Thank you.

Thank you for making today possible.For working hard without getting paid.

For being separated from husbands, wives, children, sisters, and brothers...
...yet still working to make someone else rich and building an agricultural economy that was the envy of free nations at that time....
For your undying faith in God.

For fighting and dying in inhumane conditions.

For your belief that Jesus would truly end your suffering.

For your ingenuity, strength and resiliency.

For helping Union soldiers and spite the Confederates.

For Robert Smalls...
For Nat Turner
For W.E.B. Du Bois
For Benjamin Banneker
For Phyllis Wheatley
For Harriet Tubman
For Sojourner Truth...
For Frederick Douglass...
For John Brown...
For so many others....
Thank you.

Harriet Tubman (L)... for believing in freedom so much that with gun in hand you told slaves:
"Either you go tonight, or you die tonight."
Saying, "dead men tell no tales."
For your belief in FREEDOM.
For holding "these truths to be self-evident
that all men are created equal
and are endowed by their Creator
with inalienable rights....
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

For the Quakers and other whites who gave their homes,
their livelihoods,
their reputations,
to assist in the underground railroad.

For the slaves who made quilts
with patterns that told stories
and gave directions
to and through the Underground Railroad.

For the slaves who hung clothing
in specific patterns
to create messages about escape plans.

For those who died on the way to freedom.

"i may not get there with you."

For those who didn't leave the plantations, and died in bondage.

For your spirit and your fight, thank you.

Thank you for sitting down to stand up for the right to be treated with dignity.
For being a wonderful woman.
For being a role model.

Thank you, to Martin & Malcolm.
Though you may not have always agreed.
You believed in freedom.
You believed in equality.
You believed that
one of you served the purpose
to pave the way for the other.

Thank you for fighting.

Thank you for walking...
to the Capitol
in your cities...
over bridges...
against the walls you were pushed into...
in spite of the dogs unleashed onto you
by those who were supposed to
"serve & protect" you...
onto buses that were burned...

out of houses that
with crosses burning in the front yard...

back to churches
after they've been bombed....

into schools
where you weren't wanted....
because you believed in the

right to equal education...

All for one thing:

Thank you for making it possible for this man,
for all of us...
for our children...
for our futures...
starting today.

"The road ahead will be long.
Our climb will be steep.
We may not get there in one year, or even one term,
but America —
I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.
I promise you: We as a people will get there.

There will be setbacks and false starts.
There are many who won't agree with
every decision or policy I make as president,
and we know that government can't solve every problem.
But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.
I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.
And, above all, I will ask you join in the work of
remaking this nation
the only way it's been done in America
for 221 years —
block by block,
brick by brick...

And, to those Americans
whose support I have yet to earn,
I may not have won your vote,
but I hear your voices,
I need your help,
and I will be your president, too."

Yes, we can.

History has been made.
This is a day to celebrate.

A day to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

A day to be humble.

A day to feel blessed that we are standing here on the shoulders of those who came before us.

And that we do it for the futures of those who look up to us.

You may not agree with Obama.
You may not have voted for Obama.
You may have said ugly things about this man.
You may have ugly feelings in your heart towards him.
That is between you and the Lord to work out.

This is a moment in history too significant to be mired by hate and distrust
and all of the ugly things America has been in its past.

This is a moment in history to show how we continue to surpass the odds
the negative interactions
the lowered expectations that America can,
is,
and will be
better tomorrow than we were today.

That we'll continue to be an emissary of freedom.
Empowering other countries to do it on their own
with our support
without becoming dependent on us.

In the same way that government cannot fix all of the problems,
neither can America fix the world's problems.

Have faith that we can do this.
Because, YES, we can.