The last time I watched President Barack Obama deliver a speech in Chicago was in 2017 at the McCormick Place Convention Center. It was his now legendary farewell address. I watched President Obama from the press area behind and parallel to the stage. It was not the most ideal view. But it was the best view for me as I thought about Obama’s legacy and the country’s first Black president, all that he accomplished and the challenges of the color line that hope and change could not hurdle over.
I had a few tears of joy and mourning as I watched Obama’s speech as I thought about how proud my father and mother would be that I, the child of a janitor and home healthcare worker, perpetual renters who never owned a home, and a proud member of the Black working class, was sitting here, so close to America’s first Black president. I wrote the following that evening:
