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John Brown's Reaction to the Election

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Here are the last two lines from an insightful article about Obama winning the election. Please visit Black Voices Now to read the entire article.

"Then I remember and honor the heroes of our nation, Harriet Tubman, John Parker, Frederick Douglass, Rev. John Rankin, John Brown and so many others on whose shoulders we are now standing. This is a great day, a great time and yes I can now say looking back on our past, I am finally proud of America and it’s future. "

Reading this started me thinking about what John Brown would have thought about the last few days.

I think he would be both elated and troubled by the recent election. Elated because a man who is not white has been elected President of this great country, but troubled by the fact that 150 years AFTER his dramatic raid and resulting martyrdom, Americans are still making distinctions based on skin color.

John Brown was a man of action. As he stated in Boston during an abolitionist meeting, "Talk! Talk! Talk! That will never free the slaves. What is needed is action-action."

Millions of Americans took action and worked together to elect Omaba while ignoring gender, color and faith issues. This unprecedented unity would have impressed him deeply.

To see his dream of harmony between all men fulfilled, even if for only a portion of the United States, must have him "smiling in his grave."


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