The Significance of Obama's Victory

The Election of Barack Obama

Overall, Barack Obama won by 64% of votes to McCain’s 34% with much of his support coming from the Northern states that were on the East and West of America such as LA and New York.

Southern States

A considerable proportion of people believed that America was still too racist to entertain the notion of a black President.
The Southern States, on the whole, did not vote for Barack Obama.
Even the Southern States that had previously voted Democrat did not vote for Barack Obama.
Racist jokes about Obama were rife. A joke comparing Obama's name to that of Osama Bin Laden was broadcast on public radio.

Support from minorities

Some people suggested that Barack Obama only won because he was black.
When looking at the votes, it is clear to see that minorities did support him in their masses.
Barack Obama received 95% of the African American vote and the majority of the Latino vote.

White voters

However, Obama also did well with white voters. In fact, he did better than some white Democratic Presidential Candidates who had gone before him.
Barack Obama also won 8% more of the Independent Vote.
North Carolina voted for Barack Obama. It was the first time they had elected a Democratic candidate in 32 years.
One possible explanation of this is the high turnout of African American voters.

The Significance of Obama's Victory

The election of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America was a hugely significant moment in both US history and black history.

Support for a black President

Most black people supported Barack Obama.
- To those who argued that he was not ‘American enough’ because of his ancestry, his supporters responded that his family was American because his wife Michelle Obama who was a descendant of African American slaves.
Once Obama was elected, many people, both black and white, were ecstatic and viewed this as a historic victory.
Many white Americans also voted for Obama. This showed a significant change in the racial attitudes of Americans.

Racial criticism

Some argued that Barack Obama only won because he was black and this gave the Americans a chance to atone for their sins of enslaving black people.
Obama was still subject to racist jokes despite being President.
- For example, there was much controversy over a picture in _The Post _ which depicted a monkey being gunned down over a political bill.
- The Post denied it was a racially motivated cartoon but their backtracking did not deter the NAACP from calling a boycott against the newspaper.

The 'birther controversy'

Obama also faced heavy criticism for not being ‘American’.
The controversy ended with Obama's birth certificate being used to verify that he was actually born in the USA (which is a condition of becoming a United States President).
The fact that people questioned whether he was 'really American' because of the colour of his skin showed that many Americans thought of black people as 'less American' than white people (no previous President was questioned about their ancestry in this way).

'Rainbow cabinet'

Barack Obama was championed by the left for having a ‘rainbow cabinet’.
This term was applied because he had a diverse range of ethnicities and sexes within his cabinet.
This term was not new to Barack Obama, Bill Clinton too had a ‘rainbow cabinet’.

1‘Free at Last’ 1865-77

1.1The Thirteenth Amendment

1.1.1The Civil War & The Thirteenth Amendment

1.1.2The Impact of the Civil War

1.1.3Economic, Political & Social Position of Ex-Slaves

1.1.4Political Settlement & Andrew Johnson

1.2Radical Reconstruction, 1867-77

1.2.1The Fourteenth Amendment

1.2.2The Fifteenth Amendment & The Civil Rights Act

1.3The Backlash

1.3.1White Supremacy Groups

1.3.2The End of Reconstruction 1887

2The Triumph of ‘Jim Crow’ 1883-c1890

2.1Jim Crow Laws & Civil Rights Cases

2.1.1Jim Crow Laws

2.1.2Voting Rights

2.1.3Scientific Racism

2.1.4Civil Rights Cases

2.2Resistance and Migration

2.2.1The Northern States & Black Resistance

2.2.2Early Migration

2.2.3The Great Migration

2.2.4Race Riots

2.2.5Migration Case Study: Harlem

3The New Deal and Race Relations, 1933–41

3.1Failure to Address Black Grievances

3.1.1The Democrat Party & the Anti-Lynching Bill

3.2The New Deal

3.2.1The New Deal

3.2.2The Alphabet Agencies

3.2.3The PWA, WPA & the NYA

3.2.4Benefits

3.2.5Impact of the New Deal & Eleanor Roosevelt

3.2.6Gone With the Wind

3.3The Second World War

3.3.1The Experience of War

3.3.2The Home Front

3.3.3The White Flight

3.3.4Restrictive Covenants

4‘I have a dream’, 1954–68

4.1Civil Rights Activities, 1954–63

4.1.1The Desegregation of Schools

4.1.2The Montgomery Bus Boycott

4.1.3SCLC & Birmingham

4.1.4SNCC

4.1.5CORE

4.2Civil Rights 1964-68

4.2.1Civil Rights Act 1964 & Voting Act 1965

4.2.2Ghettos & Poverty

4.2.31966 - 1968

4.3Malcolm X & The Black Panthers

4.3.1The Nation of Islam & Malcolm X

4.3.2Divisions in the Civil Rights Movement

4.3.3The Black Panthers

4.4Literature, Film & Television

4.4.1Racial Attitudes in Literature from 1850-2009

4.4.2Racial Attitudes in Film from 1850-2009

4.4.3Racial Attitudes in Television from 1850-2009

5Obama's Campaign for the Presidency, 2004–09

5.1The Late 20th Century

5.1.1Migration Back to the South in the 20th Century

5.1.2The Status of Black People 1968-2009

5.2Barack Obama & his Political Career

5.2.1Barack Obama's Life

5.2.2Senator for Illinois

5.2.3Running as Presidential Candidate

5.3Reasons for Obama's Victory

5.3.1Reasons for Vicotry

5.3.2The Significance of Obama's Victory

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