the year in Iowa.

We knew that if we didn't win
the Iowa caucuses we were done.

We had to-- We had to
break through there.

REPORTER: Tonight,
the Democratic front runners

are in a frantic drive
to rally supporters

and win over converts.

REPORTER 2: Barack Obama,
Hillary Clinton, John Edwards

have been virtually tied

according to some
of the late polling

going on surrounding this race.

REPORTER 3: And just
so supporters know
what's at stake...

Tomorrow night,
the future of the free world

-is riding on your shoulders.
-(CROWD LAUGHING)

-Don't feel any pressure.
-(CROWD LAUGHING)

OFFICIAL: Thirty-one,
32, 33. Obama...

COBB: I was living in Atlanta
and there was a watch party.

And I-- I don't think...
very many people

really, really thought
that he was going to win Iowa.

And then all of a sudden,
he won Iowa.

(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: They said this country
was too divided,

but on this January night,

at this defining moment
in history,

you have done
what the cynics said

-we couldn't do.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

COBB: I remember like,
leaving,

and there was a white guy
wearing a t-shirt that said,

"He's Black, I'm proud."

And then right after that,
I saw a t-shirt

that had Martin Luther King

and Barack Obama
next to each other.

And then I saw that t-shirt
everywhere

in the days that followed.

DYSON: After he won in Iowa,

Black people were like,
"What's that? What's his name?

Barack Oberman? What's his name?

Yeah, let's we'll do--
Yeah, he's good!

-He's like really good."
-(CROWD CHEERING)

DYSON: Hillary Clinton
was darn near knighted

as the heir apparent.

It was her turn, she had waited
as a woman in this country.

But Obama swooped right in

and figured out,
now, it's kind of my time.

CROWD: Obama! Obama!

So he earned it, right,
the old fashioned way.

Shoe leather, meeting people,
winning at the polls,

and Black people were like,
"This man could really win!"

-How's it going, New Hampshire?
-(CROWD CHEERING)

REPORTER: He rocketed
out of Iowa

and into New Hampshire

and this morning
woke up to a poll

showing a comfortable lead
here over Senator Clinton.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-REPORTER 2:
In his stump speech,

he now says "we" instead of "I."
The implication?

What happened in Iowa
was the start of a movement.

REPORTER 3: Obama's victory
has recast the Democratic race,

creating new pressure
on Senator Hillary Clinton.

HILLARY CLINTON: I did very,
very well with people over 45,

and I didn't do as well
with people under 30.

And I take responsibility
for that.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

REPORTER 4: The Obama crowds
are large and energized,

they also tend to be young.

OBAMA:
That's why you're here,

and in one day's time

-we can stand up for change...
-(CROWD CHEERING)

...that all of us
can believe in.

(CROWD CHEERING)

REPORTER 5:
In another corner of the state,

a different side
of Hillary Clinton.

You know, I have so many
opportunities from this country.

I just don't want
to see us fall backwards.

-No. So...
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

(CROWD CHEERING)

Thank you! (LAUGHS)

OBAMA: Well, first of all,

I want to congratulate
Senator Clinton

on a hard-fought victory
here in New Hampshire.

She did an outstanding job,

give her a big round
of applause.

(CROWD CHEERING)

I want, especially,
to thank New Hampshire.

Over the last week,
I listened to you.

And in the process,
I found my own voice.

(CROWD CHEERING)

REPORTER: New Hampshire voters
have redefined the race

for The White House,

but what drove people
to vote the way they did?

Even Hillary Clinton's
own tracking poll

showed that she was
going to lose big.

Something happened
in that last 48 hours

that changed people's minds.

Hillary Clinton retooled
her campaign a little bit.

Started getting out
of the bubble,

started actually talking
to voters,

answering all
of their questions,

had an emotional moment,
humanized herself.

Is it possible people lied
to pollsters

saying they were
going to vote for

for an African American
candidate and then not?

I've gotten a number
of emails now from people

in different campaigns,
Democratic strategists,

other people out there saying,
"Well, could it be a race?

Could it be a race?
Could it be a race?"

(AIRPLANE ENGINE REVVING)

REPORTER 2: We turn next
to the campaign trail.

The politics of race
and possible trouble

for the Clinton campaign.

It involves comments
Senator Clinton made

about Martin Luther King,

and something Bill Clinton said
about Barack Obama.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-This whole thing

is the biggest fairy-tale
I've ever seen.

REPORTER 3: Clinton said
what he was describing

as a fairytale
was the media portrayal

-of Obama's record on Iraq.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

REPORTER 4:
As the Democratic campaign

moves forward,
Hillary Clinton is backpedaling.

So, the Obama campaign
is deliberately

-distorting this...
-REPORTER 5:
Today on Meet the Press,

she sought to blame Barack Obama
for the firestorm caused

by a remark of hers
in New Hampshire.

Dr. King's dream, uh,
began to be realized

when President Lyndon Johnson
passed

the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

REPORTER 5: She said
she did not mean to belittle

Dr. King's accomplishments,

which is exactly how many
African Americans took it.

REPORTER 2: Sources
in the Obama campaign say

African American leaders
are outraged

and believe the Clinton campaign
is using racial code words.

REPORTER 6: His fairy-tale
comment was all over talk radio,

and there was an email
being sent around

with a detailed list of comments
from the Clintons.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-REPORTER 6: All this led

experts to worry
that this historic campaign

between a woman
and an African American man

now threatens to divide
Democrats along racial lines.

TIM RUSSERT:
In terms of accountability,
Senator Obama,

Senator Clinton
on Sunday told me

that the Obama campaign had
been pushing this story line.

And true enough,
your Press Secretary

in South Carolina, four pages

of alleged comments
made by the Clinton people

about the issue of race.

In hindsight, do you regret
pushing this story?

Well, not only in hindsight,
but, uh, going forward.

I think that our supporters,
our staff get overzealous.

Uh, they start saying things
that I would not say.

And it is my responsibility
to make sure

that we're setting a clear tone
in our campaign.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

AXELROD: South Carolina
is the first southern primary.

It was a crucial primary
for both us

and for Hillary Clinton.

The majority of voters
who participate

in the Democratic primary there
are African American...

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

...but Barack needed white votes
as well and wanted them

because he didn't want to win
on that basis.

I wanna be so persuasive
that nobody leaves this room

thinking they should vote
for anybody else.

(CROWD CHEERING)

I want everybody here to vote
for Barack.

Everybody!

REPORTER: Barack Obama hit
the lunch crowd

at a restaurant in Columbia,

where he greeted n
early every customer.

Nearly all of them white.

Of course,
we can take a picture,
what's your name?

-Sean.
-Sean.

REPORTER: Polls show
he's been losing support

among white voters here,

and spent much of the week
trying to downplay race.

He's blamed the media
for hyping it,

and encouraged voters
to look past color.

If I came to you
and I had polka dots...

-but-- but you were convinced...
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

...that I was gonna put
more money into your pockets,

and help you pay for college,

and help keep America safe,
you'd say, "Okay.

You know, I-- I wish
he didn't have polka dots,

-but I'm still voting for him."
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

COBB: Partly out of curiosity,

and partly out
of legitimate support,

I decided that I was going to go
to South Carolina.

We are in this place,
Denmark, South Carolina,

on the Get Out the Vote
operation.

We walk up to this house,

and this older white woman
comes to the door

and tells me not to come
any closer.

And I said, "Okay." And,
you know, I stopped where I was

and she said, "I already know
the date and I know the time,

I'm going to be right there
to vote for Senator Obama."

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

REPORTER: All the signs
have been positive.

Encouraging polls,
the big crowds,

the confident campaign,

but Obama has seen this before
in New Hampshire.

Who can you trust to be there
for you in sunshine and storm?

-CROWD: Hillary!
-REPORTER 2:
For her last big rally

in South Carolina,

Hillary Clinton called
in her number one surrogate.

REPORTER 3: The former president
today sought

to lower expectations

suggesting Obama has the edge
here because he's Black.

Jesse Jackson won South Carolina
twice in '84 and '88.

And he ran a good campaign,

and Senator Obama's run
a good campaign here,

he's run a good campaign
everywhere.

He's got a good--
He's a good candidate

with a good organization.

When Bill Clinton came out
at the South Carolina primary

and, uh, tried to dismiss
the significance-- Kind of,

"Well, even Jesse Jackson
won that."

What are you saying?

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-SHARPTON: Translation,

even if he wins,

Obama is just this year's
Jesse Jackson.

(CROWD CHEERING)

CROWD: Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
Yes, we can!

-Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
-Thank you. Thank you!

CROWD: Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
Yes, we can!

-Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
-Thank you, everybody.
Thank you!

OBAMA: You know,
over two weeks ago,

-we saw the people of Iowa...
-CROWD: Whoo!

...proclaim that our time
for change has come.

(CROWD CHEERING)

But there were those who doubted

this country's desire
for something new.

Who said Iowa was a fluke
not to be repeated again.

Well, tonight,
the cynics who believed

that what began in the snows
of Iowa was just an illusion,

were told a different story

by the good people
of South Carolina.

(CROWD CHEERING)

AXELROD: South Carolina
was a beautiful night.

He got about 30 percent
of white votes in the state

in addition to a majority
of Black votes,

and built
the multi-racial coalition

that we had hoped for.

Completely outstripped
everyone's expectations.

(CROWD CHEERING)

AXELROD: And in that hall
the night when he spoke,

there were people chanting
race doesn't matter.

(CROWD CHANTING)

AXELROD: Now that was premature.

That was more of a hope
than a reality,

but this was a big moment
in the campaign,

and I think a big moment
for the country.

I did not travel around
this state over the last year

and see a white South Carolina
or a Black South Carolina.

-I saw South Carolina.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

This is not, though
they are enormously important,

Jesse Jackson,
Reverend Al Sharpton,

stalwarts
of the Civil Rights movement.

But those who were perceived
to be, necessarily so, as people

who could channel Black anger,
to express Black grievance,

to realize Black progress.

With Barack Obama,
there's a different moment here.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-I saw what America is,

and I believe
in what this country can be.

That is the country I see.
That is the country you see,

but now it is up to us

to help the entire nation
embrace this vision.

(CROWD CHEERING)

DYSON: He really resonated
in a more transcendent way.

In a way that was informed
by a broader sweep

of the American possibility,

because his own life
was the product of that.

He gave an interracial pedigree
to hopefulness.

(AIRPLANE ENGINE REVVING)

I know what America can achieve,
I've seen it!

I've lived it!

And with Barack Obama
we can do it again!

(CROWD CHEERING)

AXELROD: The Kennedy endorsement

was incredibly important
for Obama.

Not because Kennedy would bring
large numbers of votes...

but because Kennedy
was an establishment figure

and his willingness
to lay hands on Obama

and say he's ready
to be president

really spoke to concerns
that people had about that.

ANNOUNCER: The next president
of the United States,

-Hillary Clinton!
-(CROWD CHEERING)

REPORTER: The endorsement
is a huge blow
to Hillary Clinton,

a longtime friend and colleague
of Ted Kennedy.

REPORTER 2: The senior senator
from Massachusetts

repeatedly scolded Bill Clinton

for his divisive tactics
in South Carolina.

-(CROWD APPLAUDING)
-REPORTER 3: For Bill Clinton,
who has always

cast himself
as President Kennedy's
political heir,

today's endorsement
is a slap in the face.

We need to nominate somebody
with the experience,

and the fortitude,
and the know-how

to take whatever
they send our way

-and send it right back.
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

REPORTER 4: As of tonight,
our latest CBS News
Democratic delegate count

shows Obama leading Clinton
by 97.

So the battle goes on,
and with ten straight wins

-momentum is on Obama's side.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

This is our moment!

This is our time!

REPORTER 5: And another blow
today to the Clinton campaign.

She's lost 11 straight primaries
and caucuses to Barack Obama

and now Clinton has lost
a very important supporter.

Congressman John Lewis
of Georgia switched sides today.

-He is now backing Obama.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

He represented something new.

He represented a real sense
of hope and optimism.

(CROWD CHEERING)

JOHN LEWIS: It was daring,
just daring.

DYSON: It became uncomfortable
for Black people to explain,

as political leaders,
why they weren't with Obama.

So, it's not that they swayed
the people to support Obama.

Obama's love among the people

swayed the leaders
to come along.

CROWD: Obama!

SHARPTON: I felt that
it was my responsibility

to be true to the cause.

What really was going to help
the cause?

Putting a guy like this
in The White House,

if we could help do that
and not get in the way.

Or playing to the--

what, uh, my pastors call
the "cheap seats"

of just rah-rah-rah,
and we end up with nothing.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-Thanks for being here.
Thank you.

Thank you very much.

REPORTER: Now moving on
to the Republicans,

John McCain clinched
the nomination last night.

And today, he went over
to The White House.

Last night, both Senator Obama
and Senator Clinton called

to congratulate me.

I pledged at that time
and I pledge again,

a respectful campaign.

A respectful campaign
based on the issues

and based
on the stark differences

and vision that we have
for the future of America.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-How's it going Mississippi?

REPORTER 2: In another win
for Barack Obama

last night in Mississippi,

he regained a significant lead
over Hillary Clinton

in the pledge delegate count.

But the talk
of the Democratic race today

was once again about race,

and prominent Democrat
Geraldine Ferraro's assertion

that Obama wouldn't have gotten
this far if he was not Black.

GERALDINE FERRARO:

HILLARY: I rejected
what she said,

and I certainly do repudiate it.

And, uh, regret deeply that, uh,
you know, it was said.

I-- This-- This is politics, uh,

and, you know,
part of the problem

that we have right now is that,
uh, we have too much at stake

to be engaged in these politics.

You know, uh, campaigns
are really long oral exams

and character tests
for the presidency.

Ours really came on a day
in March of 2008.

I served Trinity church
for 36 years.

I had never taken a sabbatical.

So, I told the congregation,

Don't call, don't text,
don't email,

I'm going on sabbatical.

First thing we're gonna do
is go on a family vacation.

We're going on a cruise.

REPORTER: We want to turn now
to an in-depth look

at a very important figure
in Democratic frontrunner,

Barack Obama's life.

His long-time pastor,
the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Reverend Wright has made
a number

of controversial statements
over the years.

Now that Obama
is a national figure,

the question is,

could the Reverend
become a liability?

COBB: The media
had been taking a hit,

saying that they were going
too soft on Barack Obama

and that they were having
you know this, basically,

love fest,
and that he hadn't gotten, uh,

the kind of critical coverage

that a presidential candidate
needs.

And so they go
to Jeremiah Wright.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-The angels in Heaven
were singing,

God never fails!

ABC had all these tapes
of Jeremiah Wright's sermons,

and there were millions of them
and it kind of
wasn't a priority.

They had a lot to do
during the campaign.

♪ (THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

REMNICK: Most of them are long
and irrelevant to anything.

WRIGHT: Bless the Lord.
Oh, my soul.

♪ (HYMN PLAYING) ♪

And then they stumble upon
a couple of these sermons

that seemed incendiary.

The government
gives them the drugs,

builds bigger prisons,
passes a three-strike law,

and then wants us to sing
"God Bless America"?

No, no, no,
not God Bless America,

God Damn America!

