In a speech given before thousands in Chicago, and millions around the world, Barack Obama accepted his victory and place in history as the forty-fourth president-elect of the United States. As Obama spoke, election night dwindled into the day after, and the Illinois senator made sure to center his speech around the work of those who paved the way for the change they sought, those who canvassed and stood in impossibly long lines to vote, and most especially those who years before marched for civil rights and social justice so that all Americans could one day “put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.” To read the full transcript of the speech click here.

–Marissa Colón-Margolies

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