Obama's inauguration brings mixed feelings for many Black LGBTQ Americans

BY REV. IRENE MONROE, PAM'S HOUSEBLEND

The last time a nation came to Washington and was mesmerized and stirred to action by the oratory brilliance of an African American man was at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his legendary "I Have a Dream" speech. In that speech King said "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." King, a Baptist preacher and the Moses of the 1960's Black Civil Rights Movement, knew in a distant future that a Barack Obama would come, but not in his lifetime.

"And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!"

Those were Kings final words delivered on April 3 1968 at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), in Memphis, Tennessee. The following day King was assassinated.

With a nation then in moral chaos who would lead not only blacks in this country toward full equality, but all Americans?

Forty years later and the day after Americans will celebrated MLK Day 2009 our nation on January 20 will once again come to Washington mesmerized and stirred to action by the oratory brilliance and leadership of an African American man to be sworn in as our nation's 44th President of the United States - Barack H. Obama. >>MORE