NEW YORK (Bloomberg) – Being black in America isn't as rough as it used to be. It's not all it should be, either.

That's the message of "The Black List: Vol. 1'', a revealing HBO special featuring Colin Powell, Toni Morrison, Chris Rock, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Reverend Al Sharpton, Serena Williams and other prominent black Americans. The 90-minute programme first aired last night and will run several times over the next month.

There's a distinct age divide, with the older generation recalling days when being black meant harassment and worse. Powell recalls driving his Volkswagen, adorned with an "LBJ for President" bumper sticker, through rural Alabama in 1964 when a state trooper pulled him over.

"Boy," he recalls the trooper telling him, "you need to get out of here as fast as you can." Powell says that was some of the best advice he ever got.

Sharpton, much more reflective than he is on the cable shout shows, praises the black church as one of the "few places we could assemble" where "whites didn't dictate the programme." Churches, he adds, nurtured political and cultural leaders who would eventually transform white America.

He singles out singer James Brown as an especially powerful mover and shaker. While other blacks had entered the mainstream, Sharpton says, Brown "made the mainstream go black."

Journalist Elvis Mitchell conducts the brief interviews, shot by filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Several of the celebrities, including tennis star Williams and Nobel Prize- winning author Morrison, pay tribute to their parents.

Morrison's father instilled a spirit of independence by insisting she was "not beholden to someone else's opinion," while Williams's parents taught her and sister Venus to play tennis. Williams also praises Muhammad Ali, whose willingness to go to jail for his beliefs was a profound inspiration. Youthful A-listers also acknowledge a debt to their professional elders. Comic Chris Rock says he was fortunate to follow in the footsteps of Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby, while rock guitarist Slash praises Jimi Hendrix and says he was "never fazed by the colour barrier."

Perhaps the most engaging interview is basketball great Abdul-Jabbar, who recalls finding musket balls and arrowheads at Colonial-era battle sites while growing up in New York. His interest in history eventually inspired him to write "Black Profiles in Courage'', from which he delivers an arresting quotation: "I'd rather be a lamppost in Harlem than governor of Georgia."

Abdul-Jabbar also tells of meeting jazzman Miles Davis, who eyed the towering ballplayer and said, "It must cost you about $500 to get a necktie." Abdul-Jabbar says he expected a "more meaningful moment," though the two later became close friends.

Black advancement has created resentment, including complaints of preferential treatment that are directly addressed by Powell and Sharpton.

Powell says whenever he's accused of getting a job simply because he is black he smiles and replies, "OK, well for 200 years I didn't get the job because I was black." Sharpton recalls a discussion with a black conservative who told him he didn't owe his success to the civil-rights movement.

Sharpton replied that the movement "made somebody read your resume."

While great advances have been made, he adds, not all is well in black America.

"Manhood has become thuggism," Sharpton says. "You're a real man because you got shot."

Barack Obama's presidential candidacy is clear evidence that blacks have made great strides in America.

As the programme indicates, however, there's still a long way to go.