DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 11:21 a.m. January 21, 2009
Atlantans tell their stories of inauguration
Disappointment for one, who had a ticket
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Washington — They came by train and bus, planes and cars, a caravan of well-wishers who left Georgia to witness a moment that will happen only once.
From the city and the suburbs, from intown to other towns, metro Atlantans came to Washington to watch Barack Obama become president. Jostled by friends, joined by strangers, they stood in the brilliant cold of a new day, a new era. And they were warmed by the experience.
Elissa Eubanks / eeubanks@ajc.com
Phyllis Thomas (left), waits for her turn to take a photo with Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson. Thomas’ daughter, Lynne Collier, got tickets to the inauguration after contacting Isakson’s office in October.
Rick McKay / Cox Newspapers
Former U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young.
Bob Keefe / Cox Newspapers
Willie Thornton, 12, will be performing ‘Dear Obama’ with other students from Atlanta’s Ron Clark Academy.
Phyllis Thomas
Phyllis Thomas was certainly entitled to one of the inauguration tickets her daughter received from Sen. Johnny Isakson’s office.
At 69, Thomas is old enough to remember “colored only” restrooms and water fountains. And she joined other students for sit-ins at Atlanta lunch counters that refused to serve black people.
As for that inauguration ticket? Well, Thomas gave it to her 10-year-old grandson, Cameron, even though she desperately wanted to be there.
Thomas’s daughter, Lynne Collier, was grateful — but determined that her mother get witness history.
Earlier this month, after contacting Isakson’s office, Collier heard back from the senator’s staff: A third ticket had been found. Thomas would see the hopes and work of a generation come to life.
“My prayers,” said Thomas, who lives in southeast Atlanta, “were answered.”
— Marcus K. Garner
Andrew Young
The first presidential inauguration Andrew Young participated in was in 1949 when Harry Truman took office.
“I was a 16-year-old in Howard University’s ROTC,” said Young, the Atlanta civil rights leader and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Young and his fellow ROTC cadets marched in Truman’s inaugural parade.
“I froze my butt off, because I was from the South,” he recalled. “You had to get out there at 7 o’clock and you had to stand in the cold and you didn’t start marching until almost 12.”
Sixty years later, Young is back in Washington to witness the inauguration of the nation’s first black president.
He eyes well up with tears when he thinks about how far America has come and what his mentor and friend, Martin Luther King Jr., might say if he were still alive.
“He would admire Obama, because Obama is his kind of man,” said Young, now 76. “He’s a scholar, he’s disciplined, he’s articulate, he’s athletic — and that’s the kind of guy Martin Luther King was.”
— Bob Keefe
Willie Thornton
For a 12-year-old, Willie Thornton can pronounce Hamid Karzai and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad better than most adults.
But then again, Thornton is no average 12-year-old. With his wide smile and tight cornrow hair, Thornton is part of an effervescent group of 23 kids from the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta who are performing their “Dear Obama” song-and-dance routine at several inaugural balls this week in Washington.
They’re scheduled to share the stage with superstars Usher and Patti LaBelle at one event, and they also performed live on CNN from the National Mall.
It wasn’t an easy trip to Washington for Thornton and his classmates. They were invited to perform just two weeks ago. Delta Airlines donated some plane tickets, but could only get the group as far as Raleigh-Durham, N.C., on the day before their first scheduled performance.
From Raleigh-Durham, the school had to rent some SUVs and drive nearly six hours to Washington. The kids got only three or four hours of sleep before they had to wake up at 4 a.m. Sunday for a performance before Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and several hundred guests of the Democratic Party of Georgia.
Thornton had no complaints.
“This is such a significant experience and event,” he said. “I’m a little tired … but because the days come and go so quickly I don’t even feel like sleeping.”
— Bob Keefe
Blogging for Oprah
What do you get when 18 women and girls from Carrollton get together in two townhouses in downtown Washington, D.C.?
“We got our blog on Oprah.com!” said Laurel Davis. The three generations of women can also boast meeting CNN’s Anderson Cooper, being interviewed by Lisa Ling, one-time cast-member of “The View”, and a chance encounter with Obama’s motorcade.
The women — ages 12 to 77 — drove from Carrollton and Nashville. “We realize that this was history being made,” said Emma Diment, 12. “We were just happy to be part of it.”
But they got so much more. They blogged extensively about their trip and caught the attention of Ophra Winfrey. Winfrey’s correspondent, Lisa Ling, rushed to interview the family, and put a story about them on the Ophrah’s Web site.
And then …
“We essentially mobbed Anderson Cooper,” said Dana Diment, 51. The group was visiting the Lincoln Monument Saturday when they spotted the cable news anchor giving photo opportunities.
When he headed back to his bus, “we started running afer him, and we caught him,” Diment said. Sunday, part of the group went to a brunch in Virginia, and decided to visit Arlington National Cemetery.
“It was supposed to be closed,” Davis said. They soon found out why the cemetery wasn’t accepting visitors that day. “We were stopped by Barack Obama’s motorcade,” Davis said. “We waved and he waved back at us.”
Nelva Root, 74, of Dowdon, said she was overwhelmed by how friendly everyone was.
“It was just breathtaking to see all the people,” Root said. “What was so wonderful, everyone was smiling at one another, even if you got up in a mob.”
— Marcus K. Garner
The Glenn-Shaheeds
Tierra and Danielle Glenn-Shaheed voted last year for the first time.
The Decatur sisters, ages 20 and 19 respectively, were rewarded for their civic-mindedness.
“We voted for Barack, and he won,” Tierra said.
They got a bigger treat from their mom and dad — a trip to Washington, D.C., to see their political champion be sworn-in as president.
“I’m too happy to be here,” Danielle said.
Parents Mikel and Pat Glenn-Shaheed brought their children and friends in rented passenger vans to the inauguration.
“But we didn’t get tickets,” Mikel Glenn-Shaheed said.
So Tuesday morning, the quartet strolled through the crowds, decked out in winter attire and draped in Atlanta Falcon quilts.
“I’m looking forward to being around all the people from all over the country who shared my beliefs,” Tierra said.
Pat Glenn-Shaheed, 50, said she wanted her daughters to have a first-hand experience of such a monumental event.
“I remember watching the march on Washington when I was little,” Pat Glenn-Shaheed said. “This is their chance to make history.”
— Marcus K. Garner
Andrew Feiler
Atlantan Andrew Feiler traveled to Washington, where he got up at 6 a.m. and piled on layers to keep warm. But an enormous pedestrian traffic jam stood between him and the inauguration.
He took the train into the District, “but as soon as I left the area of the Metro stop all semblance of security and order vanished.”
That he actually had tickets didn’t seem to help.
“The crowd packed in tightly and, well before the appointed hour, had grown to tens of thousands of people in a line that snaked behind us for easily more than a mile,” he said. “Soon after 9 a.m., there was no sign of movement and the crowd began to grow concerned.”
He said there was little in the way of instruction or crowd control, and that spectators without tickets managed to get in ahead of those with proper credentials.
“At 10:45 a.m., three hours after I first arrived and 45 minutes before show time, we finally moved forward,” he said. “We began chanting, ‘Let us in! We have tickets!’”
But by noon, security guards had closed the gate he was trying to enter.
“As far as I could see there were people holding up their tickets, collectively stunned that this could have happened,” he said. “All this planning, all this work, all this effort. It was crushingly disappointing.”
He had looked forward to hearing the proceedings, or the crowd chanting. In the end, all he was able to hear was the 21-gun salute.
— Jennifer Brett and Stacy Shelton
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