A black and white world.  Signs of hope.  Determination.  A changing world.  Civil rights champions.  Living legacies.  The focus of this videoconference is on the stories of four African Americans from 1968 until today.

Life in America was once segregation. It was two worlds that were afraid of each other.  Yet, political representation lies at the core of democracy. Although, the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibits federal or state governments from infringing on a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," many methods for preventing African Americans from exercising their voting rights were successfully implemented leading to the voting booths. Voter qualifying tests such as literacy tests, discriminatory enforcement of registration rules, and poll taxes were some of the devices standing between African Americans and their constitutionally guaranteed right to both register to vote and vote.

The civil rights activism of the late 1950s and 1960s reached a high point when Martin Luther King lead the Selma march that focused America's attention on this unforgivable inequity, and moved a sympathetic President to work with Congress to achieve a quick passage for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. An example of the tremendous implications of the Voting Rights Act of 1965: Before the passage of the Act, only 383 African-Americans of voting age, out of approximately 15,000, were registered to vote in Dallas County, Alabama. In the three months following the enactment of the Voting Rights Act,   over 9000 African-Americans were registered.  The passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 served as a catalyst for significant change in both the American legal and moral landscape. 

In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first  African American woman elected to the United States Congress.  On January 23, 1972, Shirley Chisholm became the first African American to make a bid to be President of the United States. “Unbought and Unbossed” chronicles the life of Shirley Chisholm.

African Americans make up about 15 percent of the population.  What percentage of African Americans are currently elected to the Senate and the House of Representatives?  There are currently 43 African Americans in the 110th Congress, compared with 13 when the Congressional Black Caucus was formed in 1969.  African Americans have 42 seats in the House and the single African American in the Senate is the charismatic Barack Obama, a presidential candidate in 2008.

Both Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice served as Secretary of State. Colin Powell became a four-star general, one of the youngest ever,  in 1989. The same year, President George Bush appointed Colin Powell chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . . .  the nation's highest military post. Colin Powell was sworn in as secretary of state on January 20, 2001.  He was the first African-American to hold that post.

Before joining the Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice was a professor of political science at Stanford University where she served as Provost from 1993 to 1999.  Condoleezza Rice served as national security adviser during wartime.  Condoleezza Rice followed Colin Powell as Secretary of State and became the first African American woman, and only the second woman ever, chosen as Secretary of State, the nation's top diplomat.

Times are changing. But how much?  On the horizon, Barack Obama, senator from Illinois whose father is from Kenya, is pursuing a presidential bid in 2008.  Obama is in many ways an unusual African-American politician, and that is why many Democrats, and Republicans, view him as so viable.  Obama is a member of a post-civil-rights generation of black politicians and his warm and commanding campaign presence, as he has shown in Illinois, cuts across color lines.

Come and join this videoconference and explore the lives of these prominent African American politicians who have served America through public service: Shirley Chisholm, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and Barack Obama.