President Obama’s election, and this year’s 100th anniversary of the NAACP, means there has probably never been more reason to celebrate the annual February observance, historians say.

“Barack Obama is opening our hearts and minds to the true meaning of Black History Month,” Barron said. “African Americans won’t be viewed as just a minority but as people who make a difference.”

Obama’s election, and this year’s 100th anniversary of the NAACP, means there has probably never been more reason to celebrate the annual February observance, black leaders and historians say.

“We celebrate whenever a glass ceiling is broken and the presidency may be the highest glass ceiling,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, which is celebrating its 1909 founding this year.

But those leaders also agree those milestones don’t mean that racial inequalities no longer exist. While Obama’s breaking of the color barrier in the White House may make the NAACP’s job easier, Jealous said they will pressure Obama just as they have past presidents.

Gerald Early, a professor of African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, said that Obama’s election should not be viewed as the end of racism, but “should be taught as an event that signaled a new era in American race relations.”

“With Obama as president, I think people are more optimistic about race relations than they’ve been in a long time,” he said.

This optimism is seen in Black History Month celebrations planned throughout this month in the 1,700 local NAACP units and hundreds of primary, secondary and university campuses nationwide.

This year’s Black History Month theme is “The Quest for Citizenship in the Americas,” determined by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, said Daryl Scott, vice president for programs.

Stephanie Smith Budhai, 23, head of the University of Maryland’s Black History Month Committee, said the theme correlates well with Obama’s presidency.

“Barack Obama shows that (African Americans’) citizenship is just as important as the citizenship of any other ethnicity or race,” she said.

Black History Month has added meaning in 2009 – USATODAY.com.

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Daniel Acker / Bloomberg News

Democratic president-elect Barack Obama waves to supporters following his acceptance speech during an election night rally in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008. Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, opening a new chapter in the country’s history as the first African-American to hold the world’s most important job.

Nearly 4 1/2 years ago, Barack Obama introduced himself to America by painting a picture of a country that was united, somehow, in spite of itself. The pundits, he said in the keynote address to the Democratic National Convention, like to “slice and dice” the country: red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats. “But I’ve got news for them too: We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states, and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states.” His task that night in Boston was to ready the crowd for the presidential nominee, John F. Kerry, but in the end his words were most memorable for an argument that challenged the partisan divide and was built on the foundation of his own unique story.

His father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas. But it’s more complicated than that.

Abandoned by his father, separated for long periods from his mother, Obama searched for many years to find his identity. He eventually learned to navigate between black and white worlds. He earned a reputation as a pragmatist and a consensus builder, and along the way raised the bridges that would sustain his ambition.

Race has been the steady undertow of his political career — and of his life.

As he paraphrased William Faulkner in March in a landmark speech on race: “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.”

Early years

Interracial relationships in Hawaii are an accepted fact of life. Nevertheless, the parents of Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Hussein Obama didn’t like the idea of their children getting married. She was studying anthropology at the University of Hawaii. He was a graduate student from Kenya, the first African enrolled at the university.

They married in late 1960, and on Aug. 4, 1961, Barack Jr. was born. Two years after that, his father left to study economics at Harvard.

The separation led to divorce. Ann married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian student at the university. In 1967, she and her 6-year-old son, whom she called Barry, followed Soetoro to Jakarta, a strange and wonderful place of kite-flying and crocodiles, exotic foods and strange religions.

But the adventure had a darker side. The poverty was inescapable. Ann and Lolo drifted apart. She took a job teaching English at the U.S. Embassy, and it was here in the library, Obama said, that he read about a black man who had tried to peel off his skin.

Although his mother tried to affirm his black heritage — bringing home books about the civil rights movement, speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. — Barry was learning the price people pay for being different.

When he was 10, his mother sent him back to Hawaii to live with her parents and attend the prestigious Punahou School. On an island where there were few blacks, he watched “I Spy” on television, tried to sing like Marvin Gaye and cursed like Richard Pryor. He stayed out late, shooting hoops, and started to drink and smoke weed, he said, just to “push questions of who I was out of my mind.”

