Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Virginia voters move from Jim Crow to Obama in one lifetime
Many Virginia voters said they doubted they would ever live to see a major-party black presidential candidate.
Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times
Sam Dillard (center) waits in line at the Villa Heights precinct Tuesday morning on Election Day in Northwest Roanoke. Some voters incurred waits as long as three hours.
Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times
Voters weather rain and a long line at the Eureka Park polling place.
Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times
A voter waits her turn at the Mount Vernon polling station in Roanoke County. Many older black voters said Barack Obama's candidacy is a fulfillment of the Civil Rights movement, a day many of them said they expected to be still far in the future. As one younger voter, Shirlene Smith, said, "I have a voice now."
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- Throughout Election Day, voters streamed to the polls
- First-time voters revel in democratic process
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- Voters report sporadic problems
Individual races
- Presidential race: Jim Crow to Obama in one lifetime
- 5th District, U.S. House: 5th District race remains too close to call
- 6th District, U.S. House: Goodlatte cruises to win in contested House bid
- U.S. Senate: Warner enjoys overwhelming win
Joy, wonder, a new sense of possibility -- as the presidential election headed into the voting booths, black voters in the Roanoke and New River valleys said that win or lose, the candidacy of Barack Obama has already fulfilled his campaign's message of change.
"We're seeing history being made," said Virginia Divers, 92, as she left the polls at Roanoke's Lincoln Terrace Elementary School. Expressing a thought echoed by many Tuesday, Divers said she hadn't doubted that a person of color would eventually become a serious contender for president -- but she had thought that day might still be far off.
"I'm just glad I lived to see it," said Donald Strange, 64, at Roanoke's Villa Heights polling station.
Watching Obama's run for the nation's top office was particularly poignant for those who remembered when segregation was the law of the land.
"Of all the changes I've seen in the world ... from horse-and-buggy days to sending a man to the moon, if I can see a black president walk into the White House, it would capitalize my life," said Walter Price, 89, of Christiansburg.
Price, like other older voters contacted this week, said he voted early to avoid long lines and bad weather.
Similarly, Nan Hairston, 87, also of Christiansburg, said she and her husband cast ballots early to avoid any possibility of a mishap. Hairston recalled the 1972 candidacy of Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and the first to run for a major-party presidential nomination. But Obama went much, much further.
"This has always been on my mind since Martin Luther King was assassinated -- who's the next one who's going to come along and give us hope?" Hairston said.
She said Obama gave the country, particularly young people of all backgrounds, a sense of possibility.
"I just think it's a wonderful thing. We've brought ourselves together in this country. ... This has just been an open book that I think all of us could learn from," she said.
In line to vote in Roanoke, Shirley Washington, 69, saw Obama as fulfilling the promise of the Civil Rights movement.
"A lot of people did a lot of suffering to make this day possible," she said.
Washington said she always followed presidential politics but watched this election closer than any before.
"It's just our time now," she said.
The Rev. Thomas Pleasant, the 84-year-old minister of Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Roanoke, saw Obama's candidacy as pre-ordained.
"I just believe this is God's time for change," Pleasant said. "The man has shown he has a special gift from God. God has moved this thing forward."
Saying he was glad to see a black man running, Pleasant said race was a minor issue compared with the necessity of moving the country away from a steady drumbeat of crises.
"White, black, blue or green -- if anybody can vote for what we've had the last eight years ... he's crazy," Pleasant said.
Waiting in line at the Villa Heights polls, Arton Williams, 47, said he was casting his first vote in a presidential election because of concerns about the economy. A Hillary Clinton supporter during the primaries, Williams said his respect for Obama grew as he saw him enlist experienced advisers such as Warren Buffet.
"He came a long way," he said of Obama.
Shirlene Smith, 43, also cast her first vote Tuesday. She said that in elections past, her job and a lack of official identification kept her away from the polls. This year, new driver's license in hand, she was ready to wait out the long line at Villa Heights to vote -- drawn, she said, by worries about the economy, health care and "the whole scenario of an African-American being considered."
"I have a voice now," Smith said.
Another first-time voter was Brandon "Ox" Johnson, 22. He said he'd watched Obama since his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, when an older friend told him to expect to see the Illinois legislator make a run for president some day.
Johnson said he could have voted four years ago but saw nothing to attract him to either George Bush or John Kerry.
This time, primed by the nod his friend gave to Obama four years ago, he was taken by the candidate's message of hope and refusal to reply to every attack from opponents.
"That's why I'm here," Johnson said, his sweatshirt hood sheltering him from a cold drizzle at Villa Heights.
Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke, said Obama's run broke barriers he'd expected to endure for years longer.
"I didn't think America was nowhere close to accepting either a woman or a black person to run. ... I think he's done more for race in this country than anyone -- just by running."