That's in the bible,
for killing innocent people.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-God Damn America.

They took clips
and wove them together

into, you know, the most
incendiary things he had said

over a 30-year career
in like two minutes.

Uh, but it had
the desired effect.

We have supported
state terrorism

against the Palestinians
and Black South Africans,

-and now we are indignant!
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

Because the stuff
we have done overseas

is now brought right back
into our own front yards!

They were deeply critical
of American foreign policy

and in a language...

that was, uh,
way more inflammatory

than most of America
White America, could stomach.

And Obama had found a home
in this church.

♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

WRIGHT: Cruise ships
only broadcast certain stations.

They had Fox News on the boat...

and were playing a-- a clip...

from a sermon I preached...

the Sunday after 9/11/01.

I say, "What?"

So, we started changing
the channel.

It was on all of the channels.

I want to show you a clip
from Barack Obama's pastor,

it's getting a lot of play
right now.

We bombed Hiroshima,
we bombed Nagasaki!

What you're about to hear
is inflammatory to some,

to others, harsh as it sounds,
it's the truth.

And we nuked far more
than the thousands in New York

and the Pentagon
and we never batted an eye.

Obviously, his remarks
are incendiary.

It comes
at a particularly bad time.

AXELROD:
Obama was in the Senate the day

this "greatest hits
of Reverend Wright" surfaced.

He was voting all day.

I don't think he had a sense
of how much it had captured

the imagination of the media.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-God damn America.

REPORTER: We tried to reach
Reverend Wright

to get his reaction now

to the fallout from his fire
and brimstone sermon,

but we're told he's on vacation
and not available.

On a cruise ship
they sit you at one table

where you sit every meal.

The white families
at the table next to ours

had requested to be moved.

They don't want to sit next
to an "anti-American racist."

A what?

And they will
not only attack you

if you try to point out
what's going on

in white America, US of KKK A.

This is going to scare
the hell out of white people,

-and you know that that's true.
-No, it's designed

to attempt to scare.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s
last sermon was gonna be

"Why America may go to hell."

It was not "America
should go to hell."

It didn't-- It was not
"America ought to go to hell."

It may go to hell

because if you don't come
to terms with racism,

poverty, militarism,
materialism,

those evils are gonna suck
all the good stuff

out of your democracy.

That's in part
what Jeremiah Wright

was talking about.

Barack knows what it means

to be a Black man
living in a country

and a culture that is controlled
by rich, white people.

Hillary can never know that.

Hillary ain't never been called
a (BLEEP).

That became for us
the cruise from hell.

I stayed in the cabin
most of the time

so that the nasty remarks,
name calling...

would not be something
my family had to be exposed to.

But they heard that,
my grandkids were hearing this.

Breaking news at this hour,
after a day of headlines

about the controversial remarks
by Pastor Jeremiah Wright

of the Trinity United Church
of Christ,

Pastor Wright is quote
"no longer

on the Obama presidential
campaign committee."

WRIGHT: I was a chairperson
of his religious advisory team.

I saw myself... get dismissed

from that position
on television.

Your campaign saying
this afternoon it had no plans

to ask Reverend Wright
to step down.

Obviously, that has changed.

Did he step down tonight
or did you ask him to leave?

You know, I-- I think
there was a recognition

that, uh,
he's on the verge of retirement,

he's taking a sabbatical, uh,
and that it was important, uh,

for him to step out
of the spotlight

in this situation.

Unfortunately,
as an American politician,

you can't get too close
to that kind of prophetic fire

or you get burned.

So, I can understand Barack,
in some sense,

wanting to get a distance
as a politician.

I-- These particular statements
that have been gathered,

uh, are ones
that I strongly objected to

strongly condemned.
I-- Had I heard them in church,

I would have expressed
that concern

directly, uh,
to Reverend Wright.

So, I didn't become familiar
with these until, uh, recently.

But on a personal level

and on a very deep, uh,
truthful level,

you had to try to teach people

that there are voices in
our society that are radical...

that are not up for elections.

AXELROD: He called me
that night and said,

"I want to make a speech.

I want to make a speech
about race, and I want to put

this Reverend Wright issue
in context."

And we said, "Okay."
And he said,

"And I want to do it
no later than Tuesday."

This was Friday.

JARRETT: He felt that he owed
the American people

an explanation

and that they had
to hear it directly

and honestly from him.

SHARPTON: A very painful thing
for Obama

was dealing with his pastor,
very painful.

And it was very painful
to the community

because people were angry

because they were trying
to act like he threw his pastor

in front of the bus.

AXELROD: We set up this speech
for the Constitution Center

in Philadelphia

on the theory
that if you're gonna go down,

go down on a big stage.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

AXELROD: The anxiety in the room
was palpable.

And he turned to me and said,
"You know,

I'm gonna go out there
and give this speech..."

(CROWD CHEERING)

"...and people will either
accept it or they won't."

Thank you. Thank you.

-AXELROD: "And if they don't..."
-Thank you. Thank you.

"...then I just won't be
president,

but at least I'll have said
what I think needs to be said."

He said,
"That's worth something."

We the people, in order to form
a more perfect union...

221 years ago...

in a hall that still stands
across the street,

a group of men gathered
and with these simple words

launched America's improbable
experiment in democracy.

The document they produced
was eventually signed,

but ultimately unfinished.

It was stained by this nation's
original sin of slavery.

I chose to run for president
at this moment in history

because I believe deeply

that we cannot solve
the challenges of our time

unless we solve them together.

Unless we perfect our union.

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER: I think
what was extraordinary

about Obama's
so-called race speech

is the fact
that it happened at all.

There was no precedent.

I mean, yes, Black people
had run for president before,

but at this stage in the game,

there wasn't a clearly
marked road that said,

this is how this kind
of Black person deals

with people trying
to disparage him

and take him down
in the name of race.

Throughout the first year
of this campaign,

against all predictions
to the contrary...

we saw how hungry
the American people were

for this message of unity.

Despite the temptation
to view my candidacy

through a purely racial lens,

we won commanding victories
in states

with some
of the whitest populations

in the country.

Obama was forced to give
a speech on race,

he was forced to.

He was in trouble.

This is not to say that race

has not been an issue
in this campaign.

And yet, it's only been
in the last couple of weeks

that the discussion of race
in this campaign

has taken
a particularly divisive turn.

COBB: Smaller things had ended
presidential candidacies.

Howard Dean just yelled off key

and that was it, you know,
his presidency is done.

I have already condemned,
in unequivocal terms,

the statements
of Reverend Wright

that have caused
such controversy,

and in some cases pain.

But the truth is, that isn't all
that I know of the man.

The man I met
more than 20 years ago

is a man who helped introduce me
to my Christian faith

and who, over 30 years,
has led a church

that serves the community

by doing God's work
here on earth.

The church contains, in full,
the kindness and cruelty,

the fierce intelligence,
and the shocking ignorance,

the struggles and successes,
the love

and, yes, the bitterness
and biases

that make up
the Black experience in America.

I can no more disown him

than I can disown
the Black community.

I can no more disown him

than I can disown
my white grandmother.

A woman who helped raise me,

a woman who sacrificed again
and again for me,

a woman who loves me

as much as she loves
anything in this world,

but a woman who once confessed
her fear of Black men

who passed her by on the street.

And who,
on more than one occasion,

has uttered racial
or ethnic stereotypes

that made me cringe.

These people are part of me.

And they are a part of America,
this country that I love.

As opposed to just cutting
Jeremiah Wright off immediately,

uh, or even kind of saying

"It's not possible
for me to win,"

he does exactly what a professor

or a teacher would do
in that circumstance,

which is step
into the middle of it

and look at it, panoramically,

and then try to understand it
for what it is.

Under other circumstances,
we would call that a class.

In Barack Obama's circumstance,

this is a public address
or speech.

The fact is that the comments
that have been made

and the issues
that have surfaced

over the last few weeks

reflect the complexities
of race in this country

that we've never really
worked through.

A part of our union that we have
not yet made perfect.

We do not need to recite here

the history of racial injustice
in this country,

but we do need
to remind ourselves

that so many of the disparities
that exist

between the African American
community

and the larger
American community today

can be traced directly
to inequalities

passed on
from an earlier generation

that suffered under
the brutal legacy of slavery

and Jim Crow.

The anger is real.
It is powerful.

And to simply wish it away,

to condemn it
without understanding its roots,

only serves to widen
the chasm of misunderstanding

that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists

within segments
of the white community.

Most working and middle-class
white Americans

don't feel that they've been
particularly privileged

by their race.

Their experience
is the immigrant experience.

As far as they're concerned,
no one handed them anything.

They built it from scratch.

So, when they are told
to bus their children

to a school across town,

when they hear
an African American

is getting an advantage
in landing a good job

or a spot in a good college

because of an injustice that
they themselves never committed,

when they're told
that their fears

about crime
in urban neighborhoods

are somehow prejudiced,
resentment builds over time.

Now I believe in staying
in contact with the humanity

of my precious white brothers
and sisters,

but they need to understand

that in a white supremacist
civilization,

you've been the beneficiary

of unbelievable privilege
and entitlement,

that you have a right
to justice,

you have a right to fairness,

but your resentment
will never have the same weight,

morally and spiritually,
as a Black rage

who had to come to terms
with foremothers and forefathers

raped and violated
and exploited and lynched.

And when he presented
that equivalent,

it made me upset. I said,
"You're not telling the truth!"

To wish away the resentments
of white Americans,

to label them as misguided
or even racist,

without recognizing
they are grounded

in legitimate concerns, this too
widens the racial divide

and blocks the path
to understanding.

It was the attempt, the desire,

to create a language of embrace.

And his critics will say

that's, uh, a language
that, um, ignores reality.

That it's too idealistic.

But that's him.

The profound mistake
of Reverend Wright's sermons

is not that he spoke
about racism in our society,

it's that he spoke
as if our society was static,

as if no progress had been made,
as if this country,

a country
that has made it possible

for one of his own members

to run for the highest office
in the land

and build a coalition

-of white and Black...
-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

...Latino, Asian, rich, poor,
young and old,

is still irrevocably bound
to a tragic past.

(CROWD APPLAUDING)

WRIGHT: The Senator came
to my home to ask me

to stop preaching
until after the election.

I've been preaching this way
for 50 years...

regardless of who's running
for what office.

Carol Moseley Braun,
Harold Washington, Barack Obama.

That doesn't change or affect
or alter the gospel in any way.

He then paid me one
of the highest compliments

I've ever had paid to me.

He said to me, "You know
what your problem is?"

I said, "What's my problem?"

"As a preacher,
you have to speak the truth."

I said, "That's a good problem
to have."

♪ (SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

INTERVIEWER: Do you consider
yourself a Black man

-or an American first?
-An American, absolutely.

Is there a difference

between Black patriotism
and white patriotism?

No, I don't think so.

I mean, what...
what I think is that

the African American
community...

is much more familiar

with some of the darker aspects

of American life
and American history.

I think that they understand
America much less

-as a marching band playing...
-(CROWD CHEERING)

...John Philip Sousa,

and they understand America
much more

as a jazz composition
with blue notes.

And-- And I think
those are different things.

And so,
the African American community

can express great rage
and anger about this country

and love it all the same.

(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: Tonight, Minnesota...

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

...after
54 hard-fought contests...

CROWD: We love you, Obama!

...our primary season
has finally come to an end.

(CROWD CHEERING)

Because you chose to listen
not to your doubts

or your fears,

but to your greatest hopes
and highest aspirations.

Tonight, we mark the end
of one historic journey

with the beginning of another.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-A journey...

a journey that will bring a new
and better day to America.

Because of you,

tonight I can stand here and say

that I will be
the Democratic nominee

for the president
of the United States of America.

(CROWD CHEERING)

BRIAN WILLIAMS:
He is 46 years old
and his life has been

an extraordinary
American journey.

Last night he made history
by becoming

the presumptive nominee
of the Democratic party.

The first African American
major party nominee.

He turned away Hillary Clinton,

the first woman
to get as far as she did.

KATIE COURIC:
This historic victory

comes with a two-fold challenge,

battling Senator John McCain

while trying to unify
a deeply divided
Democratic party.

So reporters
don't unpack your bags,

it'll be a long hot summer.

KROFT: Senator McCain
talks a great deal

about his experience
as a-- as a prisoner of war...

-Right. Right.
-...and how it has shaped him.

What is the thing
that has shaped you?

It-- The story for me is...

of being born into
pretty humble circumstances.

Not having a dad in the house.

But having a mother
and grandparents who loved me,

who instilled in me
some pretty, uh,

you know, Midwestern Kansas
values of hard work

and stick-to-it-ness,
and honesty

and looking out
for other people, uh,

and-- and what's shaped me
most powerfully,

maybe because I'm half Black
and half white,

uh, that a big chunk
of my childhood,

I was sort of an outsider,
I didn't quite fit anywhere.

Part of what shapes me is--

is, uh, being able
to find a connection

with all kinds
of different people,

and-- and want to
bring them together

and bridge misunderstandings,
and-- and bridge conflict,

so that we can actually
get things done.

And that, I think is something
that led me into public service.

And in some ways,
that's something

very profoundly American
about me.

A fist bump? A pound?
A terrorist fist jab?

The gesture everyone seems
to interpret differently.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-REPORTER: Rumors and innuendo

are as much a part
of a presidential campaign

as flag pins
and chicken dinners.

But after a week
of radio talk shows

and websites spreading
the word

that Michelle Obama
may have used

a racial epithet against
white people in a speech...

Some, uh-- uh,
reference to white people

as "whities," allegedly.

...and continuing whispers
about whether Obama is a Muslim,

the campaign has launched
a new counter offensive,

a website. It's called
FightTheSmears dot com

and is devoted to debunking
false rumors about the Obamas.

First it was my name, right?
That was a problem.

And then there was
the Muslim-email thing.

This particular one alleges,
among other things,

that you took the oath of office
on the Quran

-and not the Bible?
-(CHUCKLES)

Now it's the patriotism thing.

Barack Obama refuses to,
uh, salute the flag,

he refuses to wear a flag pin.

And my wife's comment.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-Let me tell you something,

for the first time
in my adult lifetime,

I'm really proud of my country.

She already clarified herself.
She was very clear about it.

I'm proud of this country,
and I'm proud

of the fact
that people are ready

to roll up their sleeves
and do something phenomenal.

There's always some nonsense
going on

in general elections, right?

If it wasn't this,
it'd be something else.

(CROWD CHEERING)

ALEXANDER: You know, the Obamas
are remarkably focused.

Eyes on the prize.

The prize, by the way,
is not the presidency.

The prize is the work.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

ALEXANDER: It's not that
it does not hurt

to be defamed and misnamed.

But I think that what served
both of them well,

was understanding
that they were in service

to a larger ideal,

and that what leadership meant
in that moment

was to just keep on the path.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-Thank you, guys.

IFILL: Racism is always
a very convenient tool

to use by those who want power.

They don't have to, themselves,
be motivated by race.

They can just be motivated
by the desire to hold on to,

attain, or broaden
their base of power.

And because racism
is so deeply baked

into the American psyche,

you only have to tap
into the vein.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-Thank you. Thank you, guys.

