Faithful Democrats
My grandmother had been born only thirteen years after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution had been passed. Her parents had been slaves and she had worked hard all of her life and at age fifty-three she took on the task of raising me. When I was twelve years old, I asked her did she think that a black man could be President of the United States. She replied, "Not in my lifetime baby but it might happen in yours because you never know what the "Lawd" is going to do."
Many of the events in life have much to do with timing. A week ago I travelled to Chicago for Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine’s Annual Award Dinner. I arrived in the unseasonably warm windy city on a Thursday. While watching CNN, I learned that President-Elect Barack Obama would be giving his first press conference as President-Elect on Friday. I immediately asked God to allow me to attend the new President-Elect’s press conference. On Friday morning my dear friend Ericka informed me that President-Elect Obama’s press conference was going to be held in the same hotel that I was staying in: The Chicago Hilton and Towers Hotel. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!
Of course this was not a public press conference and it was only open to the media. My dear friend Cleopatra told me that if anyone could pull off getting into the President-Elect’s first press conference, then it was me. As the hour drew near, I prayed and planned. I planned and prayed. A few moments later I was sitting on the front row in a ballroom filled with a plethora and platoon of worldwide media awaiting the arrival of America’s first African-American President-Elect.
As I sat there, all kinds of emotions ran through my mind. I thought about how I was born in 1966 in rural Washington, Georgia the first city in America named after George Washington and incorporated in 1783 and home to multiple Georgia Governors as well as the 1st Confederate States Secretary General Robert Augustus Toombs whose pristine white home still stands in my hometown and is listed as a Georgia historic site. My mind reminded me how it was in Washington, Georgia that I was born to a nineteen year-old mother and a father in Newark, New Jersey. I recalled how I was raised by the most wonderful woman that I had ever met, my late great grandmother, Mrs. Bessie Mae Hayes who was the first person to introduce me to God. At the forefront of my mind was the memory of living in a wooden house on a dirt road in the community of "Baltimore" supported by bricks until we moved in 1980 to our first brick house.
My lovely and lively grandmother taught me at an early age that I could become anything that I wanted to become but I would have to be twice as good as my white classmates and get a great education. To this end she sent me to the Mary Willis Library each Saturday to read books. My weekly path crossed with future Chicago Medical Doctor Cheryl who would read romance novels while I read Greek mythology. By the way I now refer to her as "Friend of the President."
My grandmother had been born only thirteen years after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution had been passed. Her parents had been slaves and she had worked hard all of her life and at age fifty-three she took on the task of raising me. When I was twelve years old, I asked her did she think that a black man could be President of the United States. She replied, "Not in my lifetime baby but it might happen in yours because you never know what the "Lawd" is going to do."
Fast forward. On Friday, November 7, 2008 I was sitting on the front row of a ballroom at the Chicago Hilton and Towers because the "Lawd" got me into the press conference and because the same "Lawd" that my grandmother mentioned to me in that 1978 conversation had through His permissive will allowed Senator Barack Obama to become President-Elect Barack Obama. A transition spokesman announced that we were fifteen minutes behind the scheduled 1:30EST starting time. Shortly thereafter, in walks Obama Chief Campaign Strategist David Axelrod. Guess what? He stood on the wall less than five feet from me. I got up to tell him what an awesome job he had done and how brilliant he was in packaging and pointing Obama to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
A few moments later in walked Transition spokesperson Robert Gibbs. He was followed by the new White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden. They were followed by a litany of economic advisors among them the 22nd United States Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villagarigosa.
A country boy was sitting on the front row as an eyewitness to some of the best and brightest minds in American politics: Biden, Emmanuel, Granholm and Villagarigosa! What a line up. However, these impressive men and women paled in comparison to the tall lanky intelligent and charismatic man who pulled the curtain back and walked in with that walk which is colder than Denzel Washington’s past the Secret Service agent who had one eye on Obama and one eye on me because I was the closet person in the room to the new President-Elect as he strode to the podium. I sat in shock and awe with each step that the first African-American President-Elect took. I kept thinking back to my grandmother’s words thirty years ago and said to myself "THE LAWD DID THIS!"
Each step that he took, I celebrated the fact that from sea to shining sea "America the Beautiful" transcended race and cast ballots for the man who had just stepped from behind this curtain. I became very emotional when I thought about the fact that the guy with the cold walk had overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to rise to the most powerful office in the known universe. As time stood still in that Hilton and Towers ballroom, I celebrated the fact that Obama’s message of hope had turned red states blue. He flipped Virginia and North Carolina. People from every walk and race in America cast their votes for Obama. On the one week anniversary of his first press conference, the President-Elect was still receiving Electoral College votes. Barack Obama won an Electoral College vote from Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District which is the first time in history that the state has split its votes and the first time in 44 years that it had given a vote to a Democrat.
As I sat there listening to our new President field questions from a star struck press and in front of a country boy, I knew that I was not looking at and listening to an ordinary man. I was witnessing a man who has been anointed by God to lead America and the world in tough and turbulent times. There is a presence about our new President that sets him apart from ordinary men. His calling is to bring hope, healing and help.
I was so tempted to raise my hand to ask a question. One of my grandmother’s favorite axioms was "if you talk too much, people will know how big of a fool you are." Not only that but what media outlet was I representing? I chose to marvel in the fact that the "Lawd" had permitted a country boy to have a front row seat to history. I was in such awe that when the President-Elect was exiting the stage while speaking to a French reporter, I could not even speak to the man that I have blogged about for a year or ask for a photo opt. Thanks for Cheryl I took a picture with First Lady Michelle Obama in February. I froze to the shock of my daughter Cydney who finds that hilarious. But I did have a front row seat to history.
Some time before the end of this year, this country boy will return to Washington, Georgia to place a flower on my grandmother’s tomb at the Cherry Grove Baptist Church to let her know that the "Lawd" did what she said He could do and that the little country boy that she raised had a front seat to history to see what the "Lawd" had done.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In