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apartheid leader, who remains hospitalized although his condition has improved.
• The "father of the nation" has inspired many artists to create works to commemorate the Nelson Mandela International Day, a day declared by the United Nations as a way to recognize the Nobel Prize winner's contribution to reconciliation.
• Paintings and posters depicting Mandela have sprung up around Johannesburg in tribute to the life of the ailing icon, some on a very large scale.
• Artists John Adams and Paul Blomkamp created two of the biggest Mandela paintings in tribute to the iconic leader for his years of public service to his community. They say their paintings reflect the scale of Mandela's global contributions and the exceptional energy of the anti-apartheid leader.
• Artist John Adams said his portrait of Mandela -- at 4.8 x 4.5 meters (16 x 15 feet) -- is the largest that exists of the anti-apartheid leader. The 38-year-old, who painted the portrait at his childhood home in the Johannesburg suburb of Bosmont, said Mandela inspired him as a young artist.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- In 1999, a fresh-faced state senator on Chicago's South Side heard constituents complain that police were free to pull over drivers because they were black. So Barack Obama proposed a bill to tackle racial profiling. When it failed, he revised it and proposed it again and again.
• "Race and ethnicity is not an indicator of criminal activity," Obama said when his bill finally passed the Senate four years later. He said targeting individuals based on race was humiliating and fostered contempt in black communities.
• More than a decade later, Obama's efforts to pass groundbreaking racial profiling legislation in Illinois offer some of the clearest clues as to how America's first black president feels about an issue that's polarizing a nation roiled by the shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin.
• Obama has spoken only rarely about his own experience with incidents he perceived to be race-related. In his 2006 book "The Audacity of Hope," he described his struggles with the injustices of "driving while black" and the vigilance he felt was still necessary for him and his family.
• "I can recite the usual litany of petty slights that during my 45 years have been directed my way: security guards tailing me as I shop in department stores, white couples who toss me their car keys as I stand outside a restaurant waiting for the

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