June 6, 2008--“I Was Like ‘Aaaahhhh’"

“I will tell her, ‘Tonight is the night that all Americans became one.’ ”

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“We as black people now have hope that we have never, ever had. I have new goals for my little girl. She can’t give me any excuses because she’s black.”

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“Our children need to be able to see a black adult as a leader for the country, so they can know we can reach for those same goals. We don’t need to give up at a certain level.”

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“When my 21-month-old daughter’s out in, God knows where, some small town in rural America, they’ll think, ‘Oh, I know someone like you. Our president is like you,’ ” Ms. Kane said. “That just opens minds for people, to have someone to relate to. And that makes me feel better, as a mom.”


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“Probably the most powerful story I heard was today at a conference, a woman came up to me and said her son teaches in an inner-city school in San Francisco and that he has seen a change in behavior among the young African-American boys there in terms of how they think about their studies.”

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“You can never change everybody’s minds, but it is going to help a lot.”

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“A lot of people think things will be different for the black community now. It’s great.”

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“If kids see this, they will think it’s something they can do. Otherwise, they look up to rappers.”
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“I was like, ‘aaaahhhh.’ Never in a million years would I have thought this was possible.”

Quotes from, Marcus Mabry, “Many Blacks Find Joy in Breakthrough,” New York Times (article linked below).