By Mark Lassiter
If Scott “Downtown” Brown and “The Big O” (with a sincere apology to Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson) consider practicing for their charity game together, they cannot violate party boundaries or be seen in public. Their clandestine practice session would sound something like this.

By Manning Marable
Early on in their deliberation process, the Obama pre-campaign group recognized that most white Americans would never vote for a black Presidential candidate. However, they were convinced that most whites would embrace, and vote for, a remarkable, qualified Presidential candidate who happened to be black.

By Clifton R. Wharton, Jr.
The unprecedented election of President Barack Obama has provided a dramatic spotlight on the issues of race in America. One aspect of significance is that it represents an important step in the process of racial integration in our nation. His election was the result of the collective decisions by a multi racial and multi ethnic electorate. Both as a U.S. Senator from Illinois and as President, Obama has been what might be called an “Integrative Black Pioneer.”

By Leslie Proll
When President Obama took office last January, hopes were high that the right wing’s long stronghold on the federal courts had come to an end. LDF and other civil rights advocates were eager for a new day when fair and impartial judges would once again be nominated and confirmed in large numbers.

By John Payton
A year ago, we could barely contain our excitement as we contemplated a historic achievement. Barack Obama had won a decisive victory. There was widespread enthusiasm for his Presidency. Right after the election, Gallup reported that 68 percent of the public was proud that Obama was President. His choices of Senator Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State, of Eric Holder to be Attorney General and of Robert Gates to remain as Secretary of Defense were well received. His Inaugural speech was brilliant. We were looking forward to acknowledging and confronting fundamental problems that have plagued our society for decades.

By Janet Singleton
In my mind Tiger Woods is a multiethnic, polysyllabic, whatjamacallit, just as he said. “A Cablinasian.” He called himself that in a 1997 appearance on Oprah and disappointed some black people. But I have no problem with that, particularly now. It’s just that the controversial Vanity Fair magazine cover posing Tiger as “thuggish” and therefore presumably blacker, we are invited to consider that issue once again.

By Karen Hunter
GOP chair Michael Steele made the rounds this weekend calling for, among other things, the resignation of Senate Majority Leader Democratic Harry Reid for comments that Reid made about Barack Obama while he was making his historic run for president.

By George Alexander
Last month, President Obama awarded Poitier, the first African American to ever win an Academy award for best actor, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.  I couldn’t have felt more proud.

By Ifa Bayeza
Last Friday, August 28th, marked the anniversary of three pivotal events of the last half-century of American history—events which have brought black Americans from the neo-slavery they had endured since Emancipation to the next stage of the freedom struggle we face today.

By Askia Muhammad
Since President Obama’s election, the mainstream media has taken significant notice of the fact that black journalists, too, cover national affaits and that now more than ever, they’re being assigned to cover both the President and the First Lady. But, typically, that notice has omitted much, if not all of the “back story” – the history of black journalists among the White House press. Askia Muhammad, who covered Presidents from 1977 to 2007, fills in the gaps.