Historians and others described the speechÕs candidness on race as almost without precedent. John Hope Franklin, a Duke University historian who led an advisory commission on race relations set up by President Bill Clinton, said Mr. Obama pointed out how easily the question of race can be distorted in this country, Òwhich has three centuries of experience with it and yet we act like this is something new.Ó

Julian Bond, the longtime civil rights activist, said the speech moved him to tears. Orlando Patterson, a professor of sociology at Harvard, said he believed the speech would Ògo down as one of the great, magnificent and moving speeches in the American political tradition.Ó

ÒI hear so many people saying we want a national conversation on race but itÕs never quite worked,Ó he said. ÒHe was able to do this in one speech. But he was able to do it in a nonpartisan way in that he saw both sides.Ó

(NYT)