Yesterday we hosted Dr. William Jelani Cobb, associate professor of history at Spelman College, for Bless the Mic. All of our new students are reading his book, "The Devil and Dave Chappelle" for class. The book is a collection of essays, ranging from Three 6 Mafia winning a Grammy, to the Million Man March. The discussions in class have been very rich, and in my class we rarely get through enough of the readings in those 50 minutes.

So that afternoon he had a chance to do a Q&A with the students. He told me later (I was on my way back from Indianapolis) that he really enjoyed that conversation and that the students really challenged his ideas, even going to the page of the book for parts they wanted to discuss. That definitely made me proud!

That night he spoke from his upcoming book on the Barack Obama run for presidency. He discussed the challenges he faced within the Black community and especially the Black establishment which solidly opposed him at first (except for Rev. Joe Lowery). But that his model, winning the Black vote versus being seen as the black protestor, may be a new model for Black politics.

Although most folks are not knowledgeable about him, we had a great turn out (even on a debate night), which is a good sign that the series continues to grow. As one of my friends told me last night, Dr. Cobb was very scholarly, but that his discussion was "wet" (meaning, not dry). He is a true academic but was able to really make some good insights for the crowd. I enjoyed the little time I spent picking his brain. I am sure we'll be reading more of his work in the near future.

The Prez