The historical legacy of our national treatment of African Americans lies heavy upon the hearts of our citizens. We carry that shame in our hearts and minds, and in the very bones of our national self-image. We are a nation which cast upon its nonwhite citizens injurious insult upon insult, to body, mind, and spirit, and created deep hatreds and resentments for both those who created the conditions of oppression and those who felt its lashes.

Of course, African Americans were not the only population that felt the sting of political and social oppression. Systematic genocide of Native Americans, social proscriptions laid upon Jewish Americans, horrendous social and economic discrimination visited upon Asian and Hispanic peoples from many different countries, frightful labor conditions cast upon workers from all racial and ethnic groups - including many who later were “considered white” by the dominant power and social brokers - has been the bitter legacy of this nation.

Yet, in the midst of all this oppression and turmoil, there has been progress - wonderful, beautiful, empowering progress toward a more fruitful implementation of a respect for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” promised in our Constitution.

The impending inauguration, next Tuesday, of an African American President encourages us, with great and deep joy, to sit back and reflect on how far we’ve come as a complex mixture of people and as a nation. This is too amazing and almost too unexpected, given the ongoing racial tension in our society, to not take note of our mutual history and give serious reflection.

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In addition to the sad legacy of slavery and the bondage that our African Americans brothers and sisters had to experience for several hundred years, there have been numerous social and legal obstacles placed in their path following the passage of the 13th Amendment and their Constitutional emancipation in 1865. Let us, for a moment, look at some of those turning points now.

The 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation even in public accommodations (particularly railroads) under the doctrine of “separate but equal”. This allowed for Constitutional support of the previously established “Jim Crow” laws throughout the United States. In addition to poor schools, substandard housing, and socially and geographically segregated communities, African Americans who were traveling south of the Mason Dixon line could not secure adequate public accommodations for even an night’s stay. Separate water fountains and restroom facilities are the clearest, most graphically obvious, implication that many Americans, outside of the South, remember today about that era.

The NAACP, which had been organized in 1909, during the 1930’s periodically hung banners outside their national headquarters in New York City sadly proclaiming “Another black man was lynched today”. Lynching of innocent African Americans [and other unfortunate disenfranchised ethnic groups] was an incredibly common event in the South, either encouraged by the local ‘legal’ authorities, or willingly ignored by those same persons who were supposed to enforce the nation’s laws.

In 1954, the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education officially outlawed “separate but equal” schools for children (given that, as was clearly obvious to everyone, including Southern school officials, the facilities were patently unequal). In 1955, Rosa Parks, a civil rights activist who had been actively fighting discrimination for many years, was arrested and fined for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, which set the stage for the civil rights movement lead by Fred Shuttlesworth and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Lest we forget, it was only 43 years ago, in 1965, that the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, enfranchising African American voters throughout the United States. That law assisted in laying the groundwork for the kind of electoral change that was manifested by the Obama Campaign for Change.

Hence, given how long the struggle for emancipation and racial equality has taken and how profoundly that difficult work has changed the social, legal, and cultural landscape of our country, the ascension of Barack Obama to the highest political office in the land is, without a doubt, an event of soul-stirring significance.

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However, let us not assume that “having reached the mountaintop”, we can now rest on our laurels. Racial discrimination is alive and well, and continues to infect the body politic of our nation.  We have yet to eliminate all the vestiges of racism in America. In spite of the Brown decision of 1954, our public schools are, if anything, even more racially segregated, albeit now due to housing choices and the widespread prevalence of private schools, rather than custom. African American men, in the 18 - 44 age range, have a high likelihood of being arrested and incarcerated, or are on probation, in distressing numbers. It is still far too common for African Americans in Missouri - and many other states - to be subject to racial profiling in traffic stops. Though we’ve made significant progress as a nation in resolving racial problems, there are many hurdles still to scale. The work has not been completed; if anything, we have reached a crossroads where our efforts are even more necessary, though we can now engage in them with renewed hope.

There’s much work to be done to ensure that the Constitutional mandate of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is true for American citizens of all racial, ethnic, and gender groups. We, as people of faith know that, and President-Elect Obama knows that. He can succeed in creating a multiracial, harmonious society only with our continued hard work and assistance.

Taking time to stand back and reflect on the many struggles that have brought us to this point in our nation’s history is critically important. Nonetheless, and without a doubt, the events of next Tuesday are profound, historic and joyous.

As people of faith, we extend the hand of grace to our fellow countrymen and women, to encourage all of us to work together to produce the kind of nation that ensures equality for everyone. We feel great joy and thankfulness for this turn of events, which was allowed by a diverse coalition of voters of all races, and look forward to a renewed belief that we can, together and with the help of our new President, lift the burden of oppression from the shoulders of all our fellow citizens.

Mariposa Men’s Wellness Institute was founded in 2001

to help men become emotionally healthy.