Black & White and the White House: Race, the Presidency and Barack Obama's Victory...

Black & White and the White House: Race, the Presidency and Barack Obama's Victory

Professor Eric Freedman9 December 2011

Mykolas Romeris University, Vilniusfreedma5@msu.edu

George Washington’s Mount Vernon Plantation: House & Slave Quarters

1776: Independence from Britain1788: Constitution adopted1789-1797: George Washington1817-1825: James Monroe1861-1865: Abraham Lincoln & Civil War1865-1877: Reconstruction of the South1954: Supreme Court upholds public school integration1960s: Major civil rights & voting rights laws1981-1989: Ronald Reagan2001-2009: George W, Bush2009-present: Barack Obama

Timeline

From George Washington to George W. Bush

Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Declaration of Independence, 1776

James Monroe’s Oak Hill Plantation: House & Slave Quarters

James Monroe’s Slave Ownership

• 1774: 1• 1790 (elected to the U.S. Senate): 9• 1799 (became governor of Virginia): 21• 1810 (member of the Virginia Assembly): 49• 1820 (reelected president): 25• 1830 (after his presidency): 70

O Oak Hill Plantation

Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865

North & South: U.S. Civil War

The Emancipation Proclamation

John F. Kennedy, 1961-1963

Ronald Reagan, 1981-1989

Eureka College Football Team

George W. Bush, 2001-2009

McKinley Assassinated

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton & John Edwards 2008

Barack Obama & John McCain Debate, 2008

P.B.S. Pinchback Governor of Louisiana

9 December 1872-13 January 1873