Despite being hit especially hard by the bad economy, job losses and the high rate of foreclosures, African Americans' assessment of race relations and prospects for the future has surged more dramatically during the past two years than at any time in the past quarter-century, according to a new poll.

The year began with a harmonious glow at the inauguration of the first black president, as America marked a stunning victory over its racial demons.

''That lasted about a day,'' President Barack Obama said two months later. He attributed that to the economic calamity threatening all Americans, but his statement also applied to the notion that all our racial problems had been solved.

The dynamics of race were transformed in 2009 because the most powerful person on Earth was no longer white. But despite that potent symbol -- and sometimes because of it -- race remained a volatile and often divisive subject.