Inauguration Day: America's First Black President

Frankly, I'm surprised this 1972 movie isn't being referenced these days. "The Man," stars James Earl Jones as Douglass Dilman, a U.S senator who becomes the country's first black president.

But even in the movies back then, it was impossible for a black man to be flat-out elected president. Senator Dilman, president of the senate, gots the nod after a building collapse killed the president and the speaker of the house--and the vice president declined because he's too old.

"The Man" was made for ABC-TV, but had a theatrical run before heading to television. Jones talked about the movie a little earlier this month in the LA Times. "I have misgivings about that one," he said of the film. "It was done as a TV special. Had we known it was to be released as a motion picture, we would have asked for more time and more production money. I regret that."