The Satisfied Smile on an Historic Day

Where do I began…well let me begin by saying that I made it through the day with only misty eyes; unlike the night then Senator Barack Obama had enough votes to become the Democratic Party representative for president; unlike the night he formally accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president; unlike the night of November 4 when he won the election for president. The were times that the tears flooded my face and I was overcome by joy as I remember being raised in Louisiana in the middle of the Jim Crow era and not realizing how hard my parents had it because they sheltered us from the overt racism of the deep south. That is until one day that when I was seven or eight years old (1959 or 1960) and inside of Morgan and Lindsey’s Department Store with my mother and this young White woman (maybe she was even an older teenager) was dressing down my mother because I happened to drink out of the wrong water fountain. My mother taught me a very valuable lesson that day. No the lesson was not to drink from the colored only fountain, but to not spend my money in a place that made differences in their facilities according to your race. She put back the clothes and other things she had and told me to never shop in that store or one like it ever. And that was her favorite store. We shopped at J. C. Penny’s from then own. And nobody we knew shopped there again.

It is with similar memories that Black people of my generation looked to January 20, 2009 with pride and sadness that people we loved did not live to see this day. I know how Jesse Jackson felt and how Congressman John Lewis felt with the tears flowing down on November 4th and how there was nothing but large smiles on yesterday. As I watched President Obama take the oath the smile on my face must have been a mile wide. Every Black person in the building that I work in had the same look on their faces. No words had to be said, it was just that knowing look and extra pep in their step.

All the tears of joy were gone; there was just the smile of pride left; the satisfied smile of knowing how far we have come.