Person
Professor
Engl2123
Pre- writing

President Obama was elected in 2008 and became the first ever African American and it is a big door opener for people of all shape, size, race and gender. Jackie Calmes wrote an article titled “When a Boy Found a Familiar Feel in a Pat of the Head of State” which was published in the New York Times, May 23, 2012. In the article Calmes describes a photograph. In this photo, the current President Barack Obama is bowing down to Dark skinned 5-year-old Jacob Philadelphia, his arm raised to touch the president's hair to see if it feels like his. Personally i think that the picture symbolizes something in the evolution of the United States for African Americans.

The image was taken by White House staff photographer Pete Souza in 2009, five months after Mr. Obama began his presidency. New York Times says that "When the pictures were taken and the family was about to leave, Mr. Philadelphia told Mr. Obama that his sons each had a question. In interviews, he and his wife, Roseane, said they did not know what the boys would ask. The White House photographer, Pete Souza, was surprised too, as the photo’s awkward composition attests: The parents’ heads are cut off; Jacob’s arm obscures his face; and his older brother, Isaac, is blurry." The photo still hangs in the West Wing today, while a copy is also proudly hung in the Philadelphia family’s living room.

The fact that Obamas skin is black and he is the head of state is the most amazing thing that could ever happen in African American history. Back in the day no one would have ever thought of a President with color. American slavery has always been a highly talked about topic throughout the years. Racism in the 1960's changed dramatically in various ways. One of the first major events in the sixties was the attack on the Freedom Riders, groups of black and white citizens who rode busses across the south in order to test laws enforcing segregation in public facilities. The 60’s were a terrible time for the black community. Malcom X and Martin Luther King's lives were cut short. Both were assassinated. Racism was bad then and it is