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President-elect Barack Obama has made history with his victory in the presidential election, but the historical discussion of Obama's success on the campaign trail would not be complete without mentioning the trailblazers who came before him, men and women like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Mary McLeod Bethune and Shirley Chisholm, the first black major-party candidate for president of the United States.

But while everyone is quick to point out the civil rights leaders and political movers and shakers that have paved the way for Obama, not nearly enough attention has been paid to a film about a killer comet on a collision course with Earth, a popular television series on a network owned by notorious conservative Rupert Murdoch, or how Darth Vader was once commander in chief.

Entertainment in all of its forms -- sports, literature, popular music, television and film -- has always been a crucial component of American culture, serving as a historical marker of where society has been as well as an indicator of where it is headed. Historically, popular entertainment has always played an especially pivotal role in shaping the perception of black Americans. From Jackie Robinson becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball to Will Smith repeatedly saving the world in films like "Men in Black" and "I Am Legend," pop culture has, for better and for worse, been a primary source of information that determines how mainstream America perceives black people. And for Obama, pop culture, especially film and television, may have just helped him win the election.

"America is ready for a black president because we've seen them before. Black presidents, in fact, have been our most awesome presidents ever: Morgan Freeman in 'Deep Impact' and Dennis Haysbert in '24,'" wrote Joel Stein in a Los Angeles Times editorial. "And their approval ratings -- box office grosses and Nielsen ratings, the only approval that matters in the U.S. -- have been huge."

The fictional presidents portrayed by Freeman and Haysbert have gone a long way to popularizing the concept of a black American in the Oval Office, but it was actor James Earl Jones who played the first black president in 1972's "The Man," based on Irving Wallace's novel and adapted for the screen by "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling. When the president of the United States and the speaker of the House are killed in a freak accident, and the terminally ill vice president abdicates power, the role of commander in chief falls unexpectedly on the shoulders of the Senate president pro tempore, Douglass Dilman (Jones). Faced with a choice of being his own man or serving as the puppet president others want him to be, Dilman wrestles with a series of complex racial issues that include a black American student accused of assassinating the defense minister of South Africa.

"The Man" deals specifically with the issues of race and racism as it relates to the presidency. Produced in the wake of the civil rights movement, when black power had manifested itself cinematically in the blaxploitation films of the era, "The Man" is very much a product of the 1970s. It is a byproduct of the politically charged films of the late 1950s and '60s (many of which starred Sidney Poitier), which helped to change the way blacks were portrayed in mass media.

In the world of film, Poitier did more to clear the way for Obama than any other actor. Poitier was the first black actor to be successfully cast as a hero in mainstream American cinema. The Bahamian Poitier's career began in the 1950s with films like "No Way Out," "Edge of the City" and "The Defiant Ones," all of which dealt head-on with race relations in America. In 1964 he won an Oscar for his leading role in "Lilies of the Field," and, by 1967, the year he starred in "In the Heat of the Night," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "To Sir, With Love" -- all racially charged films -- Poitier was the No. 1 box office actor in the country.

Next: More black big screen commanders in chief