The speech that Barack Obama gave last night in front of 84,000 delegates and Coloradans was not as inspiring as his speech after the Iowa primary or as brilliant as his speech about race, but it certainly had heavy doses of both. This was his most purposeful and direct speech to date. It had to be. By most accounts, he did exactly what he was supposed to do and exactly what was needed — he went at John McCain like John McCain has been going at him, and he did it with quite a bit more grace, eloquence, and intelligence. This is where McCain will lose every time, and this is where Barack Obama can change the minds that are still open to be changed. It was an amazing, effective speech. I nodded in agreement through much of it. My favorite parts were when he said "we are a better country than this" and his appeal for bipartisan compromise on the issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, and immigration. But in between all the nodding, there was one thought that stayed in the back of my head: We are going to have a black president.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream Speech" occurred exactly 45 years before Barack Obama's acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination in Denver last night. They are two very different speeches given by two very different men in two very different times. And yet, the two historical moments are inextricably linked.

My Flickr meanderings from earlier this week also led me to an African American Youth album by a user named discover black heritage. The Flickr account is a gold mine of historical photos, and this particular one is filled with gorgeous and sad photos of black children from the first half of the 20th century. As with the earlier photos of women, I could look at these all day. To the left are some paper boys who look like they might not enjoy their job too much.

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Undercover Brother pointed me in the direction of this Flickr page, which features almost 200 beautiful old pictures of black women scanned from historical books and magazines. They date as far back as the 1800s, and I could have spent all morning looking at them.

Hello, dolls! In my absence,** Cord Jefferson sparked a healthy debate about black sitcoms, so it seemed fitting to highlight some here. This is by no means an exhaustive list — let me know your favorites below.

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Oh, Jamaican media, do you really want to shake that "Everyone in Jamaica is a dull pothead" myth? If so, what the hell possessed you to publish black writer Michael Dingwall's recent essay, "Slavery was good for the black man," in a real newspaper? Not only is it horribly written and its punctuation a mess, it's factually inaccurate and deeply, vastly offensive.

Were it not so goddamn sad and wrong, it might be laughable to read sentences like this: "While it is true that black Africa has, for the most part, squandered the opportunities that slavery offered in the past, the positive influence of European civilisation cannot be denied."

Tighten up, Jamaica Observer. And pass this doofus Dingwall 'pon de unemployment line.

Welp, with Prince of Persia, you've done it again, Hollywood! You've toyed with history in order to cast a very white person in a heroic role probably more suited for a person of color, just so that other white people will be comfortable spending their money to see it.

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The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to follow in the footsteps of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Alabama, and Florida, and apologize for America's past devotion to its peculiar institution and Jim Crow. It will be the first federal resolution apologizing for slavery.

The House votes today on the resolution, which states: "African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow — long after both systems were formally abolished — through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity and liberty, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity."

Although the resolution will mark the first federal apology for slavery, it's not the first time Congress has passed a resolution apologizing for the mistreatment of a group.

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With the Olympics fast approaching, let's take a look at some Olympic gold medalists from the past. Everyone remembers the original Dream Team from the 1992 Olympics, right?

Michelle Obama received loads of praise last month when, at an event for gay Democrats, the potential first lady said, “We are all only here because of those who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall, in the pursuit of a more perfect union.”

The “Selma” of which Mrs. Obama spoke refers to a 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, when police beat back civil rights activists trying to march to Montgomery as a protest to a black teenager’s shooting. The event immediately became known as Bloody Sunday. The “Stonewall” of which Mrs Obama spoke, of course, refers to the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, widely seen as the launch of the contemporary gay rights movement. With that geographical reference, Obama sought to - and succeeded in - linking the civil and gay rights movements. The crowd - and the press - went wild, but not everyone agrees with Obama’s optimism.

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When Disney announced last year that an feature-length animated with a black heroine was in the works, I was beyond thrilled. Growing up, I was a major Disney buff — like most children of the 80s, I presume — and although I still have a great amount of affection for the classics, as I grew older my disappointment in the company's apparent lack of interest in including black characters in its animated films began to overshadow that childhood love. But now they're making a black, animated Disney film! My future daughters will have their own animated heroine to look up to! Unfortunately, based on information from people in the know, I might have gotten excited too soon. Disney, a company with a racially-murky past that won't stay in the vault no matter how hard execs try to keep it hidden, appears to be having quite a few problems coming up with a storyline that isn't offensive. Fancy that.

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The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is paying homage to hip hop with an exhibit of new hip hop artifacts. The goods include Slick Rick's eye patch, Adidas from Run DMC, Salt n' Pepa clothing, and, as seen below, one of Flavor Flav's infamous clocks, a leather Biggie jersey, a Queen Latifah performance outfit, and a Grandmaster Flash mixer.