SELF PERCEPTION

When Dr. John Yancy Odom, a former board member of my friend and fellow blogger, Bill Geist, wrote his book Saving Black America, he could have hardly foreseen the election of President Obama.

His six models or eras of ‘Black self perception’ will require a seventh:

Pre- Civil War Hopeless
(1619-1861)

The Civil War Hopeful
(1867-1865)

Reconstruction Emerging as first-class citizens
(1865-1877)

Early Post Recon. Hopeless
(1877-1954)

Late Jim Crow Aggrieved, determined, defiant
(1954-1968)

Contemporary Aimless
(1968-2008)

I think he would add a Seventh, a return to hopefulness after nearly 150 years:

New Dawn Hopeful
(2009)