How Did Barack Obama Become the Nation's First African American President?

Dr. Omar Ali, author of In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third-Party Movements in the United States, will be giving a Master Class on President's Day, February 16, at 11:00 am, at the All Stars Project, 543 W. 42nd St., NYC. 

Dr. Ali is a professor of history in the Program in African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. He will discuss the history of the U.S. presidency from George Washington to Barack Obama, what role African Americans have played in advancing democracy in the nation, what kinds of coalitions were created between black, white, and other Americans to bring about the abolition of slavery to the advancement of civil and political rights, and how America’s independents have pushed for political changes and helped to elect the nation’s first black president.

Here's a review of In the Balance of Power.