Anthea Butler

If King could have conceived of this day, with the coincidence of a holiday in his honor and the swearing-in of the first president of African descent, he would surely have marveled. And then he would have set us all to work.

With the choice of Rev. Warren to make the inaugural invocation, the president elect has proven himself tone deaf to the nuances of American religious life.

A professor of African-American religious history talks about teaching with a heavy heart, year after year, about the truths of racism. With the election of Barack Obama, this year will be different, but the journey of healing has only just begun.