Jarrett-Carter.com

In front of more than 80,000 people in attendance, and millions around the world, representing generations of praying and wishing folks, Barack Obama became the first black presidential nominee in the history of the United States.

This moment, a moment that brought tears to my eyes and prayer from my lips, was like Michael Jackson on Motown 25, Michael Jordan in Game 6, and Martin Luther King Jr. on the Mall. Part magic, part miracle, and part majestic.

If you think that there was a more important moment in the history of black folks in America, you’d be hard pressed to find it. Because for the first time in history, the pain and suffering is commonly shared by folks who aren’t black, and that suffering is not racially based. For the first time, everyone is in need of something greater than what our times have required of us.

And a black man is heading the effort to meet the challenge.

More than any demonstration, life lost and ideal snuffed, this is the culmination of everything a lot of people have believed in. A chance to be heard and taken seriously, on a platform higher than that of quota or guilty conscience. An opportunity to be counted as a viable voice in the landscape, with the genuinely American experience that reverberates across race, class, region and religion.

It’s what we’ve been waiting for. And the best part?

Going forward, it is an example we can grow to expect.