Economist, NY Times endorse Obama

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The Econmist has endorsed Barack Obama, saying its its October 30 edition, "Mr Obama deserves the presidency". Read the column

The New York Times has also endorsed Obama in an editorial in which it says Obama "has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States". Read the editorial

Watch the Barack Obama informercial aired on American networks on Oct. 29, 2008.

Some important political milestones for African-Americans since the 19th century:

1. 1808: Britain and the United States abolish the slave trade, but slavery itself continues in
2. British colonies until 1833 and in the American South until the end of the U.S. Civil War
3. 1861: Civil War begins. Slavery is one of the key disputes between the North and South
4. 1863: President Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, liberating slaves in the states rebelling against the Union
5. 1864: The First African-American daily newspaper, the New Orleans Tribune, was published
6. 1865: Civil War ends with victory for the North. The 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlaws slavery
7. 1868: African-Americans gain more civil rights when the 14th amendment is ratified, but many of its provisions are not enforced until the 20th century
8. 1881: Booker Washington establishes Tuskegee University. It is the first U.S. institution of higher learning to have a black faculty
9. 1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is established to fight racial discrimination
10. 1951: The National Basketball Association opens its ranks to African-Americans, allowing Chuck Cooper to sign with the Boston Celtics
11. 1954: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that the "separate but equal" doctrine allowing racial segregation has "no place in the field of public education"
12. 1955: Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in Montgomery, Ala. It sparks the Montgomery bus boycott led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
13. 1964: President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, banning discrimination in voting, education, employment, and public accommodation
14. 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.. It triggers a national crisis with rioting in more than 100 U.S. cities
15. 1971: Jesse Jackson founds Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) in Chicago to work for the economic advancement of poor people
16. 1983: Jesse Jackson runs for president, becoming the second African-American, after Shirley Chisholm, to mount a countrywide campaign for president of the United States, running as a Democrat
17. 1983: In response to pressure, President Ronald Reagan signs a bill making the third Monday in January a national holiday in honour of Martin Luther King, Jr.
18. 1989: General Colin Powell becomes the first African-American to serve as chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
19. 1992: Illinois congresswoman Carol Moseley-Braun becomes the first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Senate
20. 1995: About 900,000 African-American men come to the Million Man March in Washington to draw attention to the social conditions of African-Americans and to urge African-American men to assume control over their lives
21. 2001: Condoleezza Rice becomes the first African-American woman and second African-American, after Colin Powell, to hold the office of the U.S. national security adviser
22. 2007: Senator Barack Obama of Illinois announces in January he is running for president.
23. 2008: Obama wins the Democratic Party's nomination, promising to advance "a different kind of politics" in a campaign that could make him the first African-American president
    Source: Canadian Press