On the mainland, the reality of race was more stark.

Full Article Here:

Barack Obama: In search of identity – Los Angeles Times.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Washington awoke Tuesday crowded and excited with the inauguration of a new president that’s only a few hours away.

The Capitol will be the stage of a historic landmark in the history of the nation Tuesday.

As many as 2 million people are expected to crowd into the area between the Capitol, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial as Barack Obama takes the oath of office at noon.

Some will be more than a mile from the swearing-in ceremony, watching on giant TV screens erected along the National Mall.

But just being among the crowd is good enough for many.

Lari Taylor of Middletown, New Jersey, was one of those who headed to the capital without a ticket to get into events and will be one of hundreds of thousands on the mall. Taylor on Monday said she came to Washington “hoping to hear that message of hope and change.

“Every time Obama speaks, it’s inspiring. We’re just so excited about the change,” she said.

As one walked through the Mall on the eve of the inauguration, there was a buzz of anticipation. Visitors wandered around the Mall snapping pictures and shooting video of the Capitol and the monuments.

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The scene around Lafayette Square was almost chaotic, with cars turning around in the street as they were confronted with newly erected barriers to closed-off areas and clots of pedestrians crossing streets against the light, snarling traffic in other areas.

The visitors’ excitement rubbed off on some of the jaded locals, one of whom said D.C. residents were “cynical of government.”

“The energy on the streets is something I’ve never seen before,” said Nancy Wigal, a 45-year-old technical writer who lives in the Mount Vernon Square area. “People are walking lighter, standing taller and are reaching out to one another. It feels like hope. It feels like shared happiness.”

The morning began at 4 a.m. for many as those without tickets made a land grab on the Mall, rushing to stake out positions on the Mall.

After Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden take their oaths of office on the western front of the Capitol, Obama will deliver a highly anticipated inaugural address, which Obama aides say will emphasize that America is entering a new area of responsibility.

Obama will say America has been hurt by a “me-first” mentality that contributed to the current economic crisis, aides say, and he will call on individuals — as well as corporations and businesses — to take responsibility for their actions in the approximate 20-minute speech.

After a formal farewell to President George W. Bush and lunch with congressional leaders, Obama will head up Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House and he and his family will watch the inauguration parade from a specially built reviewing stand. The parade begins at 3:45 p.m. ET. Watch the final preparations for Inauguration Day »

The new president and first lady will then close the night by attending 10 official inaugural balls.

Estimates of 1 million to 2 million people have been given for people at the various events, but officials have said they really don’t know how many will show up.

Organizers have said about 280,000 people can fit into the secure zones around the Capitol and roughly 300,000 into the area around the parade. A mere 28,000 seats are available on Capitol grounds. Watch how Washington has become the “it” place »

Those lucky enough to have tickets to the inauguration will undergo tight screening, including passing through magnetometers, when they enter the seating area in front of the Capitol.

Spectators without tickets will be routed to the Mall which, for the first time, will be open from end to end for an inauguration. Security there will be less stringent.

Jeri Pickett of Rochester, New York, was one of the fortunate few who got a ticket.

“I’d just like to see the inspiration of America,” said Pickett, when asked what he was expecting from Inauguration Day. “There’s so much warmth here now and excitement — rejuvenation.

“There’s a real hope for America. It’s the spark that everybody needed,” he added.

Washington transportation officials say they will run subway trains on rush-hour schedules starting at 4 a.m. as well as extra buses. The area’s rail system, Metro, expects more than 1 million riders.

Inauguration events have already drawn record crowds. A crowd attending an inauguration concert Sunday was estimated between 300,00 and 400,000 and stretched from the Lincoln Monument all the way to the Washington Monument, which stands at the mid-point of the Mall. Watch iReporter who lives near the Mall describe the atmosphere »

While Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told CNN on Monday that there was “no credible threat” to the inauguration events, security is extremely tight. A security cordon has been put in place around the city’s core, turning much of downtown Washington into pedestrian-only.

National Park Service

The National Mall was once the site of a slave market like this one in the 1840s in Washington.

A Civil Rights Victory Party on the Mall – NYTimes.com.