Overview
For many, the most indelible image of Barack Obama's path to the presidency is the moment he took the oath of office. However, in terms of cultural resonance, the most enduring image may be one that few of us will ever see: President Barack Obama, an African American, at home, at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Any point, geographical or historical, along the African American diaspora can now be calibrated, and indeed celebrated, with this fact: a black man has made his home in the White House. With every passing day, this image becomes more embedded in the American consciousness. Whether his presidency lasts four years or eight, the effects of Obama's residency will far outlast his time in office. Robert B. Stepto, in his latest collection of lectures entitled A Home Elsewhere: Reading African American Classics in the Age of Obama, notes that, ". . .we read African American literature at the present moment, knowing, and actually being stunned by the fact, that an African American writer is our president"(Stepto 2010, 3). And, in the case of this unit, when reading African American literature through the lens of "finding home," this fact changes everything. The long journey to freedom has found a moment of fulfillment. While Barack Obama is but one man among many, he serves as what mythologist Joseph Campbell calls a "constellating image" (Campbell 1988, 163), a "North Star," as it were, to guide future travelers to a place they can call home.
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