Ten stories of the decade that have changed black America

1) 9/11 AND THE IRAQ WAR - Prior to September 11, 2001, planes crashing through the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were just Hollywood story lines. Today, it's a horrific reality. After 9/11, Al Qaeda became a household word. An estimated 8 percent of those killed at the World Trade Center were black and the United Flight 93, which flew into the Towers included an African American co-captain and two flight attendants. In Washington, DC, where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon, which, in theory, should have been one of the nation's most secured locations, several African Americans also died. Every American was affected by the events of September 11, although opinions varied as to why the attacks happened.

Reeling from the devastation of 9/11, allegedly masterminded by Osama Bin Laden, a former CIA operative, Congress, riding high on emotion like much of the country, granted President George W. Bush unprecedented authority, which he used to launch war on Iraq in 2003, claiming that the Arab country had "weapons of mass destruction" and a direct connection to Al Qaeda that would result in more violence against Americans. As the United States entered the War of Terror, adding military action to Afghanistan, few countries joined or continued the fight. Questioning Bush's true motives, anti-American sentiment grew and, most importantly, thousands of lives have been lost in both Iraq and Afghanistan, with African Americans significantly represented. To date, the total cost of war since 2003 tops $900 billion, stressing an already lackluster economy, disproportionately affecting African Americans.

2) ESCALATING HIV/AIDS RATE - By 2002, it was increasingly clear that HIV/AIDS was a dominant health threat to African Americans, especially to growing numbers of black women. Throughout the 2000s, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) issued statistics revealing HIV infection rates trending highest among African Americans. According to the Minority Nurse Newsletter (Fall 2003), African Americans accounted for half of all new reported HIV infections in 2001. Black women specifically accounted for almost 64 percent of all new infections among women in 2001. In 2004, according to the CDC, HIV infection was the leading cause of death for black women, ages 25-34.

High contraction rates through heterosexual interaction among African American women pointed to bisexuality among African American men, helping fuel the down-low hysteria of seemingly "straight" African American men sleeping with both men and women. J.L. King's 2004 memoir On the Down Low addressed this issue, even earning the author an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Organizations such as the L.A.-based Black AIDS Institute and The Balm in Gilead, which black churches, as well as books like Not in My Family, featuring HIV/AIDS-related essays from a cross-section of black America, and African American radio leaders like Radio One continue to raise awareness about the devastation of HIV/AIDS in the African American community.

3) HURRICANE KATRINA - Black men, women and children perched atop rooftops desperately waving for assistance. Too many others falling prey to the rising waters. That's the nightmare that unfolded for the people of New Orleans, the iconic city that cradled jazz and made Mardi Gras a party for the whole world, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast at the tail end of August 2005. In New Orleans, it was the breaking of the levees that gave way to the treacherous water. Thousands and thousands of black people were displaced at numbers comparable to Reconstruction, with more than a thousand people perishing. FEMA failed. Bush failed. The Army Corps of Engineers failed. And, sadly, racism was at the core of some media coverage, with black people "looting" and white people "surviving" as both groups struggled to cope.

Today, New Orleans' black population, which included many who've lived in the city for five generations or more, has dropped significantly as the white population has risen, dramatically changing the city's demographics. Ultimately, Hurricane Katrina revealed that, even in 21st century, there's a greater divide between the haves and have-nots. In the end, Hurricane Katrina's price tag could be as high as $200 billion, though most sources tag it between $80 and $90 billion, still the costliest U.S. hurricane on record.

4) AGE OF ME ENTERTAINMENT AND TECHNOLOGY - In entertainment and technology, this decade can be summed up as the "Age of Me." Fueled by a steady stream of "TMI (too much information)," reality shows have now replaced scripted television and black people have helped fuel the boom. Being Bobby Brown, a reality show featuring the life of former R&B chart-topper Bobby Brown and his then mega-star wife Whitney Houston, delivered record ratings for Bravo in 2005, opening a floodgate for more BBBs, Blacks Behaving Badly. The following year, well known Public Enemy member Flavor Flav solidified the trend with his popular VH1 Flavor of Love reality series, where women vied to become his significant other, a hilarious proposition for many since Flavor Flav is widely regarded as very unattractive. Yet, it became a pop culture phenomenon drawing historic ratings.

Jumping on the bandwagon, BET found success with The Way It Is with singer Keyshia Cole, unleashing an avalanche of other urban- and music-themed reality shows that many critics claim have reinforced age-old stereotypes and encouraged coonery. Not to be left out, MTV, largely fueled by the brand that is Sean "Diddy" Combs, has done well with several series featuring Combs in addition to series he's executive produced like Run's House, highlighting Run from the legendary Run-DMC and his Cosby-esque clan.
Urban-oriented blogs like MediaTakeOut.com, Bossip.com, TheYBF.com and SandraRose.com, aided by advancing technology and social media innovation such as camera phones and Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and the fading MySpace, have cashed in on this "age of me" obsession. More responsible media outlets such as TheGrio.com and others have also emerged, however, to dispense news and information to the black community that may escape the mainstream.

