If you heard the Selma speech of Barack Obama, then you must have felt its specialness as the president took charge of each syllable, rolling off his tongue creating each moment, as if for history.
As speeches go, it was probably as fine a rhetorical example of speechmaking as the president has offered during his tenure.
I just couldn’t think of another speech I’ve seen him give during his presidency. A State of the Union? Too pedestrian.
His March on Washington address in 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the Martin Luther King speech? For me, that didn’t come close to the power I felt came from Obama at Selma.
Indeed, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley on CNN elevated the speech, calling it Obama’s “I have a Dream” speech for the 21st century. The way I saw it, when people ask what was it like to be America’s first African-American president, they will point to this speech and say this defined Obama’s vision of a new diverse and inclusive America.
If Obama’s legacy ultimately is being the Jackie Robinson of the Oval Office, then this is the one speech that will be remembered. (Robinson does get a shout-out in the speech.)
It had it all.
