Journal-News.com

HAMILTON — On Thursday, Aug. 28, retired Miami University professor Donald Daiker and up to 74,999 other people will watch as Illinois Sen. Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Party's nomination to run for president of the United States.

This will be exactly 45 years from the day Daiker stood on a packed mall in Washington, D.C. and watched Martin Luther King Jr. dream of when his children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.

"Barack's nomination is the fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech," said Daiker.

Daiker is an Ohio 8th Congressional District delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver starting today. The others are Middletown City Councilwoman Leslie Ford, Middletown businessman Stephen Hightower and Linda Manning of Huber Heights.

Though Ford and Hightower are pledged delegates for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, Clinton is expected to urge them and all her other delegates to align behind Obama.

The Republican Party will then meet in September in Minneapolis to nominate Arizona Sen. John McCain. And the ongoing race for the White House will officially begin.

Daiker said 45 years ago, when he was a young graduate student at Indiana University scorned for supporting the civil rights movement and King, he couldn't have imagined so many people getting behind an African-American candidate.

"The focus then was on voting rights, and getting served at lunch counters and getting into hotels," he said, adding, "I think (Obama) can win. I think he will win."

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 jsweigart@coxohio.com.