Monday night, History professor Steve Gillon said that even though the election of Barack Obama marks an historic change for America, the election was executed in a very traditional way.

“This election saw an unconventional result through a very conventional process,” he said.

Gillon, who spoke in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, also said that the 2008 election will be one of the most discussed and studied elections for generations to come.

“The two defining events of the beginning of the 21st century will be 9/11 and the election of Barack Obama,” he said.

Gillon said that the election was particularly impacting to those who remember the Civil Rights Movement and the political turmoil of the 1960s.

"It's really difficult to understand if you're under 45," he said. "In a larger context, you can appreciate the impact, based on the fact that the Democratic party has been traditionally steeped in racism."

He said that despite the Democratic party's former racism, the seeds of the presidency of Barack Obama were planted by the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. Gillon said that like Roosevelt, Obama brought new groups into the Democratic party. Additionally, Obama must deal with the specter of the Democratic party's reluctance to support the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

"You have to consider that it was only 40 years ago that African-Americans in the south were guaranteed the right to vote," he said. "In the world where most of you have grown up, the south has been a Republican area."

Additionally, Gillon said that while the election of Barack Obama did increase voter turnout slightly, the increase wasn't drastic. According to CIRCLE, a nonpartisan research center that studies civic learning and engagement, around 61 percent of Americans voted in the 2008 election. In 2004, 60.7 percent of Americans voted.

"There was a lot of speculation that Obama would bring in a sea of new voters," Gillon said. "While that's possible in time, reports suggest that most of these expectations haven't come true."

Gillon said that despite the traditional turnout, the Obama campaign will be remembered as one that embraced a more diverse and accurate representation of America.

"When you saw the faces of Obama supporters when he accepted the nomination, you saw something much more diverse," he said. "At McCain's concession speech, the audience was primarily middle-aged and white."

He said that the Republican party can return to viability, but it must rebuild its platform while Democrats control the government.

"If the Republicans want to be a viable party in the future, they need to reach out to moderate independents," he said.