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What Do Obama, Trump, and Michael Jordan All Have in Common?
A Political Journey From Coast to Coast.
About 12 years ago, on one crisp evening in The Windy City, a Chicagoan gave a speech to a crowd of more than 200,000 adoring onlookers. They had all nestled into Chicago’s Grant Park, a sprawling green expanse buttressed against Lake Michigan, home to some of the city’s finest adornments. The park, named in honor of Ulysses S. Grant — the Union Army Civil War general and 18th president of the United States — served as the venue for the soon to be 44th president of the United States. The huddled masses gathered on the Chicago lakefront to hear the first presidential acceptance speech delivered by an African-American, Barack Hussein Obama.
The impact of Obama’s speech, quite literally, hit a little closer to home for me as I was Chicago born and bred, and Black-American, three generations removed from the Great Migration up north. Here was this Southsider (that’s Chicago-speak for White Sox fan) who, while not being native to the city, had nevertheless, lived in Chicago long enough to know what condiments to apply to a hotdog, introducing himself to the world from our home city.
There was something irresistibly poetic about witnessing the nation’s first African-American elected to the presidency, delivering his acceptance speech in a venue named after…
