IPFS News Link • Revolutions, Rebellions & Uprisings
'We Are Living Through a Battle for the Soul of This Nation'
• https://www.theatlantic.com, JOE BIDENIn January of 2009, I stood waiting in Wilmington, Delaware, for a train carrying the first African American elected president of the United States. I was there to join him as vice president on the way to a historic Inauguration. It was a moment of extraordinary hope for our nation—but I couldn't help thinking about a darker time years before at that very site.
My mind's eye drifted back to 1968. I could see the flames burning Wilmington, the violence erupting on the news of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, the federal troops taking over my city.
I was living history—and reliving it—at the same time. And the images racing through my mind were a vivid demonstration that when it comes to race in America, hope doesn't travel alone. It's shadowed by a long trail of violence and hate.