-ATTENDEE: Senator, good luck.
-Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, guys.

REPORTER: A political firestorm
erupted today

over a magazine cover cartoon
of Barack Obama and his wife.

The New Yorker cover
depicts the couple

doing a fist bump
in the Oval Office.

He's in Muslim clothing,
she's in camouflage.

REPORTER 2: The cover also shows
an American flag

burning in the fireplace

and a picture of Osama Bin Laden
hangs on the wall.

♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

REMNICK: Barry Blitt drew
a cover that meant

to take every crazy stereotype
about Michelle and Barack Obama,

and put them into one image.

And you were seeing these images

and this rhetoric on Fox News
for example, all the time.

We didn't draw it out
of nowhere.

And, um, the reaction was not,

let's just say,
uniformly fantastic.

WOLF BLITZER: I can't tell you
how many people have said to me,

David, you know, if-- if they
wouldn't have known

this was on the cover
of The New Yorker magazine,

they would have just seen
this cartoon

and they would have--
and been asked,

"Which magazine
has this on the cover?"

Almost every one of us
would've said

some neo-Nazi magazine,
the Ku Klux Klan...

Oh, come on, Wolf,
come on, come on, come on.

The fact is-- Wait a minute,
the fact of the matter

is that it is on The New Yorker
and context means a lot.

REPORTER: The New Yorker cover
now appears on websites

of Obama's opponents,
many conservatives.

The New Yorker's
perceptive cover,

says RightWingNews dot com.

Obama had no response,
but his campaign said, quote...

(READS QUOTE)

REMNICK: We had published,
I don't know how many covers

making fun of George Bush,
politically, in myriad ways.

The reason for the reaction
to this cover

was that a mainly
liberal audience said,

"Of course, I understand this.

-But those people out there..."
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

"...those rubes
in the big square states

who can't understand anything
are going to see this

as not something ironic
or a comment on something,

but as reality."

And I found that wrong
and condescending.

REPORTER: A new Newsweek poll
suggests 12 percent of voters

still think Obama
is a practicing Muslim,

26 percent think
he was raised Muslim,

and 39 percent think
he attended an Islamic school.

REPORTER 2: So, is the magazine
pointing out anti-Obama myths

or perpetuating them?

(BUS ENGINE REVVING)

COBB: One sub current
of the 2008 campaign

had been
this really irrational fear

that Barack Obama represented

some sort of revenge-fantasy
for Black people.

What his identity did
was allow people to run wild

with the most
feverish conjurings

of their conspiratorial minds.

So there is
a really great moment

that expresses Obama's

kind of strategic relationship
to Black identity,

and that was in the
Democratic National Convention

in Denver in 2008.

(CROWD CHEERING)

JOHN KERRY: No one can question
Barack Obama's patriotism.

Like all of us, he was taught
what it means to be an American

by his family.
His grandmother who worked

on a bomber assembly line
in World War II,

his grandfather who marched
in Patton's Army,

and his great uncle
who enlisted in the army

right out of high school
at the height of the war.

There's a point
where John Kerry mentions

that Barack Obama's uncle,

who is a veteran
of World War II,

was present
in the convention hall.

And he requests
that his uncle stand up

and be acknowledged
by the crowd.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-KERRY: Please join me

in saluting this American hero,
Charlie Payne.

(CROWD APPLAUDS)

COBB: This elderly white man
stands up,

you know, this man who would
not be out of place

at any VFW hall in the country.

And I happen to be with a group
of Black delegates

who all howled with laughter...

because you understood exactly
what he was doing.

And the guy next to me said,
"If I had a white uncle,

I'd take him to every
job interview I went to."

(CROWD CHEERING)

COBB: That was a kind
of brilliant inversion

of the one-drop rule in America.
Because as they say,

"If you are Black at all,
you are all Black."

Barack Obama turned that
inside out.

"If you don't understand
who I am,

if you're trying to figure out
who I am,

well, here's my uncle.

There's a good chance
that you have an uncle

who is just like this guy."

KERRY: Charlie, your nephew,
Barack Obama,

will end this politics
of distortion and division.

That flag that hangs
from the rafters

and that you have waved here
this evening,

that flag doesn't belong
to any ideology,

it doesn't belong
to any political party.

It is an enduring symbol
of our nation,

and it belongs
to all the American people.

(CROWD CHEERING)

CROWD: John McCain! John McCain!
John McCain!

John McCain! John McCain!

John McCain! John McCain!

My friends, I've spent
the last few months

looking--
looking for a running mate

who can best help me
shake up Washington

and make it start working again

for the people
that are counting on us.

(CROWD CHEERING)

REPORTER: We're going to turn
to the political preoccupation

of the nation.

Who will McCain pick
for Vice President?

REPORTER 2: Of course, we know
Barack Obama's selection

of a running mate
was a tightly held secret.

OBAMA: For months,
I've searched for a leader

to finish this journey
alongside me.

I've found that leader.

(CROWD CHEERING)

A man
with a distinguished record.

A man with fundamental decency.

-And that man is Joe Biden.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

JOHN MCCAIN: My friends
and fellow Americans,

I am very pleased
and very privileged

to introduce to you

the next Vice President
of the United States.

(CROWD CHEERING)

Governor Sarah Palin
of the great state of Alaska.

(CROWD CHEERING)

REPORTER: If John McCain
had hoped

to use his announcement
of a running mate

to steal the spotlight
from the Democrats

the day
after their convention ended,

he succeeded.

The question of the day
was Sarah who?

Who is Sarah Palin?

SARAH PALIN:
I'm a hockey mom from Alaska.

I'm not one of those movers
and shakers

within the Republican party

that I think, conventionally,
you would think,

would be tapped.

REPORTER 2: Palin has been
governor less than two years,

but is already the state's
most popular politician.

She is the anti-Washington
Republican conservative.

-Pro-gun, anti-abortion...
-(GUNSHOTS)

...with a political record
as far outside the beltway

-as anyone can get.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

PALIN: Before I became governor
of the great state of Alaska...

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-...I was mayor of my hometown.

I guess a small-town mayor

is sort of like
a community organizer,

except that you have
actual responsibilities.

(CROWD CHEERING)

Whatever the long-term impact
of Sarah Palin

on McCain's chances,

uh, she gave him a short-term
adrenaline shot,

and his campaign began
to attract big crowds.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

AXELROD: But the tone
and tenor of the crowds

turned uglier and uglier.

I was reading today a copy
of The New York Times.

(CROWD BOOING)

And I was really interested
to read in there

about Barack Obama's friends
from Chicago.

(CROWD BOOING)

Turns out
one of his earliest supporters

is a man who, according
to The New York Times,

was a domestic terrorist
and part of a group--

(CROWD BOOING)

Part of a group that, quote,

"launched a campaign
of bombings

that would target the Pentagon
and the US Capitol."

(CROWD BOOING)

-Man.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

REPORTER 3: The Palin factor.
The campaign

-that's turned down and dirty.
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

REPORTER 3: Down in the polls,
the McCain campaign

has found a new attack dog.

OBAMA: Senator McCain
and his operatives are gambling

that they can distract you
with smears

rather than talk to you
about substance.

I am just so fearful
that this is not a man

who sees America the way
that you and I see America.

They'd rather tear
our campaign down

-than lift this country up.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

That's what you do
when you're out of touch,

out of ideas,
and running out of time.

(CROWD CHEERING)

PALIN: I'm afraid
this is someone who sees America

as imperfect enough to work
with a former domestic terrorist

who had targeted
his own country.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

REMNICK: Even as just
a journalist,

the cr-- crazy emails about
how really I got it all wrong,

and that Barack Obama
was created by terrorists

and bomb-throwing radicals.

Unfortunately, that crap entered
the mainstream.

In the--
In the name of Sarah Palin.

He's palling around
with terrorists.

This language was--
And feeling was--

It's not just some
American marginalia over here.

People saw it
as sufficient enough

that it needed whipping up.

(CROWD CHEERING)

I'm afraid if he wins,
the Black will take over.

He seems like a sheep,

or a wolf in sheep's clothing,
to be honest with you.

He must support terrorists.

You know, if-- if it walks
like a duck

and quacks like a duck,
it must be a duck.

And that, to me, is Obama.

You have to have some degree
of optimism

and some degree of faith
in white America

because the majority
of the population

can already be president.
I don't know how you become

president without that, right?

Or at least at that point,

I don't know how you
become president without that.

Uh, but I think also that
that faith might prevent you

-from seeing certain things.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

TA-NEHISI COATES: The belief
in the goodness of white America

did not allow you to see...
(CHUCKLES)

that this could actually
get really bad.

-(CROWD APPLAUDING)
-Yes, ma'am.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Ma'am, if you're going
to walk up like that

I'm not going
to give you the mic.

I'm not going
to give you the mic.

ATTENDEE: Okay, I gotta ask you
a question.

I do not, uh, believe in
I can't trust Obama.

I-- I have read about him,

and he's not-- he's not--
he's a, uh,

-he's an Arab. He is not
-(CROWD CHUCKLES)

-No, ma'am. No, ma'am.
-ATTENDEE: No?

No, ma'am. No, ma'am. No, ma'am.

He's a-- He's a decent,
family man,

citizen that I just happen
to have disagreements with

on-- on fundamental issues,

and that's what this campaign
is all about.

-He's not. Thank you. Thank you.
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

-Yes.
-♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

We all thought that was
McCain's finest moment

in the whole, uh, campaign.

-Now, I want to acknowledge...
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

...uh, that Senator McCain,
yesterday, tried to tone down

the rhetoric
in some of his town halls.

(CROWD SHOUTING)

AXELROD: I don't think Obama
was surprised

by some
of the acrimony out there.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

This is little Hussein.

AXELROD: He understood
that there were these

-darker impulses out there.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

But at the same time,
he was traveling the country,

and there were as many
as a hundred thousand people

showing up at his rallies.

That was a tonic in a way
for some of the ugliness

that we saw on the other side.

(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: We have had
a-- a remarkable campaign...

and, uh, you know,
when we started 21 months ago,

I-- I didn't know
how it would turn out.

And no matter
what happens tomorrow,

I'm going to feel good
about how it's turned out

because all of you have created

-this incredible campaign.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

Uh, some of you heard
that my grandmother, uh,

who helped raise me,
passed away,

uh, early this morning...

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-...and I--

-Look, she-- she has gone home.
-CROWD: Yeah!

And she died peacefully
in her sleep...

with my sister at her side.

And so, there's great joy
as well as tears.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-I'm not gonna talk about it
too long,

because it's hard a little
to talk about.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-Uh...

She was somebody
who was a very humble person

and a very plain-spoken person.

She was one
of those quiet heroes

that we have
all across America...

-ATTENDEE: Just like you!
-...who--

They're not famous.

Uh, their names
aren't in the newspapers,

But each and every day
they work hard.

They look after their families.

They sacrifice
for their children

and their grandchildren.

They aren't seeking
the limelight.

All they try to do
is just do the right thing.

And the satisfaction
that they get

is seeing that their children,

and maybe their grandchildren
or their great grandchildren,

uh, live a better life than--
than they did.

And that's what America's about.

That's what we're fighting for.

And, North Carolina...

in just one more day,

-we have the opportunity...
-(CROWD CHEERING)

...to honor
all those quiet heroes

all across America
and all across North Carolina.

We can bring change to America

to make sure that their work
and their sacrifice is honored.

That's what we're fighting for!

♪ (INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

REPORTER: They opened
the floodgates this morning

at voting places
across the country.

REPORTER 2: The lines
began forming,

even before the sun came up.

REPORTER 3: And in many cases,

lines as far
as the eye could see.

REPORTER 2:
Even with the long lines,

both campaigns were still
working feverishly

to add to them.

Anybody else you can get
to come out and help us,

-we'd really appreciate it.
-(CROWD APPLAUDING)

REPORTER 4: In Indianapolis,
Obama worked the phones

in a last minute
"get out the vote" effort.

Hi, Pam?

This is Barack Obama,
how are you?

It wasn't unexpected
at that point

that he was going to be elected,
if you looked at the polling.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

KEN MACK: But, I was one
of the people

who firmly believed that,
"I'll believe it when I see it."

Of course in politics,
it ain't over until people vote.

CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD:
I was one of those people

who that was my first time
ever voting, period.

Like, ever.

Like, Barack Obama
was the first person

that energized me
and made me say,

"Yo, I want to go out here
and vote."

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

I decided to call
a watch-night service

like we do on New Year's Eve,

down at Martin Luther King's
church in Atlanta.

(CONGREGATION APPLAUDING)

LEWIS: This election is not
the promised land,

but I tell you,
it is a major down payment

-on the promised land.
-(CONGREGATION CHEERING)

And when it flashed
across that screen,

-Obama won Ohio,
-(CONGREGATION CHEERING)

I was in my fifties,

and it was the first time
in my life

that I could honestly tell
a kid,

-you could be president.
-(CONGREGATION CHEERING)

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-WOLF: We're only a few seconds

away from the top of the hour

when these states
will be closing

and there are some big ones.
And presumably,

we'll be able to see
what's going on and make,

perhaps, a major projection
at that point.

This is a moment that a lot
of people have been waiting for.

This is a moment that,
potentially,

could be rather historic...

CROWD: Five, four, three,
two, one! (CHEERING)

And CNN can now project
that Barack Obama,

47 years old, will become
the President-elect

of the United States.

We project he now
has enough electoral votes.

-More than...
-LEWIS: I never thought

that I would live to see
a Black man

or a Black woman as president
of the United States of America.

My own mother, my own father,
my grandparents

didn't become registered voters

until after
the Voting Rights Act was passed

and signed into law
on August 6th, 1965.

(CROWD CHEERING)

LEWIS: And to live to see

Barack Obama become president
of the United States of America

was almost too much.

(CROWD CHEERING)

LEWIS: I jumped up so high

I didn't think my feet
were going to touch the floor,

and I started crying.

(CROWD CHEERING)

It was the moment...

the movement and the mission
all came together.

Man, to my mind came
the martyrs.

(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)

JESSE JACKSON: Our warriors
fight for civil rights

in America, we're soldiers too.

Fighting for freedom in America
is risky, it's very dangerous.

(GUNSHOT FIRES)

JESSE: And those who made it
possible were not there.

(CROWD CHEERING)

I wish Dr. King, Medgar Evers...

for a moment just--

God gave them 15 seconds
to look at-- look at their work.

This is their work,
he's the result of our work.

-ANNOUNCER: Ladies
and gentlemen...
-(CROWD CHEERING)

...the next First Family
of the United States of America.

-When he won, we all won.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

I went to Grant Park.
If you're in Grant Park,

it seemed like America
had finally done

-something significant.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

MACK: It was an affirmation

of what America could be
at its best.

America's not always
at its best.

But, I-- I felt, that night,
election night,

as a Black man in America,

that this is what America
could be.

(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: If there is anyone
out there...

who still doubts that America
is a place

where all things are possible...

who still wonders if the dream
of our founders

is alive in our time...

who still questions the power
of our democracy,

tonight is your answer.

(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: It's been
a long time coming...

but tonight, because of what
we did on this day,

in this election,
at this defining moment,

-change has come to America.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: That's the true genius
of America...

that America can change.

