Two and a half centuries would pass from the time the first slaves arrived on the shores of Virginia to when they were declared free — and when half of the country fought bitterly to keep them in captivity. That was just the first step in many towards eventual equality: the right to vote, after a series of compromises, came a decade after the end of the Civil War; the right to attend integrated public facilities came more than sixty years later. By the 1970s a semblance of parity was achieved, but the opportunities for African Americas were still more severely limited by the institutions themselves. Barack Obama faced some of those very limitations, but willed himself to overcome them.

On this day, November 4, in 2008, almost 120 years after slavery was abolished in the United States, the first African-American reached the highest office in the country. Barack Obama’s triumph signaled a new post-racial era, recognized not only over the U.S. but over the world.

When Obama was born, poll taxes were still in effect to keep African-Americans from voting. He grew up against the backdrop of civil rights marches assaulted by police and counter-protesters. A vestige of that inherent racism may have followed him into office, but clearly the country had come a long way. “We have had peaks and valleys in the civil rights struggle and this is the mountain top,” said Obama supporter and prominent activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, in an interview shortly after the election. “It says a lot about how far the movement has brought this nation.”