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Mr. President
Barack Obama took the oath of office today as the 44th president of the United States and pledged to “begin again the work of remaking America.” Addressing a huge throng estimated at more than 2 million people on the capital’s Mall and millions of others watching on television, Obama recognized the multiple crises now afflicting…
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President Barack Obama: Hip-Hop's Second President
President Barack Obama will be America’s 44th, but hip-hop’s second president. Hip-hop’s first president was Ronald Reagan, whose war on the poor and significant cutbacks in public school art programs incubated the times that fed the narrative of the second generation of b-boys and b-girls. The change in subject matter and attitudes will almost certainly…
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A Family History of Civil Rights
Writes Haygood of the Caldwells of Washington D.C.: “One black American family: A mother and a father. Four daughters and a son. Forebears who reach back to slavery, and grandchildren who can now grow up with the knowledge that they could be president. At times, blood and fire marred their city. On other days, the…
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Black President, Y'all
It would have been too risky for the first black president to completely flip the script on inaugural protocol the first time out. Wouldn’t it have been nice to see Barack Obama stride to the podium in a stately East African tunic, complete with headgear and wooden staff? But my Zamunda-styled fantasy inauguration, complete with…
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Reluctant Hope
Globe staffer Joseph Williams writes: When Eddie Burns, an unemployed musician, describes what the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama means to him as an African-American, he answers in superlatives: historic, amazing, unbelievable. The future president, Burns proudly declares, “has encouraged people to dream.” But as a client of Shepherd’s Table, a suburban Washington charity that…
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The Hardline's Inaugural Day Mixtape
Rebel Without A Pause – Public Enemy The Cult of Personality – Living Color: “Only you can set you free..” be happy, but Be Cautious. Young, Gifted and Black – Nina Simone When the Revolution Comes – The Last Poets: “You’ll know it’s revolution, because there will be no commercials” Mosh – Eminem: “Don’t matter…
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The Meaning of the Moment
I can’t help it; I gotta sing. “Aaaah-maayzin’ ger-ace! How su-weeeet thuh sound … ” What an amazing day to be black. What an amazing day to be an American. This is the day we never thought we would live to see, the one our grandparents prayed for, the one that inspired my wife Gayle…
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Mr. Obama's Washington
“I brushed the boots of Washington.” —-Langston Hughes in “Negro” On the day it became Mr. Obama’s Washington, steam still fogged the windows at Henry’s, a soul food staple not far from the White House. Go-go music still blasted from loud speakers at the corner of 7th and U. The U Street club Republic Gardens…
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Breaking Through the Clutter
During the presidential campaign, Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera provided a little comic relief when he imagined that political superstars Barack Obama, Deval Patrick and others must have attended some sort of “black genius camp” where they learned the secrets of winning political power. Now it turns out that Geraldo was onto something. The Breakthrough, PBS…
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Of Thee, I Sing
In 1939, an American contralto singer named Marian Anderson stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered a rousing hymn to her country—even though she was barred, as a black woman, from performing at the nearby Constitution Hall. On Inauguration Day 2009, Aretha Franklin called the same song—”My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”—back from…