In 1989, Douglas Wilder was elected Governor of Virginia, the first black governor of an American state.

Colin Powell was appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

David Dinkins was elected the first Joint Chiefs of Staff.

David Dinkins was elected the first Black Mayor of New York.

Norm Rice was likewise the first Black Mayor of Seattle.

Jesse Jackson the year before had earned 7 million votes in his contest for the Democratic nomination for president.

In entertainment in 1989, Oprah was making $30 million a year.

Serial rapist Bill Cosby donated 20 million dollars to Atlanta's

Spellman College at the time the largest donation to a historically black

college and university.

Spellman returned that money in 2015.

Also in 1989, Dela Sol released the Seminole Three Feet High and Rising.

NWA was touring straight out of Compton, and Public Enemy were in the studio recording their masterpiece, Fear of a Black Planet.

The Arsenio Hall show debuted on CBS in 1989, and Spike Lee released Do the Right Thing.

1989 was a year that saw African American participation in mainstream American culture and civic life at an all-time high, where the creators were increasingly

dictating the terms, and Black identity was in the forefront.

And in 1989 alone, Morgan Freeman starred in three films that by themselves were a

symposium on the black experience. Lean on me, where he portrayed a tough

inner city principle, Best Picture Winner driving Miss Daisy, where he drove Miss Daisy, and today's film, Glory.

Glory tells the true story of a unit of black soldiers, the 54th Massachusetts, mustered by the Union Army during the Civil War.

Denzel Washington, Andre Brower, and Morgan Freeman, among many others, are cast as eager recruits who join the highly segregated

Yankee Army despite prejudice from every corner in order to bring the fight to the slave

...