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In the words of David Walker, a free black man writing in 1829:

“Not indeed, to show me a colored President, a Governor, a Legislator, a Senator, a Mayor, or an Attorney at the Bar. But to show me a man of color, who holds the low office of a Constable, or one who sits in a Juror Box, even on a case of one of his wretched brethren, throughout this great Republic!!”

I find it interesting to see how the bar has changed. 

With a little help from Wikipedia, this helps me gain some perspective:

2009: Barack Obama, first Black President
1990: Douglas Wilder, first elected Black Governor
1870: Hiram Rhodes Revels, first black Senator
1870: Joseph Rainey, first black Representative to the US House
1966: Robert C. Henry, first black Mayor
1845: Macon Allen, first black man to sit the Bar
1891: Wiley Overton, first black police officer in NYC
(I found no statistics on black jurors.)

We are looking at massive change, not just in the past ~200+ years, but within my lifetime. Equality is the promise of our nation, all men (and women) created equally. I keep seeing folks in the cafeteria coming to a stop to watch this event on TV. We have come such a long way in this country. And we still have so far to go. Never in my lifetime did I expect to see a day such as this. But it is so nice to see.