5) BLACK COACH WINS THE SUPER BOWL - Football greatly lags behind basketball when it comes to African American coaches. The numbers were so discouraging that Johnnie Cochran, along with fellow attorney Cyrus Mehri, issued a report in 2002 noting the lack of African Americans in head coaching positions despite superior performance by the very few who had been in the position in a league where 70 percent of the players were black. The NFL responded with the "Rooney Rule." Named for Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Rooney Rule requires teams to interview nonwhite candidates for open head coaching jobs or pay a fine.

During the 2006 NFL season, a then record high six black coaches, out of thirty-two, headed NFL teams and two, Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears, defying odds Vegas would not have even backed, faced off on February 4, 2007 at Dolphin stadium in Miami Gardens, a city ran by black female mayor Shirley Gibson, ensuring that an African American coach would win a Super Bowl. Weeks before the landmark game, Mike Tomlin, at age 34, became head coach of the Steelers, rewarding that franchise with Super Bowl victory number six in 2009. Tomlin displaced Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach as the youngest head coach in history to win a Super Bowl but it was the breakthrough win of Tony Dungy that has forever opened up the NFL head coaching slot, and perhaps the college ranks as well, to African Americans.

6) JENA SIX (or JENA 6) - Thousands of black people haven't descended on a Southern city protesting inequality in the justice system in some time but that's exactly what happened in Jena, Louisiana, a small town of almost 3,000 about a four hour drive from New Orleans, on Thursday, September 20, 2007. Details are murky regarding the incidents that eventually led to the mass protest but involve trees, nooses and beatdowns. Apparently, a tree at Jena High School was designated the white tree and when a black student asked about the tree and was told in a school assembly that anyone could sit under the tree, two nooses hung from the tree the next day. Three white students received school-administered punishment only.

Months passed, a fire broke out at the school raising tempers and, shortly thereafter, six black youth---Robert Bailey (17), Mychal Bell (16), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Jesse Ray Beard (14), Theo Shaw (17)---allegedly beat white student Justin Barker (17) badly, sending him to the hospital. Despite being discharged hours later and attending a school event that same night, the six were charged with attempted murder, with Bell, who had a criminal record, eventually facing up to 22 years in prison.

Eventually local media coverage reached bigger outlets, attracting attention on the Internet as well as that of radio personality Michael Baisden and activist Al Sharpton. Erected as an example of how justice is meted unfairly to African Americans, the call was issued to gather in Jena for the Mychal Bell sentencing to be held September 20, 2007 and thousands on top of thousands poured into the town. Some estimates place participation between 15,000 to 20,000 people, others suggest as many as 40,000. Charges were eventually reduced for all the defendants but Jena Six did show the potential for mass demonstration among African Americans in the 21st century to protest racial injustice, especially regarding how justice is unfairly administered in courtrooms all over the nation.

7) FINANCIAL MELTDOWN: SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE LOAN CRISIS, FORECLOSURES AND TARP - On the homeownership front, the 2000s initially appeared promising. In 2002, President George W. Bush seemed on the right track with the Minority Homeownership Initiative meant to increase homeownership among African Americans and Latinos by offering downpayment assistance and other services. Predatory lenders, however, swooped in with sub-prime mortgages aimed for borrowers with poor credit scores. By the time the bubble completely burst in 2008, African Americans were on the losing end yet again. Reports revealed that even when African Americans should have qualified for traditional loans with fixed interest rates, lenders steered them towards sub-prime products that got them in homes with low monthly payments that later ballooned as interest rates skyrocketed.

As early as 2006, an article in The New York Times predicted that one in every five subprime loans issued would end in foreclosure. Reports are still pouring in regarding entire neighborhoods in New York, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta and other urban areas almost completely gutted by foreclosure. Estimates for loss of African American wealth, which had been on the rise at the end of the 1990s, range from $71 to $122 billion as a direct result of the crisis. Republicans in Michigan even attempted to use foreclosure as a means for blocking voters, potentially affecting African Americans at disproportionate numbers. Agencies have stepped forward to slow the hemorrhaging but lobbying for more federal intervention hasn't been ruled out. Early in 2009, the NAACP filed suit against leading banks such as Wells Fargo, charging that they encouraged subprime lending to African Americans.

