-- Black economist and best-selling author Thomas Sowell, based on the number of newspapers that carry his column, is one of the country's top 10 columnists.

-- "The Cosby Show," a positive, upbeat sitcom about a black, upper-middle-class family, reigned for years as America's most-watched television program.

-- Black faces on television abound -- in commercials, as local and national news anchors, and in shows playing a variety of characters -- from doctors and lawyers up to and including the president of the United States.

-- Will Smith, a black actor, tops the list of the nation's movie box-office stars.

-- Black actor Samuel L. Jackson appeared in more movies than any other actor of any color during the 1990s.

-- Black television host Oprah Winfrey, arguably one of the most powerful television personalities in the history of the medium, has amassed, to date, a fortune estimated at $2.5 billion.

-- Blacks serve or have served as mayors in many American cities, including the three largest -- New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

-- The current speaker of the California Assembly is the first black woman to head a statewide legislative body.

-- Blacks comprise 10 percent of the House of Representatives, including some from primarily white Southern districts.

-- A black man serves as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee -- arguably the most powerful committee in the House.

-- A black man served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

-- Virginia, one of the states of the original Confederacy, elected a black man governor.

-- The Republican Party, in the last election cycle, nominated blacks as candidates for governor of Ohio, governor of Pennsylvania, and senator from Maryland.

-- Blacks have served the current administration as back-to-back secretaries of State.

So, what does Obama's candidacy mean? His victory shows that America grows ever closer to Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of a society that judges people based on content of character, rather than color of skin.

Obama's victory does not prove this. It confirms it.