The other leading candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination would also make history if elected. He was a first-term United States senator from Illinois named Barack Obama. He was born in Hawaii to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya. If he won, he would be America's first black president.

Blacks in the United States had been slaves until eighteen sixty-three. They were not permitted to vote until eighteen seventy. Women in the United States did not have a constitutional right to vote until nineteen twenty. And not until the nineteen sixties did federal civil rights laws bar discrimination against either group.

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During the nominating fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, there was a lot of discussion and debate in America about gender and race. Some talked about the problems that women still faced in society, and wondered whether Americans could accept a woman as president. Others talked about the problems that blacks still faced in society, and wondered whether Americans could accept a black man as president.

PEOPLE: "I think we're ready. Oh, I hope we're ready." "I just hear people's comments that that will be the day when we have a black man running our country." "I'm not sure. I'm really not sure."

Candidate Obama gave a speech about race in America.

BARACK OBAMA: "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas.