Black Politics - Obama Presidency Oral History

After taking office, Obama seldom sought to address race as a standalone political, policy, or cultural issue. Instead, he emphasized that, because of widespread racial inequalities in the United States, pillars of his policy agenda—passing healthcare reform, delivering a strong recovery from the financial crisis, protecting citizens from predatory financial practices—would be particularly beneficial for Black communities. Over the course of his presidency, however, Obama came to discuss racial issues more directly, typically in response to major events. In the project archive, narrators describe Obama’s approach to speaking about race as president, and narrate key events and issues, including the controversy that followed Obama’s mild criticism of the Cambridge Police Department for its arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home; conspiracy theories about Obama’s birthplace; the killing of Trayvon Martin and acquittal of George Zimmerman, about which Obama noted that “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” and that Martin “could have been me 35 years ago”; Obama’s participation in the 50th-anniversary commemorations of the civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama; and his eulogy for those killed in the white supremacist attack on the Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.  

In addition to these public comments, the White House pursued a number of policies, programs, and legislative initiatives relevant to Black communities, and in partnership with Black community organizations and political leaders. These included the passage of federal hate crimes legislation; the reduction of sentencing disparities between offenses involving crack and powder cocaine; the My Brother’s Keeper mentorship initiative that focused on boys and young men of color, and raised more than $600 million in partnership funds with non-governmental organizations; the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing; and the Department of Justice’s response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and severely limited the federal government’s capacity to prevent racial voter suppression. 

To develop, establish, and administer these initiatives, the White House often engaged with Black political institutions and civil rights leaders. This engagement was especially critical toward ensuring that programs structured as public-private partnerships—such as My Brother’s Keeper or the East Wing’s Let’s Move! public health campaign—delivered tangible benefits to people across the country. Despite that engagement, and notwithstanding the overwhelming support Obama enjoyed among African Americans, Black political leaders, political institutions, and intellectuals were often critical of Obama and his administration’s policies. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, for instance, called on the administration to increase its focus on persistently high Black unemployment, while influential writers criticized Obama's rhetorical emphasis on personal responsibility, instead of structural or systemic factors, in his discussions of racial inequality.

Many of the administration’s harshest critics were young Black activists involved with grassroots efforts to uplift Black communities, prevent violence against African Americans, and advance racial justice. In project interviews, narrators speak widely about the period's grassroots activism, and discuss the White House's relationship to movements including Black Lives Matter; the protests and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland following police killings of unarmed Black men; Moral Mondays; and opposition to mass incarceration.

The Obama Presidency Oral History project’s coverage of Black politics intersects with several other topic areas in the collection, including Democrats, Criminal Justice, Elections and Campaigns, Gun Control, and The People’s House.