Barack Obama First Black to Lead a Major U.S. Party

By: Errol Mars

Senator Barack Obama has become the first black American to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

Barack Obama has become the first black to lead a major U.S. party into a race for the White House. Obama captured the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday, ending the longest, most tightly-contested Democratic presidential race ever.

The win for Senator Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and white mother, broke racial barriers and represented a remarkable rise for a man who just four years ago served in the Illinois State Senate.

Addressing his supporters in St.Paul, Minnesota, Obama said, "You decided that change must come to Washington; because you believed that this year must be different than all the rest; 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 – a journey that will bring a new and better day to America.  Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States." 

The race drew to its final hours with a burst of announcements, delegate by delegate stepping forward to declare their support for Senator Obama. The Democratic establishment, from former President Jimmy Carter to rank-and-file local officials who make up the ranks of the party’s superdelegates, rallied behind Senator Obama.