Drummond very kindly sent me Simon Schama's new book which I am really enjoying. It is full of stories and characters that I had never heard before, and which I expect many Americans are also unfamiliar with (they are unlucky that it won't be published here until June 2009 I think).
One fact struck me particularly: in Mississippi in 1963 (i.e. a full century after political rights were supposedly granted to all) only 7,000 African Americans, of a population of 450,000 were registered to vote. This disenfranchisement was brought about by a combination of intimidation and obstruction (e.g. making black Americans take difficult tests to prove they were qualified to vote which white Americans were never required to take).
It has only been 45 years since the civil rights movement took on the establishment to end this kind of discrimination. It makes it all the more impressive that the country now not only has a black man running to be President, but that he has a great chance (I would need nerves of steel to put it more strongly!) of being elected.
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