I sat with three older ladies at the Harambe Room in Downtown Birmingham tonight when Barack Obama formally accepted the Democratic Party’s 2008 nominee for the Presidency of the United States of America.
Mary Jo, Barbara and Brenda looked to be in their sixties, and had no doubt personally experienced the racial injustices that Birmingham’s Deep South society was infamous for.
They struggled to find words to adequately express the depth and range of emotion coursing through their souls as they watch the most improbable event of history unfold before their eyes.
Ms. Mary Jo, who recently moved back to Birmingham from California, described her feelings best: “It’s indescribably delicious!”
In Birmingham, Alabama, in a room full of people — black people, white people, young people, old people, straight people, gay people, affluent people, poor people — watched on a big screen TV as the first Black man chosen to head a major political party spoke about his vision for America under his leadership. Rarely in Birmingham – even 45 years after the city’s flagrantly racist, segregated society was formally dismantled – can one find such unity in diversity.
Read the full blog post from August 8, 2008, at Birmingham View Blogs.
