One year ago today, on November 4, 2008, we the people of the United States of America elected our first non-white president.
Even though Obama has not turned out to be the great champion of progress that many of us thought we were voting for, and even though his election did not usher in the post-racial America that some naively expected, the fact that an African-American family now resides in the White House is nonetheless something to be celebrated.
Obama's election came some 146 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, 138 years after the Fifteenth Amendment allowed all citizens to vote regardless of race or color, and 45 years after Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
A truly post-racial America is still a pipe dream, but every significant milestone is worth celebrating along the way.
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