The Nomination of Barack Obama as President
August 28th, 2008 at 8:35 am by Louisa Strayhorn under Politics
It’s been a long time since I cried for anything other than a funeral. But I cried today as I thought about how far we have come. My mother told me that she cried when she was forbidden to come get me when at 4 yrs of age I wandered to the white section of the train going to Virginia. I thought about how my father said he wanted to cry when his father sent him away from his home in Georgia to keep him from being lynched for talking back to a white farmer who lived next door. I cried that neither is alive today to see a man who looks like them be nominated President of the United States. I cried when I thought about how neither one believed this country would rid itself of hatred for black skin and allow an intelligent African American man to be commander in chief of the greatest country in the world. I am glad this country today proved them wrong. I cried today because it is a bittersweet “I told you so” and I wish they were alive so I could laugh and hug them and we all could express the joy in our hearts together as the delegates from Virginia, including the Governor, cried and hugged each other and said thank God, thank God at last America is giving a true sign that it will keep the commitment to be the promiseland for all regardless of color.
This experience is awesome!
Thanks so much for saying what I was thinking and crying about as I watched a woman — Sen. Clinton — call for the nomination by acclamation of an African America –Barack Obama — and then another woman– the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi — put it to the floor for approval.
When I was a little white girl in the 60′s and 70′s and heard my rural North Carolina family use the “N word” when referring to my friends … I knew it was wrong and I wanted to be a part of the change that would let them know so. As an adult I’ve walked out of my grandmother’s home hearing the word in order to teach my children that it won’t be tolerated.
As a grown woman last night with my children under each arm, I wept as we watched the “Ayes” that went up in a roar on the convention floor and the declaration that Obama was FINALLY the Democratic candidate for President. I wept for you and for others like you — Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, and the countless nameless, thankless women and men of color and those few whites who had the audacity to stand up for them … They were the ones who blazed a trail only to die before seeing that the trail they blazed will lead all the way to the White House. And I wept because Hilary and Nancy — two women — were there to declare that trail WIDE OPEN.
What a country!