Ann Pierre

Forty-five years ago, James Mapp was one of the estimated 200,000 people present when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

“Our goal was equal access to whatever our country offered, that includes the presidency,” said Mr. Mapp, 81, a local civil rights leader who led a 26-year lawsuit to end school segregation in Chattanooga.

That goal is one huge step closer with this week’s nomination of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as the Democratic Party nominee for president. The senator, son of a black Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, is expected to face off against Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is up for the presidential nomination at next week’s Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. The election is Nov. 4.

“In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream; Barack Obama is the dream,” said local Obama supporter Adam Cowan, 42, administrative assistant at the Church Koinonia Federal Credit Union.

The Rev. Paul McDaniel, 78, pastor at Second Missionary Baptist Church, also was in Washington to hear Dr. King’s speech on Aug. 28, 1963, and remembers the way it ignited hopes in black Americans.

“We said, ‘One day, we’re going to have a black president,’ but there was no concrete goal,” Mr. McDaniel said.

Although other blacks have run for president, none has come as close as Sen. Obama. Al Sharpton campaigned for the Democratic nomination in 2004 and Alan Keyes tried for the Republican nomination in 1996 and 2000. Jesse Jackson stirred excitement when he tried for Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988. Former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois briefly ran in 2004. And the late U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York made history when she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972.

But none ever gained a major party nomination, said the Rev. Virgil Caldwell, pastor of New Monumental Baptist Church and a co-organizer of the NAACP in Union City.

“Regardless if we win, we’ve come this far — so much farther than we’ve ever come before,” said the 78-year-old Mr. Caldwell.

Mr. Obama already has overcome many obstacles, Mr. McDaniel said.

“So many negatives have come to destroy (Obama), but he has survived,” Mr. McDaniel said. “It almost makes you think of the destiny of history.”

Even at the beginning of 2007, there was no real feeling that Sen. Obama would rise to this level, it was just too hard to visualize, said Mr. McDaniel, one of the first blacks to serve on the Hamilton County Commission.

He and current County Attorney Rheubin Taylor were elected in 1978 when the commission was formed, and Mr. McDaniel served 20 years before retiring.

Mr. Taylor said Sen. Obama’s nomination is historic, but he hopes success does not stop there.

“It’s a blessing that we now see a realization of the dream that this country can allow one of the descendants of Africans to be a nominee of major political party for the White House,” Mr. Taylor said. “I just pray that we get him in the White House and not settle for just being the nominee.”

Eddie Holmes, 61, local NAACP president, said Sen. Obama is only a part of Dr. King’s dream and that there is likely to be more struggle before equality is reached in America.

“I appreciate the imagery of a black man being president of the United States,” he said, but he’s more focused on the events that may follow.

“Following Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech, you had the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing (which killed four young girls in Birmingham, Ala., only 18 days after the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech),” Mr. Holmes said.

Ann Jones Pierre, manager of Church Koinonia Federal Credit Union, also noted that the late President John F. Kennedy’s assassination took place later that same year.

“There were a number of things happening during that time that were very significant to change,” she said. “Politically and racially, people were looking for a new identity for who we are.”

Mr. Holmes said there was an escalation in the attack on civil rights.

“If you look at what followed Mr. King, it was a turbulent time for the black community,” he said. “How will this country react to Barack Obama and the changes he’s going to attempt to lead?”