Our union can be perfected.

This election had many firsts
and many stories

that will be told
for generations,

but one
that's on my mind tonight's

about a woman
who cast her ballot in Atlanta.

She is a lot like the millions
of others

who stood in line
to make their voice heard

in this election,
except for one thing,

Anne Nixon Cooper
is 106 years old.

She was born
just a generation past slavery,

when someone like her
couldn't vote for two reasons.

Because she was a woman

and because of the color
of her skin.

And this year, in this election,

she touched her finger
to a screen and cast her vote

because after 106 years
in America,

through the best of times
and the darkest of hours,

she knows
how America can change.

-Yes, we can.
-CROWD: Yes, we can!

OBAMA: America,
we have come so far.

We have seen so much.

But there's so much more to do.

So, tonight,
let us ask ourselves...

If our children should live
to see the next century...

if my daughters
should be so lucky

to live as long
as Anne Nixon Cooper,

what change will they see?

What progress will we have made?

This is our chance
to answer that call.

This is our moment.

This is our time
to reclaim the American dream

and reaffirm
that fundamental truth

that out of many, we are one.

That while we breathe, we hope.

And where we are met
with cynicism and doubt,

and those who tell us
that we can't,

we will respond
with that timeless creed

that sums up the spirit
of a people.

Yes, we can.

-CROWD: Yes, we can!
-Thank you, God bless you,

and may God bless
the United States of America.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)

-Oh wow!
-(CROWD CHUCKLES)

-Nice, guys. Thank you.
-(JOE BIDEN CHUCKLES)

Thank you very much, everybody.
Thank you very much.

This morning, we woke up
to more sobering news

about the state of our economy.

Now, the United States
has only one government

and one president at a time.

And until January 20th
of next year,

that government
is the current administration.

I've spoken to President Bush.

I appreciate his commitment

to ensuring
that his economic policy team

keeps us fully informed
as developments unfold.

And I'm also thankful

for his invitation
to The White House.

-(AIRPLANE ENGINE REVVING)
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

REPORTER:
For almost two years now,

Barack Obama has been
in campaign mode.

And suddenly overnight,
everything has changed.

BARBARA WALTERS: Barack Obama
will replace

one of the most unpopular
presidents in modern history.

He will inherit two wars

-and an economic crisis
not seen...
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

...since The Great Depression.

REPORTER 3:
His first legislative goal

will be to get Congress to pass
an economic stimulus package

that he hopes will create jobs
and put money in the pockets

-of ordinary citizens.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

KROFT: Have there been
moments when you've said,

-"What did I get myself into?"
-(CHUCKLES)

You know, surprisingly enough,
I feel, uh, right now that...

I'm- I'm doing
what I should be doing.

(CROWD CHEERING)

OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama,
do solemnly swear.

JOHN ROBERTS:
That I will execute the office

of President
to the United States faithfully.

LEWIS: The day
when he was inaugurated,

I walked up to him
and asked him to sign something.

He wrote on this piece of paper,

"It's all because of you, John."

I said,
Well, thank you Mr. President.

He gave me a hug, I hugged him.

-And we both teared up.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

WEST: Now, you've got
a Black man in that White House

built primarily by Black slaves.

That's moment that, uh,
I think all of us

of all colors would feel very,
very deeply.

I'll never forget that as long
as I live.

(CROWD CHEERING)

COATES: Rappers
and basketball players.

That was the range in which
Black men existed

in the pop culture
for the most part.

That was it.

And so it was really
something beautiful

about, you know,
seeing something else.

This was Black Camelot.

How much more American
could we get than this?

(CROWD CHEERING)

ALVIN LOVE: After the parade,
he came back to The White House

for a meeting
with several of us,

uh, who had been friends
with him across the years.

And as he got ready to go,
he grabbed me and he said,

"Rev, I'm in it now."

He said, "Pray for me."

♪ (THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

I wanted to get everyone
together, on the first day,

to welcome you to
the White House.

SPEAKER: When he was elected,
a lot of Americans

had never had a Black boss,
and here he was,

the highest authority figure
in the land.

It was naive for us to think
there wouldn't be a backlash.

SPEAKER 2: There's a huge number
of people out there

talking about taking
their country back.

-(CROWD COMMOTION)
-BARACK OBAMA:
If we can recognize ourselves

in folks who,
on the surface

seem different,
we can move forward together.

SPEAKER 3: Time-and-time again,
he's trying to find

some sort of middle ground.
There is no middle ground.

OBAMA: The strongest democracies
endure when people find a way

to set aside smaller
differences,

in service of a greater purpose.
I have full faith

and confidence that we can do it.

I wanted to get everyone together

on the first day

to welcome you
to the White House.

And from
our vantage point yesterday,

you couldn't help
but be inspired

by the sight of Americans,
as far as the eye could see.

They were there
because they believe

this is a moment
of great change in America,

a time for reinvigorating
our democracy

and remaking our country.

However long we are keepers
of the public trust,

we should never forget
that we are here

as public servants,

and public service
is a privilege.

Public service is simply
and absolutely

about advancing the interests
of Americans.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

MARTY NESBTT:
I remember my wife and I

heading up to the residence

on the first day
that they were in

the White House and riding up
with an elevator operator...

this African American guy

who had worked
in the White House

for 40 years at that time,

and I said, "So how did it feel
during this whole process

where an African American
was on his way to be elected

President of the United States?"

And he said, "At no time
during the entire campaign

did I ever think
he was going to win."

He said,
"That is how improbable

it all felt to a man my age."

No one thought
we would live to see this thing.

But what did that day signify?
That was the question.

How much had America changed
because it had finally

gotten rid of this
hereditary barrier

to occupancy of the White House,
that is race?

MICHELE NORRIS:
During the Obama candidacy,

there was a word
that was in vogue.

There were a lot of people,

people of influence,

talking about
the notion that America

might be entering
a post-racial status.

Post-racial
is an interesting word,

you know, it was a new word.

It was not part
of the American vernacular.

It's interesting why

we, as a society,
embraced that word.

Was it hope?

That maybe race
would be less important?

Was a hubris?

Were we deluded?

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

AL SHARPTON: I think
that when you study history...

All right, guys.

...every time we made
a step forward,

there was always a backlash.

We go from Lincoln's
emancipation proclamation

into reconstruction,
Ku Klux Klan,

White Citizens Council,
backlash.

Supreme Court decisions,
backlash.

Turn of the century,
NAACP is formed.

Backlash. Lynchings.

All the way up through
the Civil Rights Movement.

It was naive for us to think
there wouldn't be a backlash

to the first Black president.

♪ (TUNE CONCLUDES) ♪

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

Hello, everybody.

Well, it is great to see you.

I wanna thank both
the House and the Senate

for moving forward
very diligently

on this process of getting

a recovery
and renewal plan passed.

I know that it is a heavy lift

to do something as substantial
as we're doing right now.

I recognize that there are still
some differences

around the table,
and between the administration

and members of Congress,
about particular details

on the plan.

This is Senate Republican
leader Mitch McConnell.

Earlier this week,

President Obama
came to Capitol Hill

to speak with members
of my party about his plan

for an economic recovery bill.

Hello, everybody.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)

We had a wonderful
exchange of ideas,

and I continue to be optimistic
about our ability to get

this recovery package done,
and put people back to work.

The task
for Democrats in the House

was to craft a stimulus plan
that was timely,

targeted, and temporary.

Apparently,
they didn't get the memo.

JOHN LEWIS:
They were some forces

working against
President Barack Obama,

there were
members of Congress...

they were some
very powerful individuals

simply would not
let him succeed.

I don't expect
a hundred percent agreement

from my Republican colleagues,
but I do hope that

we can all put politics aside

and do the American people's
business right now. All right?

MICHAEL DYSON: We know
that Mitch McConnell

was not devoted

to making sure that he could
work with this man,

to forge a connection
that would have given the world

a sense of what is possible
when Americans agree,

even if they
disagree politically.

That they agree that the nation

is bigger
than their partisanship,

than their
political affiliation.

BARACK: The plan's
not perfect. No plan is.

I can't tell you for sure
that everything in this plan

will work exactly as we hope,

but I can tell you
with complete confidence

that a failure to act
will only deepen this crisis,

as well as the pain felt
by millions of Americans.

When Barack became president...

he still had
the sense of fair play.

Now, all through
his organizing days,

this was a kind of a argument
between us.

Barack insisted that we appoint

some of the other members
of the community

who had fought against us

in the interest of cohesiveness,
and we were, like, "Why?"

The strongest democracies
flourish

from frequent and lively debate.

But they endure when people
of every background and belief

find a way to set aside
smaller differences

in service of a greater purpose.

I have full faith and confidence
that we can do it.

But we're gonna have
to work together.

(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

REPORTER:
The Democrats are claiming this

as a major victory
for President Obama.

Barack Obama, in just a few
short weeks as president,

has passed one of the biggest
packages for economic relief

in our country's history.

There you go, it's done.

REPORTER: The package
is intended to cut taxes,

increase jobs,
and modernize infrastructure.

But it's a victory that came

with almost
no Republican support,

a long way from those hopes
of bipartisanship.

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

They didn't care whether
the American people suffer.

They only cared
with the perception

of not working
with this president,

and it was all about race.

You can dress it up,
you can dress it down,

but it was all about race.

ANNOUNCER: Madam Speaker,

the President
of the United States.

MICHELE: When he was elected,

there were a lot of Americans
who've never had a Black boss.

And here he was the highest
authority figure in the land.

DAVID REMNICK:
Look, let's not be naive here.

Political parties are
in a permanent state

of opposition
and political battle.

And to some degree

that's as it should be.
It's a battle for ideas

and whose policy is better,
and all the rest.

On the other hand,

he was met with absolute wall
of recalcitrance from day one.

I don't think
you can ever separate

politics from race,
when it comes to Barack Obama.

How did he become president,
and why.

The first important reason
was the speech he gave in 2004

at the Democratic Convention
where his whole theme was

bringing the divergent threads
of America together,

and he gets elected president,
and the Republicans say

"Forget that.
We don't want that."

"We don't want you."

TA-NEHISI COATES:
This does not require

a Mitch McConnell
or John Boehner,

or Paul Ryan
to be personally racist.

That's not really the question,

or be bad people,
or bigots, or whatever,

however, you want it.
That's not the actual question.

The question is structural.

What is the Republican Party
right now?

What was the Republican Party
when Barack Obama

entered office?

♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

TA-NEHISI: It was a white party.

How can you have
your first Black president

and race, or racism
be no factor?

Ann Compton.

Hey, Ann.

-Could I ask you about race?
-BARACK: You may.

ANN COMPTON: Yours is
a rather historic presidency,

and I'm just wondering whether
in any of the policy debates

that you've had
within the White House,

the issue of race has come up,

or has the last 64 days been
a relatively colorblind time?

I think that the last 64 days
has been dominated by

me trying to figure out
how we're gonna fix the economy.

And that affects Black,
brown, and white.

And, you know, obviously,
at the inauguration,

I think that there was
justifiable pride

on the part of the country
that we have taken

a step to move us beyond...

some of the searing legacies

of racial discrimination
in this country.

But that lasted about a day.

Frankly, I spend a lot of time
trying to forget the details

of that day.

But I learned something.

I learned that being locked
in a cage,

no matter how short a time,

is one of the worst nightmares

any human being
could ever experience.

There's nothing quite like
the sense of finality.

Someone puts you in a cage,
slams the door behind you,

and you hear that clank.

And you have no idea how long
you're gonna be there.

BARACK: Good evening.
Before I take your questions,

I wanna talk
for a few minutes about

the progress we're making
on health insurance reform,

and where it fits into
our broader economic strategy.

Now, six months ago,
I took office...

In the summer of 2009,
we were running out of time

to get health care reform
done that year,

and it was important
to finish it,

so that we could
move on to the rest

of President Obama's agenda.

So, President Obama
decided to have

a press conference
where he would have

the sole topic be health care.

We will pass reform
that lowers cost,

promotes choice,
and provides coverage

that every American
can count on,

and we will do it this year.

With that,
I'll take your questions.

The press conference
went very well,

and except the last question.

REPORTER: Recently,
Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

was arrested at his home
in Cambridge.

What does that incident
say to you,

and what does it say about
race relations in America?

BARACK:
I don't know all the facts.

What's been reported, though,

is that the guy forgot his keys,

uh, jimmied his way
to get into the house.

There was...

a report called
into the police station

that there might be
a burglary taking place.

So far so good.

My understanding is,
is that Professor Gates

then shows his ID to show
that this is his house.

And at that point,
he gets arrested

for disorderly conduct.

Now, I've...

I don't know,
not having been there,

and not seeing all the facts,

what role race played in that.

But I think it's fair to say,
number one,

any of us would be pretty angry.

Number two,
that the Cambridge Police...

acted stupidly
in arresting somebody

when there was already proof

that they were
in their own home.

JAMES CROWLEY:
I support the President

of the United States
110 percent.

I think he's way off base,
wading into a local issue,

without knowing all the facts
as he himself stated

before he made that comment.

That's not to say Gates
was wrong,

that's not to say
the officer was wrong.

Should President Obama
had gone on national television

last night and decided that
the officers acted stupidly?

In arresting him after proving
that was his home.

You have to add that, Rick.

You know...

it's difficult
to be the first anything.

And I think those figures expend

an extraordinary amount
of energy

resisting situations
that might inflame.

President Obama has tried
to bridge the racial divide

in this country, but based
on the ferocious response

to his comment last night,
he may have opened up

a new chasm.

I think what he said was true.

But the backlash...

My office was flooded
with hate phone calls

and hate email.

And you could see it
in the media,

the way he was attacked.

Let's face it.
President Obama's Black,

and I think he's got a chip
on his shoulder,

I think there are
elements in this country

he doesn't like,
and he never has liked.

This president, I think,
has exposed himself as a guy,

over and over and over again,
who has a deep-seated hatred

for white people
or the white culture,

I don't know what it is.

KEN MACK: He knows
what it's like to be a Black man

in the United States.

But also he has to symbolize
something larger,

than just being a Black man
in the United States,

he's gotta be President
of the United States.

To the extent
that my choice of words

didn't illuminate,
but rather contributed

to more media frenzy,
I think that was unfortunate.

And that just was a microcosm
of one of the conundrums

he faced as president,
that if he spoke about race,

there was immediately
a controversy.

But people wanted him
to speak about race,

and he felt these things, too.

So, there's no
real right answer.

One last point I guess I'd make.

So, there are some who say
that as president,

I shouldn't have stepped
into this at all

because it's a local issue.

I have to tell you that,
that thing--

that part of it I disagree with.

Whether I were Black or white...

I think that...

me commenting on this,

and hopefully,
contributing to constructive,

as opposed to negative
understandings about the issue,

is part of my portfolio.

So...

HENRY GATES JR.:
President Obama called me

and he said he had spoken
to Officer Crowley,

and what did I think
about the idea...

of having a beer
at the White House.

And instinctively,

I realized that this wasn't
about Officer Crowley and me.

This was about addressing
this wave of white supremacy

that had erupted so unexpectedly
at the embarkation

of the era of racelessness,

which we thought his election
had inaugurated.

