Black History Month has added meaning in 2009 - USATODAY.com: Frederick Barron, 17, a senior at North Atlanta High School in Atlanta, says the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president is making Black History Month come to life.
'Barack Obama is opening our hearts and minds to the true meaning of Black History Month,' Barron said. 'African Americans won't be viewed as just a minority but as people who make a difference.'
Obama's election, and this year's 100th anniversary of the NAACP, means there has probably never been more reason to celebrate the annual February observance, black leaders and historians say.
'We celebrate whenever a glass ceiling is broken and the presidency may be the highest glass ceiling,' said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, which is celebrating its 1909 founding this year.
But those leaders also agree those milestones don't mean that racial inequalities no longer exist. While Obama's breaking of the color barrier in the White House may make the NAACP's job easier, Jealous said they will pressure Obama just as they have past presidents.
