Black Reaction to Obama Mixed as He Starts Second Term

Cornel West Scholar and activist Cornel West rehashed his older criticisms of Obama upon learning that the president to be sworn in on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s personal bible during the 2013 inauguration. West said that unlike King, Obama had not supported the “black freedom struggle.” Moreover, “Martin went to jail talking about carpet bombing in Vietnam and trying to organize poor people, fighting for civil liberties,” said West, arguing that Obama, in contrast, “has a compromising kind of temperament.”

Thumbnails

Photo 1 of 5

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Cornel West critical of Obama before president’s second inauguration.

After Barack Obama in 2008 became the first black man to win a presidential election in the United States, he became a hero to people both in and outside of the African-American community. As he embarks on a second term in office, however, Obama has earned his fair share of critics. Among his notable detractors are African Americans who feel that he has not done enough to help blacks overcome economic, educational and other barriers as the Rev. Martin Luther King had. Here’s what prominent blacks such as Cornel West and Debra Lee of BET had to say about Obama as he prepared for his second inauguration.