DEL.ICIO.USUpdated: 10:42 p.m. January 20, 2009
Obama cheered at gatherings across Atlanta
More than 1,000 in Centennial Olympic Park; others in churches, schools, living room
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
As the new president took over, Atlantans cheered.
They hailed the chief in living rooms and church sanctuaries, in office cafeterias and just about any other place where a TV flickered with historic images. Preachers, school kids and retirees, city dwellers and suburbanites: Everyone, it seemed, watched Barack Obama become the nation’s 44th president.
Phil Skinner/pskinner@ajc.com
Helen Amos dances with joy after watching the historic inauguration of Barak Obama at the Dogwood Neighborhood Senior Center in Atlanta.
KIMBERLY SMITH / ksmith@ajc.com
Alina Figueroa (left) and Joseph Silva dance the day away as fifth-grade students at Norcross Elementary School hold their own inaugural ball Tuesday.
In downtown Atlanta, more than 1,000 gathered in the windy, frigid expanse of Centennial Olympic Park and howled their approval of the nation’s first African-American president.
The cold forgotten for a moment, the bitter winds ignored, they offered their voices to the high blue.
Khaliph West, wrapped in this country’s colors, cheered with everyone else. The Atlanta security engineer, 33, wore the flag from his grandfather Harold Demur’s coffin; the older man had been a staff sergeant in World War II.
“Two days ago, I said, ‘Grandma, it would be a great tribute if I could take Grandpa’s flag down to Centennial Olympic Park.’” West said. “And she said, ‘If he was alive, I think he would be more than happy for you to honor him in this way.’”
Not far away, Georgia State University freshman Alex Parrish tried to ignore the chill. “My mouth’s frozen. I can’t talk,” she said.
Parrish and her friend, fellow freshman Carly Stember, both voted for the first time in November.
“I don’t want to sit alone in the dorm and watch,” said Stember. “I want to be out in the atmosphere, so I can tell my kids I was there in Centennial Olympic Park. I think this whole election was about being involved.”
A block away, hundreds sat in CNN Center’s atrium as power moved from one man to another. It was a routine sight — lunchtime draws lots of people to the airy space — but few people were eating. Instead, they stared at massive TVs in the sun-splashed room, food forgotten.
Many viewers lived the moment vicariously, participating in the ceremony as if they were among the millions at the National Mall. They stood when crowds in Washington stood. They prayed when people on screen bowed their heads. When departing President George W. Bush waved goodbye, they returned the gesture.
“This is amazing,” Atlanta resident George Gay said as he looked around the food court. “In all my years coming through here, I’ve never seen nothing like this, and I’ve been coming through here a long time.”
‘Fulfillment of a dream’
A crowd of about 250 stood in the brittle air outside what many consider the spiritual root of Obama’s win: Ebenezer Baptist Church. Decades ago, a preacher named King commanded its pulpit, sharing a dream with the world.
Martin Mace of Atlanta, watching from a raised embankment in front of a big screen, glanced back and forth between the screen and the graves of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. At that moment, Obama placed his hand on a Bible and took the oath of office.
“It’s an aspect of the fulfillment of the dream,” Mace said. “It’s just inspiring to be here.”
For outdoor vendors at Atlanta’s Five Points, Tuesday was a day to celebrate, sure — and to cash in on the desire to have some souvenir of the day. T-shirts, calendars, wool caps — if it featured Obama’s face, it was selling.
Outside the MARTA station, merchant Anthony Watson sold a half-dozen Obama keychains at $3 each. His table was covered with plastic-sheathed commemorative issues of Time, Essence and Rolling Stone magazines. A boom box played parts of Obama’s Election Night speech.
“I’m a businessman,” said Watson.
The business of America was on the minds of the faithful who met in the sanctuary of Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church. About 200 people of all ages sat on the edges of the Marietta church’s pews to watch the swearing-in from a giant TV mounted behind the pulpit.
Addie Copeland was thankful to be in the church she regularly attends, watching a moment for which so many, for so long, had beseeched the Almighty. “I think about our forefathers and foremothers and how they prayed to see this day,” she said. “It makes me proud to be a black woman.”
Others experienced the change in the happy confines of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College. Among them was Dionte Young, 14. A student at KIPP Ways Academy, he and about 300 classmates gathered to witness the swearing-in.
The chapel, said the eighth-grader, was a good place to be.
“I’d rather be here [than in class] witnessing history with my own eyes,” he said. “This is really big for me.”
‘Long time coming’
Atlanta HR consultant Lindsay Lockery votes Republican, but she paused with colleagues Tuesday to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama.
“Folks were surprised to see me, knowing my political leanings,” she said. “I was quick to let them know that while I don’t agree with his views, I do love America and its democratic processes.”
She added that Americans should be grateful to Obama’s predecessor even as they celebrated his historic inauguration.
“No matter what your political leanings, he deserves a thanks from all of us,” Lockery said.
Tuesday was a time of thanks for Alfred Wafer, 74, and his wife, Willistine, 67. They joined about 300 others at Lithonia’s Torch Theater for the change of command.
Wafer felt the change rather than saw it. He is blind, but listened closely as his wife described the events as they unfolded.
“I see through other people’s eyes,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here.”
Standing in the Torch Theater lobby after the inauguration, Ann Gardner cried.
The Doraville resident was thinking of her father, James Moore, who returned from World War II and ran into a job market that didn’t have much to offer to a black man in Selma, Ala. Her father left Selma “and never looked back.”
Tuesday, his 57-year-old daughter did. “I feel I could go back to Selma and be respected as a human being,” she said. “Slaves built the White House, and now we’re in the White House.”
Others used the moment as an invaluable teaching moment. Georgia Gwinnett College professor Christine Lutz “strongly encouraged” her 23 history students to meet in an auditorium on the Lawrenceville campus to witness Obama’s ascendancy. Her students, and about 200 more, packed the auditorium to eat pizza, play presidential trivia and watch history occur on a bright, cold day.
It was important, Lutz said, for her students to “see the peaceful transition of power.
“And a lot of us,” she added, “are big Obama fans.”
Twenty-year-old Samantha Whitley thinks Obama is great. ” I think it’s going to be a good four years,” said Whitley, a freshman. “Hopefully, eight.”
School has its own inaugural event
Michael Allison took his place behind the lectern and — with all the confidence of the 44th president of the United States — spoke to his fellow students.
“Never again will we have the opportunity to celebrate this first,” he said.
Minutes earlier, Michael, student council president, had been sworn in during a mock inauguration at Norcross Elementary School.
The celebration was the brainchild of Assistant Principal Eva Hunter, who wanted the school’s 148 fifth-graders to witness history — and to live it.
They dressed in their Sunday best, gave speeches and sang patriotic songs. Some, posing as Secret Service agents, dressed in black suits and sunglasses.
As they polished off fried chicken, green beans and macaroni and cheese, Michael reminded them of the similarities between Presidents Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln.
Both are tall, both come from the state of Illinois and both showed great oratorical skills.
Michael said he, too, shares similarities with Obama.
“We’re both hard-working young men with lots of homework ahead of us,” he said. And while it’s up to the president of the country to help fix the economy, Michael has to help his school be one of the best.
He predicted Obama would meet his challenge — and that he would meet his.
“We will do a great job,” he said.
— Staff Writers Shane Blatt, Jennifer Brett, Phil Kloer, Donna Williams Lewis, Kent Miles, Christopher Quinn, Michelle E. Shaw, Gracie Bonds Staples, Kristi Swartz, Kirsten Tagami and Angela Tuck contributed to this report.
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