This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "A Promised Land" by Barack Obama. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What was the Obama race speech in Philadelphia about? What did Obama say and how was Reverend Wright involved?
The Obama race speech in Philadelphia was Obama’s speech to address the controversy and race in America. Obama’s successful speech steered his campaign in the right direction.
Read more about the Obama race speech in Philadelphia and what it meant for his campaign.
Philadelphia Race Speech Sparked by Controversy
In March 2008, the campaign was upended when footage surfaced of Reverend Jeremiah Wright—Barack and Michelle’s pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ—delivering a fiery sermon in which he shouted the phrase “God damn America.” Wright also made remarks praising Nation of Islam leader (and notorious anti-Semite) Louis Farrakhan and claiming that the HIV virus had been deliberately released into the Black community by the U.S. government.
Obama knew this story would cause major trouble for his campaign. He understood the context in which Reverend Wright had given his remarks. Although Wright was a serious theologian and respected figure within Chicago’s religious community, he also had a propensity to give voice to pent-up feelings of collective Black anger over America’s clear and undeniable legacy of racial injustice.
Thus, an ordinary sermon might be peppered with references to slavery, Jim Crow, and the mass incarceration of young Black men as a result of the War on Drugs. In its proper context, such rhetorical flourishes made sense and were generally uncontroversial. But thrown into the context of a presidential election featuring an African-American candidate, they proved explosive.
Despite the political pain Wright was causing him, Obama felt empathy for his pastor. Wright could indeed sometimes channel the voice and persona of a 1960s radical. Especially when he knew he was speaking to primarily Black audiences at his church. But Obama also knew that Wright was a serious theologian and thoughtful, nuanced figure. He deserved far better than the caricature that was being made of him by the national media.
Obama Delivers a Successful Speech
Nevertheless, Obama recognized that his campaign hinged on addressing the Wright controversy. On March 18, 2008, he delivered a historic and widely viewed speech. Obama’s race speech in Philadephia became an important part of his legacy.
Speaking as much to a white audience as he was to his Black supporters, Obama used the Wright controversy to explain long-simmering Black feelings of betrayal and anger at their historical experience in America, and why that frustration occasionally boiled over into overheated rhetoric like that which Wright had espoused.
At the same time, he used the occasion to explain to Black supporters why many whites felt offense and resentment at the presumption of racism. Many working-class, blue-collar whites viewed the national conversation about race and racism as a rejection of their own struggles and hardships, a way of saying that economic and social problems within white communities were irrelevant and unworthy of attention.
With the major networks carrying the speech, over one million people saw his remarks live. The media and the voters felt that Barack had deftly and eloquently addressed the Wright controversy. His polling position began to recover—the campaign had survived its toughest moment.
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Barack Obama's "A Promised Land" at Shortform .
Here's what you'll find in our full A Promised Land summary :
- How Barack Obama went from relative obscurity to the first Black president
- What principles guided his political leadership style
- Why Obama retained an unshakable faith in the potential and promise of America
