Authors discussed their books about the changes in views of citizenship, equality, and democracy in the era of Barack Obama's election to president. They responded to questions from members of the audience.

The authors were: Herbert Daughtry (moderator), In My Lifetime: Towards the Presidency of Barack Obama (Africa World Press); Yohuru Williams, Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Black Panthers in New Haven (John Wiley & Sons); William Jelani Cobb, The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress (Bloomsbury); Peniel Joseph, Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack Obama (Basic Civitas); Gloria J. Browne-Marshall, The U.S. Constitution: An African-American Context (Law and Policy Group Press); Paul Butler, Let's Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice (The New Press); Steve Clark (editor), Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power (Pathfinder).

"Is Racial Justice Passe? Barack Obama, American Society, and Human Rights in the 21st Century ?" was a panel of the 12th annual Harlem Book Fair from the Langston Hughes Auditorium in the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.