Sign in to wowOwow

Enter the email address that you used when registering at wowOwow.
The password field is case sensitive. Click here if you have forgotten your password.

Please register for wowOwow

Newsletter subscriptions
Sign up to receive wowOwow's weekly newsletter and get our best picks delivered right to your inbox. Our newsletter content is hand-picked by the wowOwow editorial team and provides the top features, news, and commentary from our site. Subscribing to our newsletter is free and safe. We will never share your email or other information with a third-party without your direct consent.
By registering, you indicate that you have read and agree
with our privacy policy and terms of service.
Home › Politics

Politics | 01/08/2009 10:30 am

From Frederick Douglass to Barack Obama: An MLK Salute to 10 Who Paved the Way

Photo Essay

Play Slideshow
Frederick Douglass
Barack Obama’s political skills helped him win this year’s election, but there’s no doubt he had a hand from the countless people who fought to unify our once-segregated nation. Here we celebrate ten African-Americans who were the first to reach positions of political power and, in so doing, became the Governors, Senators and Congressmen who made an African-American president possible in 2009.
Read more about: Barack Obama, Booker T. Washington, Colin Powell, Douglas Wilder, Frederick Douglass, Hiram Revels, History, Jesse Jackson, Joseph Rainey, Martin Luther King Jr., Presidents, Robert C. Weaver, Thurgood Marshall, Victoria Woodhull

15 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Ms. Dee
I swear, Frederick Douglass has always been one of the sexiest men I’ve ever laid eyes on. Every time I see a picture of him it just melts my butter. I’d love to think we were “close” in a previous life. But I can’t really agree that every man on this list helped pave the way for President-elect Obama. In fact, if you ask me, Jackson threw up as many hurdles as he ever brought down.
By Ms. Dee on 01/08/2009 2:48 pm
Lorraine Bates
I agree - about Jesse Jackson, anyway. :-)
By Lorraine Bates on 01/20/2009 12:36 pm
dany pars
strange, i feel the same thing about hariette tubman.
By dany pars on 02/02/2009 10:41 pm
Maurine H
And where are the women? Mary McCleod Bethune, Rosa Parks, Myrlie Evers, Shirley Chisholm - just a very few of the African American women on whose shoulders Barack Obama also stands.
By Maurine H on 01/16/2009 11:23 am
Dee T
Wouldn’t it have been something if MLK were alive today to witness this January 20th? Wonder what he would have said…
By Dee T on 01/16/2009 4:20 pm
Lorraine Bates
He would have given the invocation, I’m sure!
By Lorraine Bates on 01/20/2009 12:37 pm
rocky rocky
I do wonder what all of them might see/think on Jan 20. Would they believe that their efforts and ideals have finally been realized? Or would they see something different. Jesse Jackson’s apparently mixed emotions have stuck with me. Could it be he sees that there are still so many more. perhaps even more momentous, battles ahead?
By rocky rocky on 01/16/2009 6:50 pm
rocky rocky
You all might want to hear what Jesse Jackson told Time Inc on PE Barack Obama and how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. might have responded: http://www.time.com/time/video/?bcpid=1485842900&bctid=8370060001
By rocky rocky on 01/19/2009 7:08 am
Love DC
PLEASE TAKE JESSI OUT & Add RALPH BUNCHE He was involved in formation and administration of the United Nations & was the first African American to win the nobel peace prize for his 1940s mediation in Palestine.
By Love DC on 01/19/2009 8:29 am
phyllis Doyle Pepe
Thurgood Marshall had often vowed to remain on the Court as long as the White House was occupied by a conservative president. But his mounting health problems and increasing isolation as the Court’s last true liberal led him to renege. He worried that he would be replaced by a black nominee who shunned the very civil rights agenda for which Marshall had spent his life fighting. The man in the running was Clarence Thomas whom Marshall ridiculed, being perplexed that a black man who grew up in Jim Crow Georgia, who had benefited from a thousand affirmative actions, attended Yale Law School on a racial quota, could suddenly find affirmative action so destructive. I notice Thomas is not among the photos.
By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 01/19/2009 9:47 am
DeBúrca obj
As a white person I cannot really speak for who black people are indebted to, but Jesse Jackson, although controversial at times, has dedicated his life to the cause and deserves to be on this list. I suspect Jesse upsets a lot of white people because he has been unapologetically outspoken and never tried to play it inside the box created by white society.
By DeBúrca obj on 01/19/2009 8:33 pm
Lorraine Bates
That’s not why he upsets me. This is why he upsets me: “[Barack Obama]’s speaking down to black people…he’s telling n——rs how to behave. I want to cut his nuts off.” -last July “Hymietown” - his term for New York City “I’m sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust.” - about Israel and the Jews “I would spit in the food of white people before I served it to them. It gave me psychological gratification.” - Time Magazine article, 1969 * Inflating his presence at MLK’s assasination (well documented, and corroborated by Andrew Young and Ralph Abernathy) …and lots of other shady things that I could list, but you get the drift. I’m with Chris Rock: “I want to hang out with Janet Jackson, not Jesse Jackson. There’s no rehab for stupidity.”
By Lorraine Bates on 01/20/2009 1:34 pm
DeBúrca obj
Well, it takes a lot of ego to lead, sometimes, unfortunately, Jackson’s ego gets the better of him.
By DeBúrca obj on 01/20/2009 4:48 pm
f p
I’d have liked to see James Farmer’s name and pic in that incredible line of great men.
By f p on 01/20/2009 12:47 pm