When Will Europe Be Ready to Chose a Leader Like Barack Obama?

As Barack Obama is sworn in as the first black president of the United States, Europeans wonder when — no make that if — they will ever see their own “Obama” in Europe.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama waves to spectators as he leaves his hotel in…

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama waves to spectators as he leaves his hotel in Berlin July 25, 2008. As Barack Obama is sworn in as the first black president of the United States, Europeans wonder when — no make that if — they will ever see their own “Obama” in Europe.

(Markus Schreiber/AP Photo)
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Could a second-generation immigrant with roots in the black Third World be elected prime minister or president in Europe?

My American friends find it difficult to imagine an immigrant overcoming Europe’s white-dominated, slow and elitist political systems anytime soon.

“Does anyone really think that Britain would chose a second-generation Pakistani as its leader?” Yale professor and intellectual heavyweight Harold Bloom said.

“Would Germany choose a child of Turkish immigrants? Or France someone whose parents emigrated from Algeria?”

But European friends and intellectuals also seem more optimistic, even if most statistics say otherwise.

Raj, a teacher of postcolonial literature whose Indian parents moved to Great Britain in the 1960s, said he could envision a European Obama in the next 10 years. Particularly in Britain, which had a Jewish prime minister in the 19th century, and is perhaps seen as one of the better-integrated European countries.

ABC News: Is Europe Ready for a Barack Obama?.

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Barack Obama’s inauguration marks a profound manifestation of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s dream, civil rights leaders say, but the movement would be foolish to drop its guard now.

Christine King Farris sits next to a photo of her brother as she reads to kids to commemorate his birthday Thursday.

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King did not fight tirelessly and ultimately give his life so African-Americans could take office; he fought for the disenfranchised and downtrodden, no matter their color, said Charles Steele, president and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King and Steele’s father helped found.

“President-elect Barack Obama is just a piece of the puzzle,” he said. “This tells us that we are at a station, but it’s not our destination. We’ve got to get back on the train.”

Steele said he worries that those who espouse King’s dream may grow lackadaisical because an African-American has taken the reins of the free world. But it is imperative, he said, that they “march now more than ever before.”

Steele points to 1963, when tens of thousands of protesters converged on Washington to demand equal rights. It was there King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech from the Lincoln Memorial steps.

President Kennedy’s administration was considered the most receptive ever to the concerns of the civil rights movement, Steele said. But rather than sit back and hope Kennedy did the right thing, King and thousands stormed Washington to lay out demands that later would yield the Civil Rights Act and National Voting Rights Act.

Those down for the cause today must do the same with Obama, Steele said.

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Civil rights vets: Fight not over because Obama reaches top – CNN.com.

Happy Birthday, Dr. King!

National Park Service

The National Mall was once the site of a slave market like this one in the 1840s in Washington.

A Civil Rights Victory Party on the Mall – NYTimes.com.