Poet and publisher Haki Madhubuti shares his piece about this first in American history.

The Last First
Haki R. Madhubuti

Not the first heavyweight champion of the world, 
      airline pilot, quarterback in the NFL, college graduate, 
      doctor, teacher, big league baseball player, preacher–pastor, 
      CEO, mountain climber, university president, entrepreneur, 
      heart surgeon, inventor, governor or poet.
Not the first mathematician, physicist, engineer, supreme court justice, 
      fastest man alive, publisher, reporter, ambassador, entertainer, 
      four-star general, best-selling author, executive chef, sergeant major, 
      scientist, basketball hall-of-famer, economist, secretary of state, 
      nobel prize winner, astronaut, law enforcer, chair of the joint chiefs, 
      senator, first responder or state legislator.
Not the best trumpet player alive, bank president, husband, father, 
      organic farmer, rapper’s rapper or coach’s coach. 
Not an undefined question looking for an answer or 
      hidden agenda claiming the authority of one.
Not an exploiter of the commons. 
      is the green hands nurturing fields, crops and rain forests. 
      is the water, food, education, clean energy, preventive health 
      and intellect required. is the humanitarian connecting 
      music and economy, writing political notes 
      legible to professionals, novices, students and elders the world over. 
      is the community organizer maneuvering citizens’ campaigns 
      expecting to implant knowledge, consent and saneness   
      on impracticability 
      as renegade and renaissance expand the can in we and yes 
      at the early-light of this promising century 
      not the last, is the first
      Barack obama, president.