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Barack Obama's success reflects the rise of 'post-racial' black politicians who distance themselves from the old politics and civil rights of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. But many fear this new generation fails to understand the concerns of some black Americans, reports Paul Harris in Newar.
Cory Booker's message was clear. Unveiling a plaque to commemorate deadly race riots in his city 41 years ago, the young black Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, was thinking of the future as much as the past. Though 26 people died in the troubles and the city turned into a byword for racial tensions and crime, Booker was determined not to make the event about America's past racism and segregation.
'I am of a different generation,' he told a crowd of onlookers in the stifling heat of a Newark summer's day. 'I have never in my life seen a sign, but in a museum, that says "Whites only". I am from a generation that came about in a different era.'
Such honest words, wilfully breaking free from the Sixties civil rights struggle, would once have been unthinkable from a leading black politician, especially when speaking to a mostly black audience. But now, as Barack Obama runs to be America's first black President, a new cadre of so-called 'post-racial' black politicians have moved to the fore. They are changing the face of black American politics.
Shaking off the traditional black power structures of civil rights groups and the black church, they have distanced themselves from figures such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. They have also posed a challenge to established black politicians with roots in the old civil rights era, such as South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn and Georgia congressman John Lewis. The new politicians have based their appeal on anything but race. They have forged voter coalitions across racial boundaries, including whites and Hispanics. And it has worked.
Booker is a hugely popular mayor in Newark. He is not alone. Deval Patrick has become the first black governor of heavily white Massachusetts. David Paterson is the first black governor of New York. Adrian Fenty, aged just 37, is the young black mayor of Washington DC, and a world away from the black politicians that came before him. In Atlanta the black mayor, Shirley Franklin, is hugely popular with the powerful white business community.