He leapt the tallest barrier. What does it mean for black America?

But some African Americans don't get it. Despite measurable advances over the past 30 years, they still perceive themselves as beleaguered, as the once and present victims of discrimination, struggling to keep pace with their white counterparts.

This portrait of a currently besieged people is mostly fiction -- although it regained some currency during the campaign. The racial comments that were slung about, along with other experiences permanently lodged in the psyche of some African Americans, partly inspire the catalog of demands that awaits Obama.

"He needs to talk more about the race question and the relationship between blacks and whites, especially racism," says Francis. Ronald Walters, director of the African American Leadership Center at the University of Maryland, argues that Obama must address the gap in health care between African Americans and whites. Poverty, support for small businesses, economic development, the three-strikes law and the "incarceration crisis" that has staggering rates of black males inhabiting the nation's prisons are other pressing issues. The Community Reinvestment Act has to be rewritten, and Obama must reconsider the usefulness of enterprise zones as a tool for redeveloping inner-city neighborhoods. "There's a complex of things," says Walters.

This litany reads like the first and subsequent iterations of the National Urban League's annual "State of Black America" report or chapters in Tavis Smiley's "Covenant With Black America." Add the wish that Obama strengthen affirmative action expressed by radio executive Gloria Minott, and the debate is circa 1975.

"Aren't black people affected by gravity," says Miller, meaning that no matter what the government does, these same demands are ever-present. Walters and others would probably disagree and could no doubt offer many reasons for the list's permanence. But to me, it seems that these issues are continually recycled, repackaged and presented as new and original. Yet they're as predictable as John McCain's war narrative, and like that story, they lose their power when repeated too often.

It's not entirely clear yet how Obama will deal with all this. He has pledged to create an Office of Urban Policy in the White House. As a former community organizer who worked on Chicago's South Side, he knows the problems in black America, but he isn't likely to treat African Americans as victims. And a predominantly black Cabinet or staff doesn't seem to be in the offing, either. He has already selected Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a former Clinton adviser, as his chief of staff.

But even if Obama reaches the Clinton bar -- appointing a significant number of blacks, increasing black employment and generally improving black prosperity -- it may not be enough. He may find himself in the same place as other black leaders of his class. Consider former Washington mayor Anthony A. Williams, who delivered services to low-income blacks far beyond what his predecessors had provided: a record number of affordable housing units, new supermarkets and retail shopping areas and health insurance for thousands. Yet he was nearly castrated by a segment of the black community. At one point, he was accused of trying to further enslave African Americans because he wanted to move the city's only public university to a predominantly black neighborhood. His governing approach didn't comport with that of "traditional black leaders" of the 1960s and '70s.

Obama, too, "will have his detractors," says Democratic pollster Ronald Lester. "A lot of those people will never be happy."

But "we cannot move back into the black power movement," adds Miller. "Obama represents a transformation of the American landscape."

And that's the point. If African Americans want to be taken seriously, they have to get with the program. Obama's election isn't just about a black president. It's about a new America. The days of confrontational identity politics have come to an end. The era of coalition politics and collaboration has arrived. Besides, Obama could never be a Rev. Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton -- something even they acknowledge.

"He ran the last leg of a 60-year tag race," Jackson told me. "The wall is down now. Barack must build the bridge for the next generation."

Meanwhile, many are buoyed by the possibility that he will change black America's view of itself. Stephens hopes that his example will restore the "criterion of excellence in education" that her parents' generation embraced. "We need to change the thinking of some kids that the only way they can make it is by singing, dancing and shooting hoops," she says.