On July 16, I gained a rare opportunity to participate in American history. On that humid summer day, I was one of seven black journalists selected by the White House to take part in an exclusive roundtable with President Barack Obama on Air Force One. It’s every reporter’s dream to conduct an interview with the president of the United States; it’s a career high to talk with him at 10,000 feet in the vessel considered the ultimate symbol of power and authority.
Since presidential air transport started in 1944, no other commander in chief has provided such a forum to the black press. We marveled as we toured the well-appointed aircraft, viewing, among other areas, the president’s tech-laden, airborne Oval Office. As the huge white-and-blue 747 sailed across the sky from Andrews Air Force Base to John F. Kennedy Airport, my colleagues and I each asked the president one question. The topics included healthcare reform (at press time, his biggest legislative battle), race relations, and minority business. I must admit, as a kid from Norfolk, Virginia, who always dreamed of chatting with a sitting president, this trip was the ultimate thrill.
Black Enterprise has always shared with our readers the importance of the nexus between politics and business. In our four decades as a media organization, however, we have never had this level of access to a presidential administration. I take great pride that be was chosen as the first magazine to
interview the president. I’ve had the privilege of representing our organization in the front row of presidential news conferences. Our editors have covered every aspect of the administration and interviewed Cabinet-level officials including Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan; Education Secretary Arne Duncan; Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson; and Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes. In fact, in this issue, United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk chats with me about his plans to help entrepreneurs gain entrée to global markets.To keep our coverage current, we have dispatched our tenacious Washington correspondent, Joyce Jones, to track the activities of the administration on a daily basis, attending White House press briefings and spending hours on Capitol Hill talking to both Democrats and Republicans about policy issues. In this issue’s Enterprise section, Jones’ Washington Report offers details of how black-owned businesses seek to snare their share of contracts from the $787 billion stimulus package.
The impact of the flight hit me when my feet finally touched the ground, literally and figuratively. We traveled with President Obama to New York, where he addressed the NAACP on its 100th anniversary. A century ago, that day’s occupants of Air Force One would have had to travel across the country in segregated rail cars. A century ago, we were second-class citizens, denied the right to fully participate in American society. In his stirring speech, he told us why the oldest civil rights organization had been founded and why our forefathers fought so hard and sacrificed so much: “Because of what they did, we are a more perfect union. Because Jim Crow laws were overturned, black CEOs today run Fortune 500 companies. Because civil rights laws were passed, black mayors, black governors, and members of Congress served in places where they might once have been able not just to vote but even take a sip of water. And because ordinary people did such extraordinary things … because of their efforts I made a little trip to Springfield, Illinois, a couple years ago–where Lincoln once lived, and race riots once raged–and began the journey that has led me to be here tonight as the 44th president of the United States of America.†And seven African American journalists, me included, took a journey too: a historic flight on Air Force One with the first African American president of the United States.