Have we overcome? What Barack Obama's election says--and doesn't say--about racial progress in America.

• Author: Swarns, Rachel L.
• Position: NATIONAL

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Ellen Yiadom describes her joy at Barack Obama's election-night victory as "the greatest feeling in the world, like winning a million dollars."

But that elation hasn't stopped the 25-year-old University of Virginia law school student from worrying about a possible backlash.

"There's so much that needs to be done," Yiadom says. "Yes, there's a black President, but 50 percent of black men don't graduate from high school. How do you reconcile those two things?"

In his quest for the White House, Barack Obama received overwhelming support from black voters--more than 95 percent of whom cast their ballots for him. But despite that support, some blacks worry that Obama's historic achievements might not be all good news for the civil rights struggle.

They fear that growing numbers of white voters and policy makers will decide that eradicating racial discrimination and ensuring equal opportunity have largely been done. And it might become harder to rally support for policies like affirmative action that were intended to combat discrimination, inequities, and urban poverty.

"I worry that there is a segment of the population that might be harder to reach, average citizens who will say: 'Come on. We [are going to] have a black President, so we must be over it,' " says Roderick J. Harrison, a sociologist at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

"That is the danger, that we declare victory," says Harrison, who fears that poor blacks will increasingly be blamed for their troubles. "Historic as this moment is, it does not signify a major victory in the ongoing, daily battle."

Such concerns have been percolating for months, on black talk-radio shows and blogs, in dinner conversations, academic meetings, and e-mail messages crisscrossing the country.

Others dismiss the idea that Obama's success might undermine support for race-based policies. They applaud Obama's emphasis on solutions to broad economic problems like troubled schools, unemployment, and inadequate health insurance. Addressing these problems, which affect all Americans, would certainly benefit blacks.

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Juan Williams, a black National Public Radio correspondent who has written extensively about race, believes Obama's election is the end of an era in black politics.

"The focus of discussion now is how the child of even the most oppressed of racial minorities can maximize his or her strengths and overcome negative stereotypes through achievement," Williams wrote in The Wall Street Journal...