Obama follows other African-American presidential hopefuls

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US presidential hopeful Barack Obama is not the first African-American to run for the White House nor the first to score a victory in a nominating contest, but is following in the footsteps of others who broke barriers and shaped political debate.

Obama, who scored a convincing win in Thursday's Iowa caucuses in the race for the Democratic party nomination, has been widely portrayed as the first African-American to have a serious chance of winning the White House, with previous bids seen as protest campaigns or symbolic efforts.

Out of a handful of blacks who have previously run for the country's highest office, civil rights activist and Baptist minister Jesse Jackson was the most successful.

Jackson made history in 1988 when he won 13...