President Obama, pictured, giving his inaugural speech.

Erin Evans
The Root

Some say President Obama’s inaugural speech fell short of expectations. But history may reveal that it shifted expectations for us all.

Some say President Obama’s inaugural speech fell short of expectations. But even Lincoln’s best speeches were better in the reading than in the reciting. History may reveal it shifted expectations for us all.
Some say President Obama’s inaugural speech fell short of expectations. But history may reveal that it shifted expectations for us all.

“Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.”
—Elizabeth Alexander, “Praise Song for the Day”

African Americans comprised nearly half of the audience at Lincoln’s second inaugural address. As Lincoln spoke to the crowd, he made the astonishing suggestion that perhaps God had willed that the Civil War would continue, “until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.” It was the day that Lincoln became the black man’s president.

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