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Barack Obama, in his acclaimed campaign speech discussing the troubling complexities of race in America today, quoted William Faulkner's famous remark "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." In Not Even Past, award-winning historian Thomas Sugrue examines the paradox of race in Obama's America and how President Obama intends to deal with it. Obama's journey to the White House undoubtedly marks a watershed in the history of race in America. Yet even in what is being hailed as the post-civil rights era, racial divisions--particularly between blacks and whites--remain deeply entrenched in American life. Sugrue traces Obama's evolving understanding of race and racial inequality throughout his career, from his early days as a community organizer in Chicago, to his time as an attorney and scholar, to his spectacular rise to power as a charismatic and savvy politician, to his dramatic presidential campaign. Sugrue looks at Obama's place in the contested history of the civil rights struggle; his views about the root causes of black poverty in America; and the incredible challenges confronting his historic presidency. Does Obama's presidency signal the end of race in American life? In Not Even Past, a leading historian of civil rights, race, and urban America offers a revealing and unflinchingly honest assessment of the culture and politics of race in the age of Obama, and of our prospects for a postracial America.
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NOT EVEN PAST 6 Lawrence Stone Lectures Sponsored by The Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies and Princeton University Press 2009 Previous Lawrence Stone Lectures Mark Mazower, No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the United Nations NOT EVEN PAST 6 Barack Obama and the Burden of Race Thomas J. SugRUe P r i n c e to n U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s P r i n c e to n a n d Ox f o r d Copyright © 2010 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu All Rights Reserved L i b r a ry C o n g r e s s C ata l o g i n g - i n - P u b l i c at i o n D ata Sugrue, Thomas J., 1962– Not even past : Barack Obama and the burden of race / Thomas J. Sugrue. p. cm. — (Lawrence Stone lectures) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-691-13730-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Obama, Barack. 2. Obama, Barack—Political and social views. 3. African Americans—Race identity. 4. Presidents—United States— Biography. 5. African Americans—Biography. 6. African Americans—Civil rights. 7. United States— Race relations—Political aspects. 8. Racism—Political aspects— United States. 9. Social classes—Political aspects—United States. 10. Political culture—United States. I. Title. E908.3.S84 2010 973.932092—dc22 2010000240 of British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon Printed on acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 To MBK 6 This page intentionally left blank The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past. —William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. —Barack Obama, “A More Perfect Union,” Philadelphia, March 18, 2008 6 This page intentionally left blank