Worsening matters, free market economics was thrown out the window in 2008 when the government approved the controversial Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), dispensing $700 billion to "bailout" presumably "for profit" companies that included AIG, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Capital One, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, among others, essentially nationalizing them and creating a form of corporate welfare. Many TARP recipients also engaged in global outsourcing, actively shipping jobs overseas as American unemployment rates continued to rise. The National Urban League, in a December 2009 letter to President Obama, urged TARP repayment in favor of the creation of jobs for African Americans, whose unemployment rates stood at double digits, and other Americans. For many African Americans, the government bailout reinforced the unholy alliance between government and big business.

8) FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT - Speaking to the BBC in 1964, Dr. King predicted that the United States would elect a "Negro President" in 40 years. Very few others shared his optimism. "Never in my lifetime" was the common refrain, especially from those who lived through Jim Crow. Shirley Chisholm was applauded for her audacity to run for president in 1972 and Jesse Jackson made inroads in 1984 and 1988 but their campaigns convinced few that this country would elect an African American president. So, when Barack Obama, the Ivy League-educated, bi-racial state senator originally from Hawaii who claimed the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois his home, announced his candidacy for President of the United States of America February 10, 2007, he was greeted with much skepticism, especially among older black people who had borne the brunt of some of the worse racism this country could administer.

Primary after primary, Obama picked up momentum by running a consistent and innovative campaign that heavily embraced social media. Even when the strong opinions of Reverend Jeremiah Wright threatened to alienate his solid white base, Obama used it as a moment of racial healing, drawing upon his own varied racial background as a call to unite the nation. When he officially bested Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic Party's nomination and accepted the Democratic nomination for president on August 28, 2008, it was forty-five years to the day tens of thousands descended on the nation's capital for the historic March on Washington where Dr. King delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech.

On November 4, 2008, when election results poured in, the impossible became reality; and, on Tuesday, January 20, the day after the nation celebrated the King holiday, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States of America with his wife Michelle, daughters Malia and Sasha by his side, ready to serve as the nation's first African American family, shattering the ultimate glass ceiling in American politics.

9) DETROIT - Long on hard times these days, the promise that once was Detroit went completely belly up in 2008. Kwame Kilpatrick, dubbed the "hip-hop mayor" when he was elected Detroit's youngest mayor at age 31, led two mayoral administrations full of controversy. At the top of 2008, Kilpatrick's text messages suggesting an illicit extramarital affair with his chief of staff Christine Beatty prompted national attention, quickly resulting in an indictment, trial, conviction and removal as mayor, not to mention jail time. Impropriety after impropriety tainted Kilpatrick's rule, literally costing the already beleaguered city suffering from high unemployment and home foreclosures millions and millions of dollars it could ill afford to lose.

The failing auto industry only compounded Detroit's mountain of troubles when national scandal erupted after the CEOs of Chrysler, Ford and GM flew to Washington in private jets to request a $25 billion loan from the government in November 2008. For many, their lack of fiscal responsibility and pr savvy offered little consolation they could turn things around to avoid flushing more of taxpayers' money down the drain. Today, the once booming "Motor City" is a shell of its former self, with the prospect of bankruptcy looming larger as it faces a $325 million shortfall. Running neck and neck with New Orleans as the nation's most pitiful city, there's no denying that the once mighty Motor City is on life support.

10) THE DEATH OF MICHAEL JACKSON - Michael Jackson's shocking death on June 25, 2009 as he prepared for a global, comeback tour reverberated around the world, prompting nonstop media coverage that touched upon everything from prescription drug misuse to allegations of sexual molestation and debates surrounding ethnic identity. A breakthrough entertainer, Jackson pioneered the musical artist of the new age, cultivating a global appeal through emerging technology. Credited with desegregating MTV, which rarely played videos by black artists in the 1980s, premieres for Jackson's "Thriller," "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" became pop cultural milestones. Working with noted Hollywood filmmakers (John Landis, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, John Singleton), Jackson elevated the art of the music video, improving standards for production quality and creativity.

Recognized all over the globe, Jackson was later as noted for his idiosyncrasies (i.e. touting a pet monkey named Bubbles, highly publicized allegations of child molestations, speculation about bleaching his skin) as he was for his enormous talent. The multi Grammy winner, who began his career as a boy, often lamented not having a childhood and was known to fancy Peter Pan and other childhood indulgences, even going as far as to build his own playground, Neverland. Underestimated in his business ability, the acknowledged "King of Pop" secured publishing for The Beatles' catalog before licensing deals became the rage. Remembered also for his protests of Sony Music, supported by the Reverend Al Sharpton, Jackson claimed that record companies conspired against artists, especially black artists.

With album sales tallying nine million not even a month following his death and This Is It, the intimate film highlighting his intended comeback tour, has earned over $250 million, Jackson is easily atop the list of "greatest entertainer who ever lived."