MICHAEL: Many people
in his administration

did not want him to apologize.

No beer summit.

Many young
Black people, staffers,

"You didn't do anything wrong.
You spoke the truth."

But speaking the truth
is one thing,

offending whites
upon whom you depend

for polls
and reelection is another.

That spelled bad news
for those who were advocates

for an explicit engagement
with the issue of race.

It was an attempt
by Obama to calm the waters,

because the polls
were showing...

that the numbers
were against Obama

being critical about the police.

He was siding
against the police.

HENRY: The day after
Officer Crowley and I

met at the White House,

all the phone calls,
all the hate mails,

and all the people picketing
outside my house,

poof, disappeared like magic.

Hello, North Carolina.

Health care reform
was a challenging issue

for many presidents.

Seven presidents had tried,
seven presidents had failed.

Barack Obama was determined
to get it done.

It is not only great
to be back in Raleigh.

It is also nice
to get out of Washington.

(ALL CHUCKLE)

With all the noise
and the fussing

and the fighting that goes on,

it's pretty easy for the voices
of everyday people to get lost.

So, let me just explain
why the health

of the American people,
and the American economy

demands health insurance reform.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

REPORTER: They're vocal.

Say no! Just say no!

REPORTER: They're impassioned.

We want you to represent us
as the majority.

REPORTER: And they've
got everyone

talking about health reform.

Now, this led us
to ask questions.

REPORTER: Many of those raising
their voices at town halls

have never been
politically active.

Take John Bair.

He found an outlet
in the conservative

anti-tax Tea Party movement,
whose organizers

are now busing protesters
to health care town halls.

The American people
are not stupid.

Only common sense tells you
we just can't support this.

(CROWD CLAMORS)

I got one letter from a woman.

She said, "I don't want
government-run health care.

I don't want
your socialist plan.

And don't touch my Medicare."

The opponents
of the Affordable Care Act,

some of whom would be
the beneficiaries of it...

No more Medicare.

DAVID: ...were led to believe...

by political forces

that they were going
to lose something,

someone else was
going to gain something.

The inference was that
'someone' were poor minorities,

you know, maybe
illegal immigrants, and so on.

I mean, it was--
it was an ugly campaign.

Democrats have been scrambling
to put to bed the rumors

that death panels
that will decide the fate

of your loved ones is
a part of healthcare reform.

And some committee
is gonna decide,

what is the cost-benefit
analysis for grandma?

Grandma is not just
your grandmother,

she's a statistic.

REPORTER:
Even former Alaska governor

Sarah Palin jumped into the fray

with a Facebook posting,
claiming her young son,

who suffers from Down Syndrome,

would be subjected
to death panels

under the proposed
health reforms.

Where we do disagree,
let's disagree over things

that are real.

Not these wild
misrepresentations

that bear no resemblance

to anything
that's actually been proposed.

(CHEERS)

JELANI COBB: There had been
a paranoia around Obama,

all with the current of it,

you know,
since he became a viable figure

in national politics.

And so it's not shocking

that you see
these town hall meetings

that seem to teeter
on the brink of bedlam.

They really don't belong here,
and I'm gonna ask them to leave.

All of this is happening
in direct relationship

to this idea of
who the president is,

and, you know, what you believe

that this president's
ultimate agenda is.

Most inscrutably
for a legislation

that was going
to overwhelmingly benefit

uninsured white people,

one of the right-wing
talking points was that

the Affordable Care Act
was some sort of stealth plan

to give Black people
reparations.

BARACK:
Some of people's concerns

have grown out of bogus claims,

spread by those
whose only agenda

is to kill reform at any cost.

The best example is the claim,

made not just by radio
and cable talk show hosts

but by prominent politicians,
that we plan to set up

panels of bureaucrats
with the power

to kill off senior citizens.

Now such a charge
would be laughable,

if it weren't so cynical
and irresponsible.

It is a lie, plain and simple.

(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

Now.

Now.

There are also those who claim
that our reform efforts

would insure illegal immigrants.

This, too, is false.

The reforms--
the reforms I'm proposing

would not apply to those
who are here illegally.

(CROWD INDISTINCT CHATTER)

That's not true.

And one more misunderstanding
I wanna clear up...

A member of Congress blurted out
and heckled the President,

"You lie"
in the middle of the speech.

I mean, we had presidents
that had got up,

and said all kind of things
that we didn't like.

And you had civil rights leaders
in the Congress

from Adam Clayton Powell
all the way to John Lewis,

that never happened.

But they almost felt they were
entitled to do that to him.

SHERRILYN IFILL: I'll never
forget the feeling of it.

I'll never forget. I mean,
I'm right now, I'm discussing it

and I'm enraged at this moment.

Of the disrespect that was shown
to this Black man,

because that's
who he was for them.

He was not the president.

And it was despicable.

I, last night,
heard from the leadership

that they wanted me to contact
the White House,

and state that my statements
were inappropriate, I did.

I'm a big believer
that we all make mistakes.

He apologized quickly
and without equivocation,

and I'm appreciative of that.

VALERIE:
There are people who thought
he should have stopped

and checked him for that,

and chastised him in public,
and he said,

"I'm trying
to get healthcare passed."

SHERRILYN: I could understand
why he was driving them crazy.

There were just moments
where he was so masterful,

so intellectually capable,

so astute,
so informed, so clear.

Part of the goal here,
I think, is to figure out,

what are the areas
that we do agree on,

what are the areas
where we don't agree,

and at the end of that process,

then make an honest assessment

as to whether we can bridge
these differences.

I don't know yet whether we can.

And this is, of course,
the reality about race,

and racism in this country.

The exclusion of Black people

was not because they actually
thought we were inferior,

it was because
they feared competition.

And it was the fear
of somebody just like him

that would potentially shatter,
and smash every stereotype.

And I think
it was maddening for them.

Does it frustrate you
when your own supporters

see racism
when you don't think it exists?

Well, look,

I think that race
is such a volatile issue

in this society,
always has been,

that it becomes hard for people

to separate out race

being sort of a part
of the backdrop

of American society

versus race being
a predominant factor

in any given debate.

The overwhelming part
of the American population

I think is right now
following this debate,

and they're trying to figure out
is this gonna help me?

CROWD: (CHANTING)
Kill the bill! Kill the bill!

JOHN BOEHNER:
This healthcare bill

will ruin our country.
It's time to stop him.

REPORTER 1: It is
the 11th hour in the debate

over health care reform.

Democrats insist
they've got the momentum,

but the President
is taking no chances.

REPORTER 2: President Obama
made a last-minute visit

to the Capitol this afternoon.

To call on Democratic lawmakers
to ignore the political risk

and do what he calls
the right thing.

The question is whether enough
right-leaning Democrats

will go along when the votes
are cast tomorrow afternoon.

REPORTER 3:
Around the Capitol today,

protesters gather to cheer
on the plan's opponents...

CROWD: (CHANTING) Kill the bill!

REPORTER 3: ...and to
jeer Democratic leaders.

(CROWD CHEERS)

JOHN: As we start walking,

the Democratic members,
I will never forget it.

(CROWD CHEERS, CLAMORS)

JOHN LEWIS: This is
the 100th anniversary

of the march across
the bridge in Selma.

(CROWD CHEERING)

JOHN: And it reminded me.

There were people yelling
using the N-word...

cursing people...

spitting on members.

This debate has been
a difficult debate.

Don't do it for me.

Don't do it
for the Democratic Party,

do it for the American people.

They're the ones who are looking
for action right now.

Dr. King, like President Obama,

believed that healthcare
is a right.

CROWD: (CHANTING)
Kill the bill! Kill the bill!

JOHN LEWIS:
And we were determined.

We walked on the floor,

we cast our votes,

-and we passed the bill.
-ANNOUNCER: That's it.

(ALL APPLAUD)

DAVID:
When the final votes came in,

I went into my office
and I closed the door.

I just sobbed because I had
a child with a chronic illness,

and I almost went bankrupt

when I was a young
newspaper reporter

because we couldn't
afford her medication.

-Yeah!
-All right! What's next?

DAVID: And I knew that
because of what he had done,

others wouldn't have
to go through that.

And I went and I found him...

and I thanked him on behalf
of those families.

And he put his hand
on my shoulder and he said,

"That's why we do the work."

MICHAEL: Mr. Obama
is an extraordinary human being

who's a great president
potentially.

We love him, we think
he's a marvelous human being,

but at the same time,
a Black agenda

is not qualified
or surrendered

because Mr. Obama
is in the White House.

I was hoping that
he would make poverty

much more of a central issue

even as he was trying
to reconstruct the economy.

But by reconstructing
the economy, he had a chance

to render
Wall Street elites accountable.

And that was the beginning
of my deep suspicion

that lo and behold
he was leaning in the direction

away from the legacy
of Martin Luther King Jr.

We already see
that any president

is under tremendous pressure
from the strong,

the corporate elites,
Wall Street oligarchs.

Various powerful folks
at the top,

and can easily push Obama
in such a way

that he tilts too much
toward the strong,

and doesn't focus the way
he ought on the weak,

on the poor, on working people.
That's why we're here today.

MICHAEL: Look, on the one hand
who could blame Obama?

I don't wanna be pigeonholed
as the Black president.

I don't wanna pigeonholed

as the only thing
I can talk about is race.

In fact, when I come
into office, the greatest thing

that is confronting
the nation is the economy.

Do I allow the banks to fail?

Stop. Can you imagine
the headlines

after the first Black president
allows the banks to fail?

And yet, equally de-spiriting
was his reluctance

to even weigh in.

I don't think that
there was any way possible

for Barack Obama
as president to ever come up

to the expectations of the
African American community

because they expected him really
to undo 400 years of injustice

with the stroke of a pen.

KEN: I understand
the left critique of Obama,

or either the Black left
critique of Obama,

that America hasn't solved
its race problem,

that the president
has immense power

to talk about
and to institute public policy

to address that,

that America hasn't solved
its economic inequality problem.

So with Obama,
the only question is

does it make any difference
being a Black president?

I tell you, Mr. Obama,
to deal with the Black agenda

is what every president
before you had to do.

How you gonna be any different?

Abraham Lincoln
had to deal with race.

George Washington
had to deal with race.

LBJ had to deal with race.

How come
you're the first president

that ain't got
to deal with race?

It wasn't a Black president who
passed the Civil Rights Bill.

It wasn't a Black president
who passed this--

the Voting Rights Act.

It wasn't a Black president
who passed the Fair Housing Act.

It wasn't a Black president

who dealt
with affirmative action!

You're gonna be like
every other president

deal with race!

(CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

When President Obama was elected
there was an expectation

that he might lead some sort
of national conversation

around race.

Some of that had to do
with the fact that he was
a person of color.

And most conversations
around race

are often led
by people of color.

The expectations
might be heightened

because of the speech
he gave in Philadelphia

where he talked with candor
and with eloquence and honesty

about a subject that a lot
of politicians don't talk about.

One of the more interesting
things about the First Family

and the conversation around race

is the casual nature
with which they have

the conversation that often
was missed by people.

Here we go, here we go,
here we go, here we go.

VALERIE: And they did it
in interesting ways

through the way that they used

the architecture
of the White House.

♪ ("SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED,
I'M YOURS" BY STEVIE WONDER) ♪

♪ Oh, yeah, baby ♪

♪ Like a fool I went
And stayed too long ♪

VALERIE: The people that they
brought inside the building.

♪ How does a bastard orphan ♪

♪ Son of a whore
And a Scotsman... ♪

VALERIE:
Using programs around culture...

♪ Ain't gonna let nobody
Turn me around ♪

VALERIE: ...to help America
see their country

and to see each other
in an interesting way.

-Yeah!
-(CROWD APPLAUDS)

-All right.
-Yeah!

VALERIE: His presidency
begins at a moment

where we are turning the page

to sort of a new era in America

where the demographics
are changing.

We're moving closer to becoming
a majority, minority culture.

And we have to think about
what it means to be American

because for a long time
the cultural norm

around Americanness was built
around whiteness.

TA-NEHISI: Obama I think
gets a lot of flack

from the perspective of the

presidency,
first Black presidency

only being symbolic,
but, you know, as I argue,

I think people underrate
the value of symbols.

I think the way Obama
conducted himself

in terms of specifically
his relationship

with Black culture...

-Hey, brother.
-Hello, sir.

TA-NEHISI: ...communicated
a totally different symbol

to other people.

And I think one of the great
mistakes was we forgot that.

We forgot that
there were other people,

you know, who were watching.

You get an understanding
there were other people

who are gonna see that,

like see him playing basketball
for instance.

And they would feel a kind
of way about that.

VALERIE: As the
cultural default changes,

as the conversation changes,

as the demographics
of the country change...

that change creates vertigo
for some people.

That change makes some people
feel really uncomfortable.

DAVID: He knows
that there's a huge

number of people out there

talking about
taking their country back.

A big slogan
of the Tea Party movement.

He knew that his presence
in the White House

invariably exacerbated
some of the worst elements

in our history
that are always there,

and so he was very careful.

Back into the segment tonight,
Reality Check,

where we fervently embrace
the truth, check one.

Speaking at an
NAACP event in March,

Department of Agriculture
official Shirley Sherrod

was caught on tape saying
something very disturbing.

Seems a white farmer
in Georgia had requested

government assistance
from Ms. Sherrod.

Breitbart released
a video in which

Shirley Sherrod
was giving a speech

that appeared to disparage
white people.

Wow. Well, that
is simply unacceptable,

and Ms. Sherrod
must resign immediately.

The federal government
cannot have skin color

deciding any assistance.

And the White House flinched.

REPORTER: The reaction
was swift and certain.

White House official say
the decision to fire

this official was solely
at the discretion

of the Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack,

but the President
was briefed afterwards,

and we're told,
fully supports the decision.

Do you feel as though
you had an opportunity

to state your side of the story?

No, I didn't,
the administration didn't--

They were not interested
in hearing the truth.

No one wanted to hear the truth.

Everyone was running
scared so much,

with this story out there.

You hear my words,
but you don't realize

he's cut it to make it appear
that it had just happened,

I was telling the story
from 24 years earlier.

You know, it was just
total shock to me

that someone would do
what this guy did to me.

This story is about the NAACP,

this story is about the NAACP
falsely accusing

the Tea Party of being racist.

Everyone is thinking
I'm this terrible,

terrible person.

I've spent my whole life
trying to help people.

Racism is used by the left,
and the Democratic Party

to shut up opposition,
and I am showing you

that people who live
in glass houses

should not be throwing stones.

As things unfolded
I realized, you know,

I was just a target
that he was using

to get at the President.

Only after the fact do
they realize that

this video has been doctored.

What appears to be
an inflammatory

anti-white speech
is actually an empowering speech

about the importance
of understanding human beings

as human beings irrespective
of what they look like

where they're from,
or their background,

and it's coming from a woman...

who had experienced
the worst of Southern racism.

It was four
to five years ago today

that my
father's funeral was held.

I was a young girl
at the age of 17

when my father was murdered

by a white man in Baker County.

On the night
of my father's death

the thought just came
into my head,

you can give up your dream
of living in the North,

you can stay in the South,
and devote your life

to working for change.

