Voices In Color

Today's Black Fact

On this day in 1943, Gale Sayers, youngest player ever to be elected to the Football Hall of Fame, is born.

Obama Expects To Clinch Nomination Next Week

Sen. Barack Obama said on Wednesday he expected to become the Democratic U.S. presidential nominee after next week and he is considering an overseas trip that may include Iraq.

After a hard-fought primary season against rival Democrat Hillary Clinton, Obama said the general election race will begin in earnest next week after the last two nominating contests are held in South Dakota and Montana.

Talking to reporters on his plane from Denver to Chicago, Obama was asked if the race for the November general election against Republican John McCain begins after Tuesday's votes.

"Yes," he responded. Asked if he will be the winner of the Democratic nomination at that point, he said, "I believe so."

Read more: Yahoo! News

Obama Will Grab Swing votes Over McCain

Swing voters _ those without strong party affiliations _ may have backed Hillary Clinton in the primaries, but polls indicate they're more likely to back Barack Obama in the general election.

Obama has done poorly in the Democratic primaries with women, Catholics and others who will be pivotal in this fall's presidential election. Yet early polling shows that with several of these groups, he's competitive when matched against Republican John McCain.

A look at voters who have been closely contested in recent presidential elections — or veered from one party to the other, making them true swing groups — shows a significant number have leaned toward Clinton in the primaries. Besides women and Catholics, these include the elderly, the less educated and suburbanites, leading Clinton to argue that this makes her the Democrats' stronger candidate for the fall campaign.

Yet Obama's performance with these voters in the primaries doesn't necessarily mean he'd do poorly with them in the general election, assuming he nails down the last few convention delegates he needs to win the nomination.

Read more: prime buzz

More Blacks Are Competing In Advanced Placement Programs

The number of blacks taking academically challenging Advanced Placement courses in high school has surged in recent years. The bad news is that the racial scoring gap on Advanced Placement tests continues to be large and in fact has increased in recent years.

Over the past 20 years there has been a major increase in the number of black students who are taking challenging Advanced Placement courses in high school. College admissions officers are impressed with the records of students who make the extra effort and take the grading risk in AP courses. Now, presented with a transcript that shows a student has faced up to these rigorous programs of study, admissions officers often confer a deserved advantage in the admissions process to students of all races who enroll in AP programs.

Read more: The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education

Today's Black Fact

On this day in 1851, Sojourner Truth delivers her infamous "Ain't I A Woman?" speech to the Ohio Women's Rights Convention.

Today's Black Fact

On this day in 1940, Betty Shabazz, activist and widow of Malcolm X was born in Detroit, Michigan.

A Few Tremors In Oprahland

The average audience for “The Oprah Winfrey Show” has fallen nearly 7 percent this year, according to Nielsen Media Research — its third straight year of decline. “Oprah’s Big Give,” an ABC philanthropic reality show, beat every program on television except “American Idol” in its premiere week this winter, but steadily lost nearly one-third of its audience during the rest of its eight-week run, according to Nielsen.

The circulation of O, The Oprah Magazine, has fallen by more than 10 percent in the last three years, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and the magazine is now seeking a new editor in chief after the announced retirement of its longtime steward, Amy Gross.

And while Ms. Winfrey still displays a Midas touch when it comes to the endorsement of books and products, some of her latest picks have attracted criticism from longtime fans as she has strayed into new-age spiritualism and, perhaps more dangerously, politics. Her endorsement of the presidential bid of Senator Barack Obama appears to have alienated some of the middle-aged white women who make up the bulk of her television audience, many of whom support Senator Hillary Clinton.

Read more: New York Times

Black Political Leaders Face A New Era In Los Angeles

The battle between Bernard Parks and Mark Ridley-Thomas for county supervisor could be the last of its kind as a rise in Latino power pushes out African Americans, experts say.

The hard-fought race for a rare open seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors looks like a traditional clash over a top perch of black political power in California.

But the contest between L.A. City Councilman Bernard C. Parks and state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles) also foreshadows an uncertain future for black political leaders in the L.A. Basin.

Latinos outnumber African Americans now by nearly 2 to 1 in the county's vast 2nd Supervisorial District, an area of 2 million people that was predominantly black until the 1990s. At its core are Crenshaw, Watts and Baldwin Hills; around the edges are Marina del Rey, Culver City, Koreatown, Compton, Carson and Inglewood.

"The changing demographics make a lot of people a little uncomfortable, because many African Americans feel they're losing political power," said Kerman Maddox, a veteran advisor to candidates in the area. "After 12 years, is the next [supervisor] going to be African American? A lot of people aren't so sure."

Read more: Los Angeles Times

Study of '94 Adoption Law Finds Little Benefit To Blacks

A 1994 federal law that paved the way for more white adults to adopt black children has left many parents ill-equipped for the situation and has not achieved the goals of giving black children an equal chance of being adopted and recruiting more black adoptive parents, a study concludes.

The study, being released today, found that the Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) did succeed in increasing the rate of black adoptions, but only by a small margin, and that black children still disproportionately end up in temporary foster homes.

Because the law forbids discussion of race during the adoption process, it prevents social workers from preparing white parents for the challenge of raising black children in a largely white environment, said the report, titled "Finding Families for African American Children: The Role of Race and Law in Adoption From Foster Care." It cited studies showing that dark-complexioned children in white homes tend to struggle with identity issues related to skin color, self-esteem and discrimination that their new parents are often not equipped to handle.

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Today's Black Fact

On this day in 1936, actor Louis Gossett, Jr. was born in Brooklyn, NY. Gossett won an Academy Award for his role in the movie "An Officer and a Gentleman."