2001 In January President-elect George W. Bush nominates Colin Powell to be Secretary of State.  Condoleezza Rice is also appointed to the positon of National Security Advisor for the Bush Administration.  This is the first time either post has been held by African Americans. 2001

2001 In November Shirley Clarke Franklin becomes the first African American woman to head the government of a major Southern city whe she is elected mayor of Atlanta. 2001

2002 In March, Halle Berry and Denzel Washington win Oscars for best actress and best actor for their portrayals in Monster’s Ball and Training Day respectively. 03-01

2002 Dennis Archer, former Mayor of Detroit, becomes the first African American to be elected President of the American Bar Association. 2001

2003 Significant population shifts and reduced resistance to residential integration result in more African Americans living in the suburbs of Los Angeles and Seattle than in their city limits. 01-01

2003 On June 23 the U.S. Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger upholds the University of Michigan Law Schools admission policy which supports affirmative action. In the simultaneously heard Gratz v. Bollinger case, the Supreme Court requires the University of Michigan to dismantle its affirmative action policy for undergraduate admissions. 2003

2004 On November 2, State Senator Barack Obama is elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois.  He becomes the second African American elected to the Senate from that state and only the fifth black senator in U.S. history. 2004

2005 In January Condoleezza Rice becomes Secretary of State.  She is the second woman and the first African American woman to hold the post. 2005

2005 On August 30, Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast, taking an estimated 1,700 lives.  The vast majority of the deaths are in Louisiana including heavily African American New Orleans. 2005

2006 With the Democratic takeover of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in the November mid-term elections,