his Afro-diasporic blackness by drawing stark parallels between the British colonial system that oppressed his Kenyan grandfather and Jim Crow segregation in the United States (“Sound familiar?”), Obama underscored that the Joshua generation—those who came of age after the “classic” phase of the civil rights movement—owed a “debt,” conceivably unrepayable, to their selfless predecessors.
Obama evoked a knowledge of the black past as a prerequisite for the Joshua generation’s responsibility to “fulfill that legacy.” He pronounced:
I think that we’re always going to be looking back, but there are at least a few suggestions that I would have in terms of how we might fulfill that enormous legacy. The first is to recognize our history. John Lewis talked about why we’re here today. But I worry sometimes—we’ve got black history month, we come down and march every year, once a year. We occasionally celebrate the events of the civil rights movement, we celebrate Dr. King’s birthday, but it strikes me that understanding our history and knowing what it means, is an everyday activity.29
He then enumerated the lingering problems facing the collective black community, from educational inequities to poverty to low-quality health conditions. Central to Obama’s homily was his belief that the Moses generation set unattainable standards for everything from social and political activism to perceptions of “sacrifice,” “dignity,” “hard work and discipline,” and morality. In doing so, upon more than a few occasions, he chastised young black people, mainly members of the millennial hip-hop generation. “I can’t say for certain that we have instilled that same sense of moral clarity and purpose in this generation,” Obama lamented as he joined forces with the Moses generation and beseeched the Joshua generation to become politically active and to “do for ourselves.”
There are discernable patterns and themes concerning the meaning, utility, and application of black history from Obama’s 2007 “Bloody Sunday” oration that would continue to surface in his future talks to black listeners. When sounding off to his “brothers and sisters,” Obama positioned civil rights activists (the Moses generation) as being the progenitors and standard bearers of the long black freedom struggle, he situated himself within the history of black leadership, he drew connections between the past and the present, he commented on habitual obstacles that African Americans overcame, and he argued that the contemporary black community owed a debt to the past. Still, Obama often sidestepped indicting white America for its mistreatment of African Americans before black audiences.
A few exceptions stand out. On May 5, 2007, and June 5, 2007, Obama spoke to black mayors in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and black ministers in Hampton, Virginia, respectively. In both of these speeches, Obama denounced white America’s mistreatment of black people. Reflecting upon the beating of Rodney King and the riots that ensued in Los Angeles, he candidly remarked: “Much of what we saw on our television screens 15 years ago was Los Angeles expressing a lingering, ongoing, pervasive legacy—a tragic legacy out of the tragic history this country has never fully come to terms with.” Obama added that Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath was “a powerful metaphor for what’s gone on for generations.” Throughout these talks, Obama outlined the major problems facing black Americans and US society as a whole, called for collective action, and concluded by highlighting the value of historical memory—“We won’t forget where we came from. We won’t forget what happened nineteen months ago, fifteen years ago, two hundred years ago.”30
A well-traveled commander-in-chief, Obama was not reluctant to share this notion of a “tragic legacy” with non-white audiences abroad. For instance, when speaking in South Africa at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service and at the University of South Cape Town in 2013, he drew correlations between race relations in South Africa and America. During his visit to slave castles at Gorée Island, Senegal, Obama remarked, “For an African American, and an African American President to be able to visit this site I think gives me even greater motivation in terms of the defense of human rights around the world.”31 This echoed his sentiments after visiting the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana in the summer of 2009. Similarly, when addressing the Turkish Parliament in 2009 about the troubled relationship between Turkish and Armenian people, he admitted that the US “is still working through some of our darker periods in our history” and “still struggles with the legacies of slavery and segregation.”32 That Obama brought up America’s mistreatment of black people within the context of the Armenian Genocide or Holocaust adds further complexity to his representation of black history.
“REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS LIKE”: BLACK HAGIOGRAPHY
From time to time, Obama gave nods to abolitionists and early twentieth century black historical icons, but his favorite historical role models came of age as activists and leaders during the 1950s and 1960s, like Congressman John Lewis and, of course, Martin Luther King Jr. Other civil rights champions that he paid tangential tributes to include Shirley Chisholm, Diane Nash, Julian Bond, Thurgood Marshall, Fred Shuttlesworth, and C. T. Vivian.
Obama hailed Lewis as “somebody who captures the essence of decency and courage, somebody who I have admired all my life.” He added, “and were it not for him, I’m not sure I’d be here today.” He routinely reminded his black listeners, especially those from the millennial hip-hop generation, that they could learn a lot from the sacrifices of John Lewis who was but “a twenty-five-year-old activist when he faced down billy clubs on the bridge in Selma and helped arouse the conscience of our nation.” Obama told members of the NAACP in Cincinnati that he modeled his life after those who had paved the way for him. He explicitly placed himself in the context of black leadership history. “I turned down more lucrative jobs,” he announced while reflecting upon his community organizing in Chicago, “because I was inspired by the civil rights movement and wanted to do my part in the ongoing battle for opportunity in this country.”33
Although he did not actually mention King by name in his historic acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 28, 2008 (in passing he identified King as “a young preacher from Georgia” to the chagrin of public intellectuals Cornel West and Julianne Malveaux), throughout his two terms as president, Obama routinely praised him. In fact, Obama alluded to King in every speech that he delivered dealing with African American history or civil rights and gave him a shout-out in his second inaugural address in 2013.
Six months before his 2008 acceptance speech, he delivered a moving sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin Luther King Sr. led this church from 1931 until 1975 and his son became co-pastor in 1960. King Jr.’s funeral was held in this sacred space, which is a National Historic site and annually hosts events in honor of King and Black History Month.
In his thirty-minute oration on these consecrated grounds, Obama noted the abiding and transcendental nature of King’s message of empathy and cooperation—“Unity is the great need of the hour.” Furthermore, he annually released Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday proclamations and delivered a passionate tribute to King in October 2011 in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial located near the National Mall. He told the large crowd that Americans needed to heed King’s teachings “more than ever.” He placed King on the highest pedestal and often directly and indirectly sampled from him, in mannerisms and rhetoric. As he noted in a 2013 speech commemorating the fiftieth anniversary for the March on Washington, “His [King’s] words belong to the ages, possessing a power and prophecy unmatched in our time.”34
Between 2009 and 2016, Obama delivered more than twenty commencement addresses at a variety of colleges and universities. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and First Lady Michelle Obama spoke at more HBCUs than her husband. Obama did exhibit a commitment to these institutions beyond speaking at a few commencements. He regularly supported National HBCU Week and the White House Initiative on HBCUs that was established by an executive order from President Reagan in 1981. In February 2010, he signed
