"There will be those who will tell you that you can't make it because of how you look, because of the way you talk. We all have heard that - I almost listened."
"Obama was elected in a flourish of promise that many in the African-American community believed would help not only to symbolize African-American progress since the Civil War and Civil Rights Acts but that his presidency would result in doors opening in the halls of power as had never been seen before by black America."
6 likes
Source: Obama or Clinton better for blacks? by Douglas Wilder, www.politico.com. December 12, 2011.
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Douglas Wilder
"Slavery is nothing to joke about! And the history of this nation's [the USA's] involvement with slavery is nothing to pass off in a joke."
"What is blackness? Is it the way you talk? Do you got to say, 'Dey this, dey dat.' Or the way you dress? Or is it the forgiving of certain things? What is black enough?"
"Government or politics in America today is big business. Everybody makes money involving themselves in one way or the other, whether it's pollsters, whether they are policy wonks, whether they are pundits, whether they are those who believe that they must call it as they see it and then to be fair about it."
"You don't ever earn a right to stop doing anything if you feel there is an obligation to move in terms of public service."
"Suppose something would happen to the president, who would be in charge? The Vice President. Joe Biden? You have got to be kidding today when you say the Taliban's not our enemy."