By Nura Sediqe
President Obama’s words in his June 4 address in Cairo, Egypt have brought a refreshing change in the rhetoric that is commonly utilized when discussing women and Islam. They were only a few simple lines in a long and extensive speech addressing a variety of pressing policy issues, but for Muslim women like myself, there was a pause….while we were all thinking, “Did he really just say that?”

By Lee A. Daniels
Little more than a year ago, in his slender volume, A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win, self-described black conservative Shelby Steele, with glib assurance, told the world that Barack Obama couldn’t possibly win the presidency. That bit of conventional wisdom was released with wonderful timing in January 2008-just as Obama was about to win the Iowa Democratic Caucus, electrifying the political universe and instantly making him the leading contender for the Democratic nomination.

By Nick Chiles and Denene Millner
Effortlessly, wonderfully, Barack and Michelle have done something that a year ago we might have proclaimed impossible: they have demonstrated with no uncertainty that not only is black love still possible, it is ordinary.

By The Editors
In honor of President Obama’s election and in tribute to several heroes and sheroes of the African-American struggle for freedom, human dignity and true democracy, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is featuring two timely visual art exhibits.

By Stacey Patton
When Barack Hussein Obama was elected our 44th president last November, I immediately began to think of a long line of heroic black ancestors whose blood, toil and sacrifices paved the way for this once “skinny kid with a funny name” to make history. In the midst of my joy, their names and faces surged to the forefront of my mind

By The Editors
The first wave of what will undoubtedly be a flood of books exploring what propelled Barack Obama to his historic victory have now come rushing from the printing presses. Taken together, they seem to mark the likely boundaries of the territory those that follow them will traverse.

By TaRessa Stovall
Like my colleagues Stacey Patton and Mel Gagarin, I had gone to Inauguration ’09 in Washington, DC fully planning to send a steady stream of live blog blippets to chronicle the experience as it unfolded.

By Stacey Patton
Amidst the outpouring of support and joy from the largest crowd ever to assemble for an inauguration, there was one striking moment of collective anger from the crowd. For those watching the ceremony on television or the Internet, that moment got drowned out by the playing of the brass band.

Pearl Cleage, Haki R. Madhubuti and E. Ethelbert Miller offer words to celebrate the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama.

By TaRessa Stovall
Sunday, Jan. 18
As comedian Jon Stewart observed, a black man is moving into the White House so Washington, DC declares a State of Emergency. The excitement, the tension, the sheer joy of the citizenry and the scowling, stressed-out demeanor of law enforcement and security personnel are all blended into that unique stew known [...]