T. Scott Boatright, Reporter
01-27-2009
It was a day I’ll always remember — this country will always remember — and I’ll admit to have been awed by the atmosphere and the palpable feeling of electricity and hope.
At 45, I’ve seen a presidential inauguration or two. I can remember sitting with other students in the cafeteria of Paul B. Habans Elementary School in New Orleans and watching Richard Nixon’s official induction into office.
But never had I seen anything like the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Maybe more importantly, never had I felt anything like it.
And the thing is, many of those wide-ranging emotions I was feeling weren’t coming from me — I was living vicariously through the feelings emanating from others.
I was covering an inauguration celebration at the Grambling Community Center, and looking into the eyes of the people there, I could see — feel — the sense of bursting pride and the disbelief as they looked on.
It was almost overwhelming.
I watched as Catherine McNeil left the ground leaping for joy as CNN announced in the middle of the classical musical performance during the inauguration that because the noon hour had passed in Washington D.C., Obama was now officially president even though he had not been sworn in quite yet.
A little later I watched as she wiped tears away, lower lip quivering all the while, as she watched our 44th president take the oath of office.
As I said, it was almost overwhelming.
Ruston’s Santoria Black was in Washington D.C. for the inauguration, calling it a bigger crowd than he had ever imagined, but adding that he was amazed at the cooperation everyone had for each other that made moving the mass of people much easier.
“You just saw people everywhere, but everyone was patient and working together,” Black said. “At one point before a gate opened a lady in a wheelchair was in the front, and when the gate opened the wheelchair tipped over and she fell.
“I thought she was going to get stampeded. But everyone stayed calm, didn’t move and just slowly helped the lady get back into her chair and moving, then they followed. People of all shapes, colors, sizes, classes and backgrounds — we truly were one people that day.”
As a child who started school in the New Orleans public school system in the late 1960s, I lived a unique experience because of my age and where I grew up. I am literally a child of integration.
Looking back at old class pictures, I had one African-American in my kindergarten class (he remained a friend until I left for college). By the time I was in fourth or fifth grade, the racial mix was much closer to being equal.
Thanks to my parents and probably the fact that I grew up in a unique city like New Orleans, I just didn’t understand the concept of racial prejudice until I was old enough to question things I had seen and heard and have it all explained to me.
So in all honesty, I couldn’t truly imagine the feelings coursing through those people watching the inauguration at Grambling’s Community Center, but I definitely picked up on the electricity, and the hope.
It was amazing to be there to see and feel that kind of hope. Now we can only pray that hope turns to pride in the weeks, months and years to come.
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