Denver, Aug. 28: History will be made in America tonight when a person of colour accepts the presidential nomination of a major political party for the first time since the founding of the United States of America.

But history will be made for other reasons too. Barack Obama will accept the mantle of his party’s nomination exactly on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

That stirring speech before a quarter million mass in 1963 became the clarion call of the civil rights movement, the culmination of which will be Obama’s candidacy for the highest office in the US, a dream that will come true tonight for millions of Americans.

It is an irony of history that Obama will realise King’s dream during a week that also marks the 88th anniversary of the 19th amendment to the US constitution that gave women the right to vote.

It is an irony because Obama’s presidential nomination is at the expense of the only woman who made a serious bid for the White House and lost it narrowly. Hillary Clinton’s lost cause would have realised the dreams of millions of American women who fought for decades against the discrimination of being denied their franchise.

Last evening when Obama’s nomination was passed by acclamation at the Democratic National Convention here, there were many black men and women among the delegates who had been refused service in white-owned grocery stores or not allowed to move into neighbourhoods populated by white families.

Many of them teared up when Nancy Pelosi, the chairwoman of the convention, announced the result of a voice vote on Obama’s nomination and then danced along the aisles of the Pepsi Centre here to Love Train, a 1973 No.1 pop song about unity by the Philadelphia soul group, 'Jays.

Hundreds of women delegates openly wept when Hillary sought an end to the state-by-state roll call which had her name on the nomination.When it was the turn of her home state of New York to vote on her nomination — along with Obama’s — Hillary took the mike and declared: “In the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory, let us declare together in one voice, right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate.”

The entire scripted process in healing intra-party divisions was an exercise that squabbling politicians in other countries could learn from.

Hillary, who was close second to Obama in the Democratic primary contests, wanted her supporters to have their voice heard at the convention. So they wore Hillary pins and head scarves, sported placards declaring their support for her lost cause and demonstrated outside the convention on the streets of Denver.

When the New York Senator spoke at the convention on Tuesday, her supporters would not let her start her address because they cheered and cheered on their feet without a break.

And the party decided that her name would be on the nomination and a roll call would be taken among the delegates. Early yesterday, however, Hillary released her delegates from their commitment to vote for her, but she did not tell them how to vote. Hillary herself said she would vote for Obama.

In in an impassioned speech, she reasoned why every Democrat should now support Obama wholeheartedly. And when New York’s name was announced for the roll call, Hillary gracefully ended her dream of moving back into the White House — at least for now — by asking for an end to the process.

Last night also saw the rehabilitation of Bill Clinton among the Democratic Party faithful after he was severely criticised during the primaries for disaparaging Obama, bringing race into the campaign and generally lowering the tone of the primaries.

But last night, Democrats forgave their party’s most successful President in recent memory after he made what was probaly the strongest case by any speaker at the four-day convention for electing Obama.

His speech was a testimony to Clinton’s oratorical skills: eloquently, he told the Democrats the exact opposite of what he has been saying all along the primary season, but his audience roared in adulatory approval.