When I made that commitment,

I was making that commitment
to Black people.

And to Black people only.

But, you know,
God will show you things,

and he'll put things
in your path so that...

that you realize
that the struggle

-AUDIENCE MEMBER: Right.
-...is really about poor people.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:
All right, all right.

I decided to use...

the story of my transformation

to try to say to them

if you look at all
that I've been through,

my father's murder,
and all of this.

If I can place that
where it should be...

now and try to work together,
why can't we all do it?

KEN: Here you have
a Black woman,
civil rights activist.

In her family,

you know, is this history
of brutality,

just the worst kind of racism
that you ever wanna see...

and the notion
that the Obama Administration

bought that this woman
was perpetuating

some sort of vengeful scheme
against white people.

They believed Andrew Breitbart,
they believed the guy

who actually was trying
to do them in.

It was sad that you would part
with Shirley Sherrod,

you know, who, in some really,
you know, profound ways

have made it possible
for a Black president to exist.

You know, in pursuit of people
who don't like you,

who will never like you,
who will never believe you,

who will never support you,
who have never accepted you.

Last week I had the chance
to talk to Shirley Sherrod...

an exemplary woman
whose experiences marked

both the challenges
we have faced,

and the progress
that we've made.

She deserves better
than what happened last week.

(CROWD APPLAUDS)

Now, many are to blame
for the reaction,

and overreaction that followed
these comments

including my own administration.

What I said to Shirley was
that the full story

she was trying to tell...

a story about overcoming
our own biases,

and recognizing ourselves
and folks who on the surface

seem different, is exactly
the kind of story

we need to hear in America.

That we can take
an opportunity to learn

from our imperfections,
and our mistakes,

And I'm confident that
we can move forward together...

and make this country
a little more perfect

than it was before.

GLENN BECK: This country
has spent far too long

worried about scars,

and thinking about the scars
and concentrating on the scars.

Today we are
going to concentrate,

on the good things in America.

The things
that we have accomplished,

and the things
that we can do tomorrow.

Oh, huzzah!

REPORTER:
Roughly 87,000 people

gathered here
at this event today,

that's the largest gathering
here on the mall

since President Obama
was inaugurated.

SARAH PALIN:
It is so humbling to get

to be here
with you today patriots.

You who are motivated,
and engaged and concerned.

REPORTER: Democrats are worried
about an enthusiasm gap,

headed into the fall elections,

and judging
by all the conservatives

who are willing to board buses
and head here to Washington,

they should be.

The influence of the Tea Party
could be the story

of campaign 2010.

The movements have been
turning voting anger

into energy coast to coast.

REPORTER:
Several Tea Party groups
have sparked criticism

for using racist slurs
and images

at marches around the country.

Organizers say each group
sets its own agenda.

REPORTER 2:
The star attraction of today's
Tea Party Express rally,

Sarah Palin,
whose endorsements

have already helped
25 candidates

win their primary races.

Tea Party Americans,
you're winning.

You're winning.

And the left,
they just don't know

what the heck to do with you.

Are you fired up,
and ready to go?

REPORTER: For the first time
since 2008, Michele Obama

joined her husband
on the campaign trail.

The first lady's campaign swing
is a shot in the arm

for weary democrats,

and her husband
whose approval numbers,

especially
in battleground states,

continue to sag.

We'll see you. We'll see you.

BARACK: Tuesday is Election Day,
and here in Washington,

the talk is all about
who will win and who will lose

about parties and politics.

I believe it's
the fundamental responsibility

of all who hold elective office
to seek out common ground.

All right,
everybody have a seat.

JELANI: Time and time again,
he's trying to find

some sort of middle ground,

only to realize that
there is no middle ground.

-STAFF MEMBER: Hello there, sir.
-How are you?

STAFF MEMBER:
Good to see you this morning.

JELANI:
The Republicans are very much
following the electorate.

They don't want him
to be successful in any way.

When Mitch McConnell said
that his main objective

was to ensure that Barack Obama
would be a one-term presidency,

he was reflecting
a really significant impulse

among a not small number
of white people

in the United States.

That Obama, by virtue
in fact of who he was,

was an illegitimate occupant
of the White House.

Our current president
came out of nowhere.

-Came out of nowhere.
-AUDIENCE MEMBER: Kenya!

In fact, I'll go a step further.

The people that went
to school with him,

they don't even know,
they never saw him,

they don't know
who he is, crazy.

I heard “birther” this,

and I keep saying
what is “birther”?

To people, like,
what is this “birther” stuff?

"You know, because Barack Obama
wasn't born in Hawaii."

What do you mean
he wasn't born in Hawaii?

Hey guys, I got a whole
300 and something classmates

that we all
grew up together, too.

DONALD TRUMP ENTREPRENEUR

People have birth certificates,

he doesn't have
a birth certificate.

Now, he may have one,
but there's something

on that birth, maybe religion,
maybe it says he's a Muslim,

I don't know.

Long ago,
the President did release

a certificate of live birth

which many non-partisan
watchdog groups say

definitively proves
he was born in the US.

Just wanna be clear,
I was born in Hawaii.

Donald Trump didn't begin
the birther movement,

but he extended it,
he gave it legs.

He exacerbated the narrow

and hateful positions

on Obama
that the Birthers had adopted.

I heard he had terrible marks,
and he ends up in Harvard.

He wrote a book that was better
than Ernest Hemingway,

but his second book was written
by an average person.

Quite vigorously,
and quite explicitly,

Donald Trump
had introduced racist rhetoric

into the presidency

by attacking
Barack Obama as he did.

Questioning his talent,
questioning his skill,

questioning
his grades in school,

which is kind of ironic.

And, you know, I wrote
many best sellers,

and also number one best sellers
including The Art of Deal,

I know something about writing.

-Hello, everybody.
-Here's the President.

Here he is!

As many of you
have been briefed,

we provided
additional information today

about the site of my birth,

and I have to say that over
the last two and half years,

I have watched with...

bemusement,

I've been puzzled at the degree

to which this thing just
kept on going.

We've had
every official in Hawaii,

Democrat and Republican,

every news outlet
that has investigated this,

confirmed that yes, in fact,
I was born in Hawaii

August 4th, 1961
in Kapiolani Hospital.

We posted the...

certification that is given

by the State of Hawaii
on the internet

for everybody to see.

I know that there's gonna be
a segment of people,

for which no matter
what we put out,

this issue will not be
put to rest.

But I'm speaking
to the vast majority

of the American people
as well as to the press.

We do not have time
for this kind of silliness,

we got better stuff to do.

I think for a long time
he treated those attacks...

...as yet another example
of how stupid politics could be.

That politics is a game,
that, you know,

it's filled with name-calling
and insults.

♪ (MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

I think that Birther stuff
from Trump got to him.

I don't know if it made him
angry because he never,

I never really
saw him get angry.

My fellow Americans.

But clearly,
when we were writing

his speech for the White House
Correspondents' Dinner.

Mahalo.

We decided to make sure
there were a lot of jokes

in that speech
about Donald Trump,

And I know that
he's taking some flak lately,

but no one is happier,
no one is prouder

to put this
birth certificate matter

to rest than the Donald.

And I can tell you that
the president was delighted

to tell those jokes.

Say what you will about
Mr. Trump,

he certainly would bring some
change to the White House.

(CROWD CHUCKLING)

I would describe President Obama
as a still water that runs deep.

That he has a very cool
temperament and demeanor

which requires strength
because it's not

that the emotion isn't there,
it's just that he knows

that it's important
that he keep it under check.

DAVID: There is something very
writerly about him.

Very self-examining,

very careful
in the way he talks,

and to some people
it seems formal,

or arrogant or distant.

It's not the typical fair
in Washington.

You know, I think that
his self-confidence,

came from nature and nurture.

That self-confidence drove him
all the way to the White House

then would get him in trouble
in the White House

because it was thought that
he didn't need people enough.

KEEGAN KEY: There was something
in the zeitgeist

amongst the comedy community

which was he seems
so graceful and so competent.

What is it that we're supposed
to do to lampoon him?

And I remember
when I was on Mad TV,

the only thing I could really
wrap my head around

was trying to figure out
how to impersonate him.

-(CROWD CHUCKLING)
-Folks, we have hope, change,

dignity, you, me.

Yes. Hooray.

It wasn't until Key and Peele,

where Jordan
and I were going, okay.

So if he's that reserved,

what's happening on the inside?

We had to look outside of him
to find the way into him.

How are others treating him?
In particular,

how are
white Americans treating him?

How are white Americans

in the other seats
of power treating him?

And when that
one senator said to him,

you know, "You lie."

That only happened
for one reason.

That only happened
for one reason.

You could think the President
was an absolute buffoon,

and you wouldn't say that
if he didn't have melanin

in his skin.

And for him to stand
in a podium and go...

That's all he did!
That's all he did.

Because you can't win.

If I overreact,
I'm an angry Black man.

If I underreact,
I'm ineffectual.

And Jordan and I said
so if that--

Okay, so we can
identify with that.

How must that feel?

Good evening,
my fellow Americans.

Now, before I begin,

I just want to say that I know
a lot of people out there

seem to think
that I don't get angry.

That's just not true.
I get angry a lot.

It's just the way
I express passion

is different from most.

So, just so there's no more
confusion,

we've hired Luther here
to be my anger translator.

-Luther.
-Hi.

And that's where
we came up with Luther,

with him being able
to express his anger,

and his dissatisfaction
through a surrogate.

I just want to say
to my critics,

I hear your voices,
and I'm aware of your concerns.

So maybe you can chill
the hell out for like a second,

then maybe I can focus
on some shit, you know?

That goes for everybody,

including members
of the Tea Party.

Don't even get me started

on these
motherfuckers right here.

I want to assure you,
that we will be looking

for new compromises
with the GOP

in the months ahead.

And you know
these motherfuckers gonna say no

before I can even suggest
some shit.

It's not an impersonation
more than is an account

of how he's living
through the world,

and through a small piece
of problem-solving.

How can we problem-solve,
and make his life easier?

I know, we'll do
the screaming for him.

-I am not a Muslim.
-And then you can't say,

"Told you. See?
Look, uppity angry Black man."

But he's not. Luther's
the angry uppity Black man.

REPORTER:
Four years ago, Springfield.

-Cold.
-It was freezing.

You declared your candidacy,
and you said,

"The reason we've not met
our challenges

is a failure of leadership,
the smallness of our politics...

The ease of which
we're distracted

by the petty and trivial,
our chronic avoidance

of tough decisions,
our preference

for scoring cheap
political points

instead of rolling up
our sleeves,

and building
a working consensus,

to tackle the big problems
of America.

REPORTER: Those were
eloquent words, and true words.

Unfortunately, they're still
largely true today.

Did you overpromise?

Did you underestimate
how difficult this was gonna be?

I didn't overpromise,
and I didn't underestimate

how tough this was gonna be.

I always believed that this
was a long-term project.

The one thing I've prided myself
on before I was president,

and it turns out that continues
to be true as president,

I'm a persistent son of a gun.

I just stay at it,

and I'm just gonna
keep on staying at it

as long as I'm in this office,
and we're gonna get it right.

And America will succeed.

I am absolutely confident
about that.

Man, Trayvon Martin was...

Trayvon Martin was
such a sad situation,

simply because when you hear
that 911 call...

That's everything
that we as Black people,

especially Black men.

That's everything
we tell you we experience,

but you hear it from the person
who's actually doing it to us.

The racial profiling,
the stereotyping,

seeing us in the neighborhood
thinking we don't belong.

That's what we tell people
we're experiencing,

but nobody believes it
until they see it.

REPORTER 1:
Was it self-defense,

or an unjustified overreaction?

That's the central question
raised by the recent shooting

of a 17-year-old teenager
in Florida by a member

of a neighborhood watch group.

REPORTER 2:
Police got here within a minute

and found
Trayvon Martin shot dead.

REPORTER 3:
This shooter, George Zimmerman,

was questioned,
but has not been arrested.

He holds a license to carry
a concealed weapon,

and claims he fired
in self-defense.

But the teen's family
disputes that claim.

INTERVIEWER:
If your son had been white,

do you think he would have been
shot and killed that day?

-No.
-Arrest Zimmerman now.

REPORTER 4:
Outrage over the fatal shooting
of Trayvon Martin

is spreading now
around the country.

REPORTER 5:
Late last night,
the Department of Justice

announced that
their civil rights division

and the FBI
are opening a thorough

and independent investigation.

Our son is your son.

-Yes.
-Hallelujah.

I want you guys
to stand up for justice,

-and stand up for what's right.
-Yeah!

Mr. President, will you comment
on the Trayvon Martin case, sir?

Well, I'm the head
of the executive branch,

and the Attorney General
reports to me.

So, I got to be careful
about my statements

to make sure that we're not
impairing any investigation

that's taking place right now.

But obviously,
this is a tragedy.

I can only imagine

what these parents
are going through.

And when I think
about this boy...

I think about my own kids.

You know, if I had son,
he'd look like Trayvon.

And, you know, I think
they are right to expect

that all of us, as Americans,
are going to take this

with the seriousness
it deserves,

and that we're going
to get to the bottom

of exactly what happened.

All right. Thank you.

BRODERICK JOHNSON:
At a very personal level,

what happened to Trayvon Martin,
really affected President Obama.

And it's something that I as a,

you know,
an African American man,

think about all the time.

That could have been
one of my son's very easily.

He saw it in those very stark
personal terms

and he talked
about it that way.

CHARLAMAGNE:
To us regular everyday people,

Trayvon Martin
was a huge deal. Huge deal.

How many presidents
would acknowledge that

on any given Sunday?

So, for him to do that,
you know,

it was just a reminder, like,
yo, that's a Black man.

♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

The chair recognizes
the gentleman from Illinois,

Mr. Rush, for five minutes

BOBBY RUSH: I thought
that something was missing...

...in his response.

Racial profiling has
to stop, Mr. Speaker,

just because
someone wears a hoodie,

does not make them a hoodlum.

The Bible teaches us,
Mr. Speaker.

In the book of Micah 6:68...

GREGG HARPER: Member will--
The member will sustain.

-...these words.
-(GAVEL POUNDS)

-The member will...
-These words.

-The member...
-"He had shown you, O man..."

-The member will suspend.
-"...what is good."

-The chair must
remind members...
-"What does not--"

-...of Clause 5 of Rule 17.
-"What does the Lord
require of you..."

-The member got an order.
-"...but to do justly

and to love mercy?"

My statement was delivered

to those young people
out there who was demonstrating.

-What do we want?
-Justice!

BOBBY: You know, some of us

feel as though
that's what we need.

The assailant
has not been charged,

something wrong with that.

We want arrest! We want arrest!

VALERIE JARRETT: President Obama
was acutely aware

of the frustrations,
and many quarters

that wanted him to be much more

forward-leaning
and confrontational.

SHERRILYN: The president
doesn't have the power

to go and order
someone's arrest.

The president doesn't
have that power.

We don't have a king.

We have a justice system
that is deeply imperfect.

But he does have
the power to just speak.

To speak in a way that tells us
that we are seen,

that reminds us
that he is human,

that reminds us
that he understands

the shared nature
of our struggle.

