The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress

Forty years after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American stands an excellent chance of being elected president of the U nited States. Y et for acclaimed historian William Jelani Cobb, this historic milestone is not the most remarkable development of the current election cycle. What is even more remarkable is the fact that Barack Obama won some 90 percent of the black vote in the primaries across America despite the fact that the established black leadership since the civil rights era—men like John Lewis, Vernon Jordan, and Andrew Y oung, who paved the way for his candidacy—all openly supported Hillary Clinton. Clearly a sea change has occurred among black voters, ironically pushing the architects of the civil rights movement toward the periphery at the very moment when their political dreams were most fully realized. How this change has happened, and the powerful implications it holds for America’s politics and social landscape, is the focus of Change Has Come, a deeply insightful, paradigm-shifting examination of the black electorate—the new generation of voters that has not been shaped by the raw memory of Jim Crow and has a different range of imperatives; and the electorate as a whole, which remains indebted—but no longer beholden—to those who have long been the public face of black America. Cobb sees Obama’s ascendancy as “a reality that has been taking shape in tiny increments for the past four decades,” and examines how the thorny issues of race, politics, loyalty, power, and patronage have contributed to this moment and have made Obama’s campaign the most compelling development in black America since King’s death.

Elegantly written and powerfully argued, Change Has Come provocatively challenges conventional wisdom as it offers original insight into America’s future.