For African Americans, Pride in a Breakthrough

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• Top Black Donors Emerge as New Force

  Aug 29, 08 7:27 AM CDT
  Barack Obama's rise to the top of the Democratic Party has a special resonance for one group: African-American business leaders who, like the candidate, were among the first blacks to enter into all-white industries. As the New York Times reports, black lawyers, bankers, and corporate titans see in Obama an echo of their own climbs—and are expressing their excitement by raising millions for the campaign.
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• Yeah, She Made History—What About the Guy Who Won?

  Aug 27, 08 7:37 AM CDT
  Last night's Hillaryfest was the culmination of a months-long homage to the New York senator's "historic" achievement of almost winning a major party's presidential nomination. But it's odd, notes Alessandra Stanley, that while an "also-ran" has made her candidacy a milestone, there's been little mention of the "arguably more remarkable breakthrough" of the man who actually won the primary.
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• It's Not Race That's Holding Him Back

  Aug 25, 08 12:12 PM CDT
  Barack Obama goes into this week's convention in Denver with only the slimmest of leads—or, as some polls suggest, trailing John McCain. In a year when it's widely assumed that any Democratic candidate should be a shoo-in, many in the press have suggested that Obama's race is costing him support. Not so, writes Matt Bai in the New York Times, who says that the candidate "faces genuine obstacles that are more salient than skin color." More »

• Some Blacks Think Obama Could Threaten Progress

  Aug 25, 08 8:43 AM CDT
  Despite being a landmark in black American history, Barack Obama’s pending nomination could stall civil rights progress, some blacks say, because his success could fuel an argument that racial divisions have been healed, the New York Times reports. The danger is “that we declare victory,” a sociologist said. “Historic as this moment is, it does not signify a major victory in the ongoing battle.”
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• Obama May Signal The End of Black Politics

  Aug 9, 08 7:30 AM CDT
  Barack Obama may be the most successful black candidate in American political history, but his prominence and possible presidency could be the death knell for black politics as we know it, Matt Bai writes in the New York Times Magazine. While he's not quite the “post-racial” candidate some have touted, Obama and other up-and-coming black pols are disconnected from—and in some cases have little need for—Washington’s traditional black power structure. More »