By ARIELLA MONTI
“I wonder if they built it ever really thinking an African-American would ever be president one day.”
For Hodge, 31, and other members of the black community in Long Beach, the election of Barack Obama was not only a historic event but the realization of a dream.
“Martin Luther King Jr. fought so hard to integrate blacks and whites and against segregation, and it’s ironic that an African-American and a Caucasian person, together, won the presidency [and vice presidency],” said Hodge.
He said he was confident, even early in Obama’s campaign, that he would make it to the White House. “He was very inspiring and motivating to me from the beginning,” Hodge said.
For older members of the community such as Cecil Garrett, who was living in Memphis the day King was assassinated 40 years ago, watching Obama give his victory speech on Election Night was both surprising and exciting. “It makes me feel great, in that I had firsthand knowledge of what transpired [in Memphis], and to see a dream come to reality is something that we don’t see too many times in our lifetime,” said Garrett, who is chairman of the Deacon Board at Christian Light Missionary Baptist Church in Long Beach.
Garrett was 18 on April 4, 1968, and turned on the TV that night to find that King had been gunned down. On Nov. 4, 40 years and seven months after that infamous day, he arrived at his Long Beach home and was met with a different sort of unbelievable news.
“I was shocked when my wife told me,” he said, laughing, about the announcement that Obama had won. Garrett was a staunch supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, and believed Obama also would have won if Clinton had been his running mate.
Asked how he felt about Obama’s electoral landslide, Garrett said, “That was phenomenal! I didn’t expect that at all. I expected it to be as close as the popular vote.”
While Obama is the first black president, he is not the first African-American who has run for the presidency. Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton also vied for the White House, but all fell far short. “To tell you the truth, I thought Jesse Jackson had a good chance in 1984 before he messed up,” Garrett said.
Leary Wade, who witnessed King’s acts of civil disobedience, said he felt that Obama’s focus on the issues was what set him apart. “He never used race or anything of that nature,” Wade said of Obama’s campaign. “He always talked about the issues, and that’s what makes a difference.” Hodge said that on Election Day, he was amazed at the sheer number of people from the black community who began waiting on lines to vote at 5:30 a.m.
Hodge also noted that Obama’s focus on the country’s youth played a large part in his success. “He motivated our young people to vote,” he said. “They participated in the campaign, and now they see that their voice matters.”
Garrett was also stunned, he said, by the enthusiasm even among non-voters. “What amazed me was the younger generation that is not even of voting age was excited about this election,” he said. “It was a motivating factor to be whatever they can be.”
He went on to say that America’s youth have seen “that our country has evolved into the dream that King had. Judge by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin. I think that hit home with the younger generation.”
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