Dear Boys
Yesterday something amazing happened
The country we are handing you changed

I am so proud to tell you
that the generation before you decided to be brave
and risk
and for the first time actually do what they believed
instead of just saying it.
Your country elected an African-American to the position of leader of the free world. They told me, you, the future that any one can do anything. The people of this country decided to be leaders in the world again and stand up for the ideal of freedom.
I write this to you so that you know what things used to be like. It used to be novel to think that a person of color could ascend to a position of leadership. We had laws that insured women and minorities would be able to work for the same pay as everyone else. There was fear, there was hate, and I think that by the time you care to read this you won't really know those ideas the way that I know them now. I think that people will still be people, and still be flawed, but they won't be people who understand the ideas of division and race the way that dad and I have seen.
Our HOPE
for you
and this world you inherit
is that you won't know why I had to write this.
That you don't understand why this is such a big deal
that this is only a part of history to you.

Congratulations boys
I am so happy for you
and so thankful
that there is ONE thing
in our broken world
that dad and I can give to you
and that is the legacy left by a nation
that said today the legacy of slavery
and a nation divided are over


forever

**photos by Erick Burke and The New York Times**