Today we witnessed history

Every year I taught elementary school I looked out onto a class of children that reminded me I live in America. I can count on both hands the number of white children I've taught. The majority of my students were Hispanic, African-American(or African), Iraqi or Afghani and a mixture of just about every combination possible. I didn't teach races, I taught kids, but many of these kids didn't understand their history, hadn't seen anyone like them in a history book and didn't have a lot of heroes to look up to.

Every year I taught a unit about the Civil Rights Movement. We read Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou, we sang and danced to spirituals and African praise songs. We wept over the horror of the slave trade, ran with Harriet Tubman on the Underground Railroad, and road the bus with the Freedom Riders around our classroom. We read The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963, one of the best kids' books out there. We watched Dr. King preach Jesus and freedom and Jesus some more. I had 10 year-olds that wept for 10 minutes after watching the "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. When Dr. King finished with "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!" I had kids cheering and jumping up and down. In a public school.

So today as I watched the swearing in on TV, I remember every child I've taught and I just want to hold them and say, "Look! Look what's happened right here in your lifetime! Look what YOU can do! Look who YOU can become!"

I remembered every firsthand account we read by a former slave, every picture of those precious girls from Birmingham that lost their lives going to Sunday School, and everything in me wants to rejoice! We are not done yet, but I rejoice with those who are rejoicing today.

This is huge.

We are witnessing history.