Yes I Can

“Yes We Can”. Three little words that are synonymous with our next President. “Yes We Can” is empowering and brings to mind Obama’s messages of hope and change. These three little words created a tidal wave of popular support which swept aside the Democrats and Republicans alike and ushered in the first African American president. A brilliant slogan that will now go down in our history books as a phrase that brought a new era to America. All because a black man stood up and proclaimed to the world “Yes We Can”. The right time, the right place, the right man and most of all, the right words. “Yes We Can”.

Oh how brave, how powerful for a black man to stand up and proclaim “Yes We Can”. Only Obama could have done this, right? Well, wrong actually. Long before Barack Obama there was another black man who faced a different world.

“Yes We Can” is empowering but what is Barack standing up against? In comparison to this other man, Obama knows nothing about discrimination or hard knocks. Unlike Barack Obama, this man never even went to grade school, much less private high schools, college and an Ivy League law school. While Barack traveled the country he stayed in presidential suites while fifty years ago this other black man was turned away again and again from hotels and restaurants, even when his name was on their billboards. The KKK vilified this man for marrying a white woman whereas no one cared that Obama was the product of a biracial marriage. Today Obama is our next president whereas I am not sure if it is ironic or simply sad that the epitome of 1960’s liberalism, President Kennedy, was afraid of the public opinion if he invited this black man to the White House for his inauguration.

Unlike Barack Obama, this African American had every reason to stand tall and proud and to loudly state “Yes I Can”. And that is exactly what Sammy Davis Jr. did when he called his autobiography “Yes I Can”. Did you know that? Did anybody ever bring up the fact that Obama’s brilliant slogan had been used once before by another black man? Did Obama ever acknowledge all that Sammy Davis Jr. did to demolish racial divides much less provide the slogan that took him to the presidency?

I’ve tried googling the two names but other than a few articles saying Obama is tap dancing like Sammy I have yet to find any mention of Sammy by Obama. But perhaps to blacks today he doesn’t count because he never threw a bomb or damned this country and actually meant it when he said he wanted peace.

If you want to learn how a great African American became a true superstar amidst some of the most brutal discrimination ever seen in this country then put aside those Obama books and read Sammy Davis Jr.’s autobiography of a man who had the right to stand up and declare “Yes I Can.”