JELANI: I think
that Barack Obama

almost inevitably
was gonna be vested with

the weight
of Black people's claim

on American society.

Everything has been
denied to us...

starting with the right
to even exist as free people.

And the lesson had been
the less you talk openly

about race, the better.

Then Trayvon Martin was killed.

HENRY: W. E. B. Du Bois
in one of the classics

of the Black tradition called
The Souls of Black Folk

defined
the double consciousness

of every African American.

And Du Bois said,
"One ever feels his two-ness,

an American, a Negro.

Two warring ideals
in one dark body."

There never has been
a more classic example

of Du Bois's dilemma
than Barack Obama

in the White House.

Bit by bit, he allows himself
more sense of grief and outrage.

In the parameters
of what he can...

see as possible as president.

He is President
of the United States.

He is not a community activist,

he's not the leader
of a social movement

to the frustration of many.

He's the President
of the United States.

(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪

CROWD: Four more years!
Four more years!

BARRACK: We have come too far

to abandon the change we fought
for these past few years.

We have to move forward...

to the future
we imagined in 2008,

where everyone gets a fair shot,

and everyone
does their fair share,

and everyone plays
by the same rules.

That's the choice
in this election

and that's why I'm running
for a second term

as President
of the United States.

♪ (UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

REPORTER 6: Why do you think
you deserve to be re-elected?

What did you accomplish?

Not only saving this country
from a great depression,

not only saving
the auto industry,

but putting in place
a system in which

that we're gonna start lowering
health care costs,

ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

This is done.

Decimating Al-Qaeda,
including Bin Laden.

But when it comes
to the economy,

we've got a lot more work to do,
and we're gonna keep on at it.

REPORTER 7:
Thanks to large leads
among women, Hispanics,

and even independents,

the President begins
with a 49-43 advantage

over presumptive GOP nominee,
Mitt Romney.

But it's a six-point margin

that is, by no means,
insurmountable.

Even if you like Barack Obama,
we can't afford Barack Obama.

It's time to get someone
that'll get this economy going,

and put the American people
back to work

with good jobs
and rising incomes.

REPORTER 8:
A lot of African Americans

in this country
are getting flat-out crushed

in this economy.

REPORTER 9: In 2008,
African Americans

went to the polls
in record numbers

but some people
in the Black community feeling

a sense of disappointment now.
The question is,

can the president hold on
to the Black vote?

(CROWD CHEERING)

NEWS ANCHOR: Do you think
there's a reasonable chance

that you could lose
this election?

Oh, absolutely, I mean,
this is gonna be a close race.

I take nothing for granted.

I'm gonna be working
my tail off,

trying to present a clear choice
to the American people.

The one thing I hope
I'm able to communicate

in this campaign
is that I'm not tired,

that I am,
as eager every morning,

and as determined
as I've ever been to work

as hard as I can on behalf
of the American people.

-♪ (UPLIFTING MUSIC FADES) ♪
-(CROWD CHEERING, CHANTING)

Four more years!
Four more years!

Four more years!
Four more years!

Four more years!
Four more years...

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Tonight...

more than 200 years
after a former colony

won the right
to determine its own destiny...

the task of perfecting
our union moves forward.

♪ (INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen,
the re-elected President

of the United States of America.

(CROWD CHEERS)

You know,
I tried to picture myself

when I was your age,

and I first moved to Chicago
at the age of 25.

And I had this vague inkling

about making a difference.

I didn't really know
how to do it.

It's not that you guys
actually remind me of myself,

it's the fact that you are
so much better than I was.

You're just gonna
do great things.

And that's why even before
last night's results,

I felt that the work
that I have done...

in running for office
had come full circle...

because what you guys have done
means that the work

that I'm doing is important.

(CAMERAS SHUTTER CLICKING)

And I'm really proud of that.

I'm really proud of all of you.

And...

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

-(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
-And what you describe...

President Obama very quickly
developed this moniker,

"No-drama Obama,"

and he was seen as being
very cool and very aloof.

Thank you, guys.

MICHELLE:
He was a president

who shed tears.

He wasn't the first president
to shed tears...

but he did so
on several occasions

without apology.

♪ (INSPIRING MUSIC FADES) ♪

REPORTER:
Connecticut State Police
and SWAT teams

are now responding
to a school shooting

at an elementary school
in Newtown.

As of 10:30 Eastern,
students were still being led,

as you see the students here,
led from the school

by their teachers.

BARACK: I know there's not
a parent in America

who doesn't feel the same
overwhelming grief that I do.

The majority of those
who died today were children...

beautiful little kids
between the ages

of five and ten years old.

(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)

♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

I think he-- he's level.

He's an extremely level dude.

You know, he don't get too hot

and he don't get,
you know, too cold.

At the same time,
he's a human being.

This evening, Michelle and I
will do what I know

every parent in America will do,

which is hug our children
a little tighter,

and we'll tell them
that we love them,

and we'll remind each other
how deeply we love one another.

But there are families
in Connecticut

who cannot do that tonight.

And they need all
of us right now.

Sandy Hook is, you know,
I mean, you have a massacre,

you know, of children.

And the country
is paralyzed in its ability

to do anything about it.

REPORTER:
A poignant reminder today

of the toll that gun violence
is taking on this nation.

Today, the First Lady
was among those who gathered

in Chicago, to say goodbye
to Hadiya Pendleton,

the teenager who was killed
in a random shooting just a week

after performing
at the president's inauguration.

I'm Hadiya from year 2015.

She was shot and killed
in a place that's not too far

from where we all live
on the south side of Chicago.

Hadiya Pendleton was me...

and I was her.

But I got to grow up.

MARTY: It made us all feel
the need for...

fixing some of these deeply
rooted problems.

BARACK: A few months ago,

in response
to too many tragedies,

this country took up
the cause of protecting

more of our people
from gun violence.

Families that know
unspeakable grief

summoned the courage to petition
their elected leaders.

A few minutes ago, a minority
in the United States Senate

decided it wasn't worth it.

They blocked
common-sense gun reforms,

even while these families
looked on

from the Senate Gallery.

There were no coherent arguments

as to why we wouldn't do this.
It came down to politics.

So, all in all this was
a pretty shameful day

for Washington.

♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC FADES) ♪

CLERK: In the circuit court
of the 18th Judicial Circuit

in and for
Seminole County, Florida,

State of Florida
versus George Zimmerman.

Verdict. We the jury find
George Zimmerman not guilty.

-♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
-(MOB CLAMORING)

Shooting death of Trayvon Martin
in Sanford, Florida,

almost 17 months ago
opened up emotional questions

about racial profiling,

and about a person's right
to defend themselves.

Not one more!

REPORTER: It also sparks
spirited demands for justice.

Now that justice has spoken,

those conversations
have maybe even grown louder

as thousands have taken
to the streets

in cities coast-to-coast.

Obama,
I hope that you are looking.

-I hope that you are looking.
-You know, I hope he burn hell!

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

To see George Zimmerman
get off, it's like...

I don't know what more

y'all needed to see?

That was a tough one to swallow.

(MOB CLAMORING)

REPORTER: There were calls
for President Obama

to speak out in the wake
of the verdict all week,

especially from within
the African American community,

and White House officials
tell me

that President Obama
was watching the reaction

to the verdict
since it came down last weekend.

So, he surprised us all
by stepping behind the podium

this afternoon.

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC FADES) ♪

The reason I actually
wanted to come out today

is not to take questions,
but to speak to an issue

that obviously has gotten
a lot of attention

over the course
of the last week,

the issue
of the Trayvon Martin ruling.

-(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)
-You know...

♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

BARACK: ...when Trayvon Martin
was first shot,

I said that this could have
been my son.

Another way of saying that is,

Trayvon Martin
could've been me 35 years ago.

And when you think
about why,

in the African American
community at least,

there's a lot of pain
around what happened here,

I think it's important
to recognize that...

the African American
community is looking

at this issue
through a set of experiences

and a history that...

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

BARACK: ...that doesn't go away.

There are very few
African American men

in this country who haven't had
the experience of being followed

when they were shopping
in a department store.

That includes me.

There are very few
African American men

who haven't had the experience
of walking across the street,

and hearing the locks click
on the doors of cars.

And those sets
of experiences inform

how the African American
community interprets...

what happened
one night in Florida.

(MOB CHANTS)

BARACK: I think
it's understandable

that there have been
demonstrations,

and vigils and protests.

Not one more!

BARACK: But beyond protests
or vigils, the question is,

are there some concrete things
that we might be able to do?

We need to spend
some time in thinking

about how do we bolster
and reinforce

our African American boys.

And is there more
that we can do to...

give them a sense that...

their country cares about them?

ANTHONY PETERSON:
You never know

when people sign
your high school yearbook

who's gonna be signing it.

I didn't know
that I was gonna go to school

with someone
who was gonna be president.

And certainly didn't think,

Barry Obama
would be that person,

not because of any level
of competence

but because he was gonna be
a basketball player.

So, this is what he wrote
in my yearbook.

He says, "Tony, man,
I sure am glad I got to know you

before you left,
all those ethnic corners,

trips to the snack bar,
and playing ball

made the year
a lot more enjoyable."

"Anyway, it's been great
knowing you

and I hope we keep in touch.

Good luck in everything you do,
and get that law degree.

Someday when I'm an
all-pro basketballer

and I want sue my team
for my money,

I'll call on you.
Friends always, Barry."

I have some friends
who do character education

in high schools
and most of these kids

we're talking about
are African American students,

and they sometimes have me
come out and bring my yearbook.

The question that gets asked is,
"Do you think this guy

who wrote this
became an NBA player?"

And they'll say, "No,"
because everybody wants

to be an NBA player and only
a handful of people get there.

And the next question
that's asked is,

"What do you think
happened to this guy?"

And the answer usually is,

he's either in jail
or he's dead.

-Good afternoon.
-Good afternoon.

My name is Christian Champagne.

I'm 18. I'm a senior
currently at High Park Academy.

Last February,
President Obama sat down with us

and shared his story.

And to my surprise,
he was just like me,

growing up without a father.

And sometimes
not too concerned with school.

-(CROWD LAUGHING)
-(LAUGHS)

That's true.

♪ (INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

DAVID:
The most compelling interactions

I ever saw Barack Obama have
was with young, Black men,

particularly young, Black men
who didn't have fathers

like he didn't have a father.

MICHELLE: He was
on the South Side of Chicago,

and he's sitting in a circle

and he's talking
to these young men,

and he's talking
about his own life.

And he's talking
about his own struggles,

and his search for confidence.

And he said, you know, I'm you.

That's not something

that you traditionally
have heard

a president say to a roomful
of young Black men.

Meeting the President,
and have him tell me

that my life now
is not different

from the way his was

made me realize
I have potential too.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I now have the honor

of introducing you

to the President
of the United States.

-(CROWD CHEERS APPLAUDS)
-Good job. Good job.

I'm proud of you, man.

BRODERICK: I remember
the very distinct conversation

that he and I had not long after
he'd been inaugurated

for the second term.
And he said, you know,

in this second term,
I'm gonna do something.

Recognizing that historically

countless boys and young men
of color especially

are shut out of opportunities
in this country.

And recognizing
that this country is not

what it should be.

♪ (INSPIRING MUSIC FADES) ♪

OBAMA: Fifty years
after Dr. King talked

about his dream
for America's children,

the stubborn fact is,
that the life chances

the average Black
or brown child in this country

lags behind by almost
every measure

and is worse
for boys and young men.

If you're African American,

there's about one in two chance
you grow up

without a father in your house.

We know that boys who grew up
without a father

are more likely to be poor,

more likely to underperform
in school.

There's a higher chance
you end up

in the criminal justice system.

And a far higher chance
that you are the victim

of a violent crime.

And all of this translates
into a higher unemployment rates

and poverty rates as adults.

These statistics
should break our hearts,

and they should
compel us to act.

And that's what
My Brother's Keeper

is all about.

If we help these wonderful,
young men

become better husbands
and fathers,

and well-educated,
hardworking, good citizens...

then not only
will they contribute

to the growth, and prosperity
of this country

but they will pass
on those lessons

onto their children,

onto their grandchildren.

And this country will be
richer and stronger for it

for generations to come.

So, let's get going.
Thank you, God bless you.

God bless
the United States of America.

(CROWD APPLAUDS)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

CROWD: (CHANTING)
No justice, no peace!

-No justice, no peace!
-No justice, no peace!

-No justice, no peace!
-No justice, no peace!

REPORTER 1: Tensions are high
after an unarmed teenager

was shot dead
by a police officer.

REPORTER 2:
Eighteen-year-old
Michael Brown, just days away

from starting college,
lay dead in the street.

The teen's mother, inconsolable.

Why? Why did I do it? Why?

LEZLEY MCSPADDEN:
You took my son away from me.

You know how hard
it was for me to get him

to stay in school and graduate?

You know how many
Black men graduate?

Not many.

Because you bring them down
of this type of level

where they feel like

I don't got nothing
to live for anyway.

They're gonna try
to take me out anyway.

CROWD: (CHANTING) No justice,
no peace. No justice, no peace!

DERAY MCKESSON:
When I think
about Black Lives Matter,

what is always important
to remember

is that there is no movement
without what happened

in Ferguson,
that like that is the spark,

it is the impetus.

-Hands up. Hands up.
-Don't shoot! Don't shoot!

DERAY: It was a movement
born of the police

killing people on the street,

that is we got people
in the street,

it's what kept people
in the street.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

It was organic, and the protest
spread organically

across the country.

-Sixteen shots. Sixteen shots.
-Sixteen shots. Sixteen shots.

REPORTER:
Across the country this weekend,

Americans taking to the streets

over what has become
a pressing national issue.

The use
of lethal force by police.

Protests have been going on
from coast to coast

over a series
of controversial cases.

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

ELIZABETH: I think about
all of these young people

who have grown up watching
the violation of young,

Black men on their phones

over and over and over,
and over again,

being inundated,
with their vulnerability.

(MOB CLAMORING)

DERAY: In August, September,
October, and November 2014,

there were a lot of people
who didn't believe us.

There were a lot
of people who thought

it was interesting
what was happening

in the street, but they thought
we were being dramatic.

I remember people telling us,

"Don't bring this
to their city,"

and we're like, "What you mean?

The police
are killing people in your city,

we don't have to bring it there,

like, we're just
highlighting this,

like we didn't do this."

ELIZABETH: I think that so many
of the young people
of this country

are in a post-traumatic
depression.

I think it's a generation,

and I think we have to really,
really understand and listen

to what those young people
are dealing with

because we don't yet
have answers

for how to keep them safe.

And how to have
their humanity recognized

in their brown male bodies.

NEWS ANCHOR:
You didn't start this.

This problem didn't begin
under your watch.

This is incredibly persistent
and pervasive.

-Yeah.
-But how much of it

does your administration feel
you're responsible

for making an impact on?

Well,
I think an enormous amount,

not just because as president
you're always responsible

for what happens in this country

and you got to be part
of the solution,

not part of the problem.

But because of my particular

experiences
that I bring to this office.

You know, part of the reason
I got into politics

was to figure out how can I

bridge some of those gaps
and understandings,

so that the larger country
understands this is not just

a Black problem
or a brown problem,

this is an American problem.

