White House Transition
Gates to sit out Obama inauguration
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates will sit out Barack Obama’s inauguration at an undisclosed location as the “designated successor” in the event of a catastrophe, the White House announced Monday. While the eyes of the world are glued Tuesday to Obama’s historic swearing-in, attended by outgoing US President George W. Bush and both outoing and [...]
Obama to Call for a New Era of Responsibility
LAURA MECKLER and JONATHAN WEISMAN, Wall Street Journal – Americans poured into the nation’s capital to celebrate the inauguration of their first black president. But with the U.S. in its worst economic crisis since the Depression and at war on two fronts, Barack Obama was expected to call on the country to embrace a new [...]
For impoverished blacks, a sense of pride, doubt
Joseph Williams, Boston Globe – 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 [...]
Obama inauguration turns page in U.S. race relations
Anyone looking for evidence of the change represented by the United States electing an African-American as president could start with the White House itself. It was built 200 years ago using black slave labour. Tuesday’s inauguration of Barack Obama marks a feel-good moment for the country. Many hope it is a sign that America’s travails [...]
For generations, the bus has been a progressive force for African Americans
Rhonda Swan, Palm Beach Post – Powered by the engine of economic opportunity, propelled by the wheels of justice and fueled by the promise of freedom, the bus roars loudly on the soundtrack of the black experience in America. If bus seats could talk, they would tell stories of fear and hope, of dreams and [...]
