Tomorrow, Tavis Smiley will host his 8th annual State of the Black Union conference at Hampton University.
Hampton is located in the shadow of Union-held Fort Monroe, where runaway slaves – contraband of war – found safer haven (comparatively speaking).
As black political and thought leaders, public intellectuals and activists (here and here) gather in Virginia, Sen. Barack Obama will not be in the house.
Instead, Obama will be in Springfield, Ill., at the Old State Capitol, where he will formally announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The old state capitol is where Abraham Lincoln delivered his 1858 “House Divided” speech. As president, the Great Emancipator signed the Second Confiscation Act, which declared slaves contraband of war.
Frankly, the juxtaposition of these two events raises troubling questions.
Is the scheduling conflict mere oversight on the part of Obama’s handlers (and here)?
Or is it a Sister Souljah moment designed to show that Obama, who straddles the racial divide, has moved beyond race? That he’s not the “black candidate.”
Whether oversight or slight, the timing of the announcement may widen the divide between Obama and black voters (here and here).