REPORTER 1: Today we finally
got the full and damning report

from the feds that alleges
in detail the pattern

of racial bias among authorities
in Ferguson, Missouri.

African Americans representing
93 percent of arrests,

90 percent or citations,
85 percent of all traffic stops

and 88 percent of all
use of force incidents.

REPORTER 2: The report
also detailing racist emails

sent by city employees.

One describing the President
of the United States

as a chimpanzee.

There are places
and moments in America

where this nation's destiny
has been decided.

Selma is such a place.

We gather here
to honor the courage

of ordinary Americans

willing to endure billy clubs

and the chastening rod,

tear gas and the trampling hoof.

Men and women who
despite the gush of blood

and splintered bone
would stay true

to their north star and keep
marching towards justice.

-What do we want?
-Justice.

-When do we want it?
-Now.

BARACK:
If Selma taught us anything,

it's that our work
is never done.

CROWD: No racist NYPD!

The American experiment
in self-government

gives work and purpose
to each generation.

And this is work
for all Americans,

not just some, not just whites,

not just Blacks.

If we want to honor the courage
of those who marched that day,

then all of us
are called to possess

their moral imagination.

All of us will need to feel

as they did
the fierce urgency of now.

Racism is not just a burden
for Black people.

It will destroy us all,
it will consume us all.

CROWD: I am Eric Garner.

I am Eric Garner.

CORNEL: The very notion
that Black people

are human beings
at the deepest level

is still news
for too many people,

a lot of my fellow citizens
have yet to get that memo.

ALL: No more.

REPORTER: The church couldn't
hold all the people

who turned out today
for the funeral of Walter Scott.

He is the African American man
shot and killed last weekend

running from his car
by the white police officer

who pulled him over
in South Carolina.

CROWDS: (CHANTS)
No justice. No peace!

America has never admitted
or come to grips with,

how racism is sewn
into the fabric of the country.

It's a ghost from our past
that we have not dealt with.

Freddie! Freddie! Freddie!

REPORTER 1: This morning
another case of the possible use

of excessive force by police
against a Black suspect.

REPORTER 2: That suspect
Freddie Gray would end up

with a severed spine,
he would later die.

BOBBY: This phenomena
that we were living

in a post-racial society.

Where did all this
stupid rhetoric come from?

Who hoisted that up
on the body of politics?

And who accepts that nonsense?

You know,
how do you erase history?

HENRY:
White supremacy is in the DNA

of the American people.

And the myth
of a post-racial America

because of the election
of a Black man

to the White House let us...

unfortunately
put our guard down.

JELANI: June 17th, 2015

Dylann Roof enters the sanctuary
of the Emanuel AME Church

in Charleston, South Carolina.

He attends bible study

and at the conclusion
of bible study he...

draws a .45 caliber Glock,

and murders nine people
in the church.

In the midst
of the shooting spree,

a young man by the name
of Tywanza Sanders

who has already been shot
says to him,

"You don't have to do this,
we mean you no harm."

In response, Roof says,
"I have to do this

because you all
are raping our women,

and taking over the world."

And it wasn't coincidental
that at the same time

there was a Black man
occupying the White House.

Michelle and I know
several members

of Emanuel AME Church.

We knew their pastor
Reverend Clementa Pinckney

who along with eight others
gathered in prayer

and fellowship,
and was murdered last night.

The fact that this took place
in a Black church

obviously also raises questions

about a dark part
of our history.

This is not the first time
that Black churches

have been attacked and we know

that hatred across
races and faiths

pose a particular threat
to our democracy and our ideals.

SHERRILYN:
The work to defeat racism,
and the work of civil rights

is not a story
of relentless progress.

It's just not.
There is progress.

There are also moments
that crystalize

the fragile nature
of the progress you've made.

And this was one of them.

JUDGE: You are representing
the family of Ethel Lance,

-is that correct?
-NADINE COLLIER: Yes.

JUDGE: And you are whom, ma'am?

-NADINE: The daughter.
-JUDGE: The daughter.

I'm listening.

NADINE:
I just want everybody to know,

to you, I forgive you.

You took something
very precious away from me.

I will never talk
to her ever again.

I will never be able
to hold her again.

But I forgive you.

MICHAEL:
The nation is taken aback

by the immediacy
of the gesture of forgiveness.

It's a remarkable display
of Black humanity.

The willingness to forgive
even the most heinous

forms of white supremacy
and violence

in the name of the God
that they serve.

(CROWD APPLAUDS)

JOHN: The church was packed.

It was...

unbelievable,
unbelievable sea of humanity.

Black people, white people,
young, old,

elected officials,
non-elected officials,

just people.

It was an unbelievable feeling.

You can see it on the face
of President Barack Obama...

that he knew...

that he was on a mission...

to somehow get all Americans

to believe that we have
to do our best

to create a sense of community,
a sense of family.

Giving all praise
and honor to God.

We are here today
to remember a man of God

who live by faith.

A man who believed
in things not seen.

Slain in his sanctuary...

with eight wonderful members
of his flock.

To the families of the fallen,

the nation shares in your grief.

Our pain cuts that much deeper
because it happened in a church.

The church is,

and always has been the center
of African American life.

That's right.

BARACK: We do not know whether
the killer of Reverend Pinckney

and eight others
knew all of this history.

But he surely sensed
the meaning of his violent act.

An act that he presumed
would deepen divisions

that trace back
to our nation's original sin.

Oh, but God works
in mysterious ways.

(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, sir!

He didn't know
he was being used by God.

(ALL CHEER, APPLAUD)

BARACK: Blinded by hatred,
the alleged killer

could not see the grace

surrounding Reverend Pinckney,

and that bible study group.

CROWD: Amen.

The light of love

that shown as they opened
the church doors

-and invited a stranger...
-CROWD: Yeah.

...to join in
their prayer circle.

CROWD: Yes, sir!

BARACK:
Reverent Pinckney once said,

"Across the south we have
a deep appreciation of history."

"We haven't always had
a deep appreciation

of each other's history."

-Yeah.
-Wow.

BARACK:
What is true in the South
is true for America.

He knew that the path of grace

involves an open mind.

But more importantly
an open heart.

That's what I felt this week.

An open heart.

That, more than any particular
policy or analysis...

AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's right.

BARACK: ...is what's called upon
right now, I think.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah.

If we can find that grace,

-anything is possible.
-Yeah, come on!

If we can tap that grace,

everything can change.

Amazing grace.

Amazing grace.

♪ (SINGING "AMAZING GRACE") ♪

♪ Amazing grace ♪

♪ How sweet the sound ♪

♪ That saved ♪

♪ A wretch like me ♪

♪ I once ♪

♪ Was lost ♪

♪ But now ♪

♪ I'm found ♪

♪ Was blind ♪

♪ But now ♪

♪ I see ♪

SHERRILYN:
There's a lot that can't be said

about what that moment,
what this killing meant to us,

how devastating this was to us.

And how we had
to organize ourselves

as our forebears have had
to do many times in the past

not to allow our sense
of who we are

and who we will be
in this country

to be defined by these moments.

And it was all in that song.

MICHAEL:
No clearer statement can be made

all of the reluctance
has melted away,

all of the hymn hawing,
and the fits and starts,

the gives and takes,
all dismissed.

And now a clear vision
of redemption.

MARTY: He reflected
who we really are as a country.

And I think that's
the thing about him

is that he represents...

to the people in this country
everything that's good about us.

It's not about him, it's what...

we see in him
that represents us

in who we are,
in who we aspire to be.

Sadly, the American dream,

is dead.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Bring it back!

But if I get elected president,

I will bring it back

bigger and better

and stronger than ever before

and we will make
America great again.

Thank you.
Thank you very much.

-(CROWD CHEERING)
-♪ (TUNE FADES) ♪

DAVID: When a president
retires after two terms,

that president sets
the stage for the next.

Good morning.

In the sense that the country

never looks, no matter
how popular the president is,

for the replica
of what they have.

They generally look
for the remedy.

By that measure

there's no one
who's a greater antithesis

to Barack Obama
than Donald Trump.

Build that wall!
Build that wall!

REPORTER: What do you think
of Donald Trump?

Well, I think that he...

is a great publicity seeker.

Build that wall.

REPORTER: Do you think he's
running out of steam?

I mean, do you think
he's gonna disappear?

You know, I'll leave it up
to the pundits

to make that determination.

I don't think he'll end up
being president

of the United States.

(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

Donald Trump caught
into a backlash fervor

of the fears,
unfounded fears, of many people,

and striking
on simplistic things

like they're not one of us,

we need to go back
to old America,

make America great.

And no one thought
that that could work.

When they started saying
by the year 20-something

there'd be more people of color,

I kinda knew there
would be a backlash...

but I didn't know
where it was gonna come from.

Trump, he spoke that language,

he spoke directly
to the racists.

He spoke directly to the bigots,

he knew exactly
what they were feeling

because he was feeling it.

He know exactly how he felt
seeing that Black man every day.

TA-NEHISI: I think in general

we deeply underestimate
the power of hate.

You know, of a particular
kind of politics

that, you know,
takes as its base,

I'm not you,
you live over there,

I live over here,

I'm with my people,
you're with yours.

Now, there were a lot things
that had to happen,

you know, in order for Trump
to be president.

But I think like he just missed

the extent to which
what Trump was saying

was in fact in deep concert

with folks
that he had been facing

for the past eight years.

(CROWD CLAMORS)

BARACK:
I do think that the country

is inexorably changing.

I believe in all kinds
of positive ways.

But I do think
that when you combine

the demographic change

with all the economic stressors

that people have
been going through...

Build the wall! Build the wall!

BARACK: ...that means
that there's gonna be

potential anger,
frustration, fear.

Some of it justified
but just misdirected.

And I think that somebody
like Mr. Trump

is taking advantage of that.

There are some people that are,
just stone cold racists.

We know that.

But there are a lot
of people also who feel...

and are to some
degree or another,

feel like they're
on the losing end of the stick.

There are a lot of people

who rose to the bait
I would say.

The encouragement of the kind
of PR mastery of Trump.

Trump made it
into an us and them,

and Black and white.

There's no question

that he had
a self-consciousness of

a path to whipping up
resentment.

And Obama was a Black president.

♪ (MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

JELANI: Toward the end
of Obama's presidency

I have received an invitation
to what was billed

as a celebration of Black music
at the White House.

♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪

TA-NEHISI:
It was Bell Biv DeVoe,
De La Soul, Common,

although
Bradley Cooper was there.

It was the wildest thing.

Anyway,
so but besides Bradley Cooper,

everybody was Black.

(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)

Hello, everybody.

And it's at the end,
you know, of Obama's presidency

and people know it's the end.

Well, you can tell
what kind of night this is.

(CROWD CHEERING)

That was not
John Philip Sousa right there.

(CROWD CHUCKLES)

This is our final
musical evening

as President and First Lady.

CROWD: Aw!

I know.

(CROWD CHUCKLES)

It's gonna be all right.

(CROWD CHUCKLES)

It became very clear
that this was on the one hand

a recognition of
African American contributions

to American musical culture.

♪ (SONG ENDS ABRUPTLY) ♪

Give it up, ladies
and gentlemen for De La Soul.

We love you,
Mr. President, Mrs. President.

JELANI: But another sense,
it was really a punctuation

for what the Obamas
had represented

in the United States
for the previous eight years.

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER:
I like to think about

the Obama presidency

for its, what I would call,
real symbolic power.

The ways that

not only that man
but that family

stood on the world stage
and showed us

that being a whole person

means loving people
and belonging to people

and being responsible to people.

The most important thing
we can all do

is to treat each other
with kindness and respect.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

ELIZABETH:
Just showing us in his persona

the joy of living,

the love of music,
the love of children,

the love of connecting
with other human beings.

-Fired up
-Fired up

-Ready to go
-Ready to go

I think all of that
stood for something,

and stands for something.

What's your name?
How old are you?

There was a sense of decorum

and ethics and honesty,

and commitment
to the country that suffused

the entire White House.

I'm proud of the way
he conducted himself

as President
of the United States,

that's no small thing.

My president.

My president!

TA-NEHISI:
There are now white children

who earliest memories

of any sort of president
is a Black guy.

I don't think that's small.

I don't think
that's small at all.

Because I think
your ability to imagine

who can't occupy
the highest levels,

you know, in society

directly informs your ability
to see people as human.

That's not the whole battle,
that's not everything

but it certainly is a component.

MARTY: To me,

the most important thing
is that Barack Obama won,

and Barack Obama won twice.

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

MARTY: Now,
he might argue differently

he's a policy guy,

and he might argue healthcare
and he might argue

saving the banking industry,
and saving the auto industry,

and ending the wars
in the Middle East...

but to me
the biggest accomplishment

was that he won,

because it means something
about this country,

and our country's capacity

to pursue becoming
a more perfect union.

CROWD: (CHANTING)
Four more years!

-Four more years!
-BARACK: I can't do that.

CROWD: Four more years!
Four more years!

-(LAUGHS)
-CROWD: Four more years!
Four more years!

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!

Now, this is where I learned
that change only happens

when ordinary people
get involved,

and they get engaged.

And they come together
to demand it.

After eight years
as your president,

I still believe that.

And it's not just my belief...

(CROWD CHEERING)

...it's the beating heart
of our American idea,

our bold experiment
in self-government...

that we the people

through the instrument
of our democracy...

can form a more perfect union.

Yes, our progress
has been uneven.

The work of democracy
has always been hard.

It's always been contentious.

Sometimes it's been bloody.

Our constitution
is a remarkable...

beautiful gift.

But it's really...

just a piece of parchment.

It has no power on its own.

We the people give it power.

(CROWD CHEERING)

We the people give it meaning

with our participation,

and with the choices
that we make.

And the alliances that we forge,

whether or not we stand up
for our freedoms,

whether or not we respect,
and enforce the rule of law.

That's up to us.

For all
our outward differences...

we in fact all share
the same proud title,

the most important office
in a democracy.

Citizen.

Citizen.

So you see,

that's what
our democracy demands.

♪ (MUSICAL SOUND WAVE) ♪

It needs you.

Not just
when there's an election,

not just when your own
narrow interest is at stake,

but over the full span
of a lifetime.

My fellow Americans...

it has been the honor
of my life to serve you.

I won't stop.

In fact,
I will be right there with you

as a citizen...

(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDS)

...for all my remaining days.

But for now,
whether you are young,

or whether
you're young at heart,

I do have one final ask
of you as your president,

the same thing I asked
when you took a chance on me

eight years ago.

I'm asking you to believe,

not in my ability to bring
about change, but in yours.

I'm asking you to hold fast
to that faith

written into our
founding documents,

that idea whispered by slaves
and abolitionists,

that spirit sung by immigrants
and homesteaders

and those who march
for justice...

that creed reaffirmed
by those who planted flags

from foreign battlefields
to the surface of the moon,

a creed at the core
of every American

whose story is not yet written.

Yes, we can.

(CROWD CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)

BARACK: Yes, we did.

Yes, we can.

Thank you, God bless you.

May God continue to bless
the United States of America.

Thank you.

♪ (TUNE CONCLUDES) ♪

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