President Barack Obama's historic election in 2008 and his re-election last year proved decisively that race is no longer an insurmountable hurdle to high political office in the U.S.
But the current pool of possible candidates suggests that the next black president will not be taking the oath of office anytime soon.
"In the shadow of Barack Obama, there's not been a lot of growth," Cornell Belcher, a pollster who was involved in the president's 2008 campaign, said. "It is really hard for minorities to get elected at the statewide level, and before you start talking about president, frankly, you have to get elected to statewide office."