1 - Introduction

Summary

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy … The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

(Barack Obama, “A More Perfect Union,” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 18, 2008)

This dramatic passage opens a speech given by then-Senator Barack Obama at a crucial moment in his first campaign for the US presidency. Obama’s pastor and long-time friend, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, had made a series of remarks, in sermons and interviews, which were construed by many who heard them as unpatriotic. (A notable example occurred in a sermon critical of government policies and actions, in which Reverend Wright quoted the patriotic song, “God bless America,” then substituted “God damn America.”) The furor over Reverend Wright’s harshly worded criticisms of US policies threatened to undermine Obama’s support among moderate and independent voters, key constituencies in his election campaign. The immediate purpose of the speech was to defuse this controversy before it derailed the entire campaign.

The broader issue Obama faced was the role of “race” in the election. He had to address the issue of race relations in a way that would prevent it from becoming the central theme of his campaign. In this opening passage, Obama began with a reference to a defining event in US history, and then quickly narrowed the focus to a particular aspect of that event. The language in this passage set the stage for much of what follows, including a detailed discussion of the more recent history of the civil rights struggle in the United States, his own campaign, and the controversy over Reverend Wright’s remarks.