More videos from Charlotte-area residents at the Inauguration:
Harold Robinson

Frances Green

Wyllisa Bennett gets ready to board train from Baltimore to Washington.

They walked along Pennsylvania Avenue and the crowd roared. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama looked relaxed and not the least bit cold and – just like that – it was real.

Men jumped on other men’s shoulders to get a better look, parents held children high in the air and throngs of people ran as the first couple walked, as though they did not want to let the new president and his wife out of their sight.

Yesterday, Jan. 19, 2009, it was not real. Obama won the election on Nov. 4, but until he placed his hand on Lincoln’s Bible and repeated the oath of office (after a few back-and-forth stumbles with Chief Justice John Roberts), there was always the fear that “they” would take it away – “on a technicality,” my husband joked.

Maybe that was why so many of us had to be there, to see it with our own eyes. On the train from Baltimore in the early morning and on the streets of Washington, I met old friends and made new ones: three women friends from Los Angeles (one said Obama had the “key match of intelligence and the ability to get it done”), two sisters with no tickets but plenty of optimism, a woman so excited she “couldn’t sleep all night.”

Agnes Coleman of Rhode Island wears pins that pay tribute to prominent African Americans

African Americans who had lived through a very different America needed to see it. Agnes Coleman wore a hat with postage-stamp-style pins that honored Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Ella Fitzgerald and other accomplished black Americans. The 70-year-old from Rhode Island didn’t think she would ever see this day. “We’re like this,” she said, as she puffed her chest out, a little prouder.

Joyce and Clarence Fisher of Gastonia

Joyce and Clarence Fisher, a 60-plus couple from Gastonia, N.C., got their tickets for the swearing-in after Clarence Fisher wrote Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) a letter telling his story. The two North Carolinians (he’s from Reidsville, she’s from Gastonia) met at North Carolina A&T in the 1960’s, where they marched for civil rights. They attended segregated schools and experienced the unequal treatment of the time. They still lived a good life — an all-American life — raising two sons and working in the corporate banking world. Clarence Fisher served his country in the military. His letter made their case.

Then the phone call came – followed by inaugural tickets.
“It’s a monumental event,” said Joyce Fisher, “not only history for African Americans but history for the United States.” She said Obama’s election shows that Americans can “look at a person for being a person.”

“Look how he’s motivating people,” she said, echoing the call to duty and service Obama would make in hi s inaugural speech with the words, “we can do so much more together than we can do alone.”

Denise Delarosa, Rebecca Avila and Barbara Freeman, three friends from Los Angeles, make the trip to Washinton, D.C.

When I heard his words and saw a transfer of power unlike any in our country so far, I realized why I had to defy common sense and head to Washington, D.C. I had to represent my brother Douglass Anthony Curtis. He marched for civil rights, was arrested twice during sit-ins at restaurants. He died of a stroke a few years ago, though I’d like to think he had a front-row seat this day.

In the crowd, I saw a lot of tears, probably for other relatives and friends who paved the way. Today was a time to think of them, and then move forward.

Everyone has placed Barack Obama’s campaign and election in history: from the lessons of Lincoln to the legacy of King.

Jan. 20, 2009, he steps out of the shadows of history and starts to make his own.

Mary C. Curtis

WFAE Inauguration 2009 blogger

I’ve met some really interesting people, and they’ve been gracious enough to share their stories with me. I’ve heard some talk about the 50s and 60s when segregation was a part of their lives. Some say racism is STILL a part of their lives, but that they’re optimistic that Obama as president will help improve race relations in this country.

My favorite question to put in front of them is “What do you think you’ll be feeling the moment Barack Obama becomes our 44th president.” Many of the people say they’ll probably break down in tears, others say their still in disbelief that we’re actually going to be witnessing this historic event. My favorite response was from Charlotte resident and long-time civil rights activists Ahmad Daniels, who said he plans on asking his wife to pinch him during the ceremony to reassure him that it’s not a dream.

We’ve got an even longer day ahead of us tomorrow. Up at 4:45, eat breakfast and then head to the epic-enter in downtown Washington.

Interesting side note: I was apprehended by mall security in Colonial Height, Virginia. Apparently you must get permission from the mall prior to doing any sort of recording or videoing. I was not aware. But I told them what I was doing and they let me go with a warning. Lesson learned, I guess.

Marshall Terry

90.7 WFAE

Spike Lee on the red carpet.

Washington is in a partying mood.

Each night leading up to the inauguration of Barack Obama brings more celebrations, more of that particular mix of celebrities, politicians and media folk. Sunday night, the Root inaugural ball also added history. At the party at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History, you could see film director John Singleton ducking into a corner to take a call and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg following Attorney General designate Eric Holder on the red carpet. You could listen to the Howard University Gospel Choir and dance as Biz Markie controlled the music mix.

But right beside the elegant buffet, a not so fancy Woolworth lunch counter with four empty seats reminded the crowd that in February 1960, four North Carolina A&T students started the sit-in movement in Greensboro, N.C. Without their brave demonstration and the sacrifices of others in the civil rights movement, there would not be a president-elect Obama. As the party stretched into the Monday of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, it was a fitting touch.

The Root is a daily online magazine that provides news commentary – sometimes mine — from a variety of black perspectives. This history-making year was a good one for the site, as its editor-in-chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. acknowledged.

I was happy to see colleagues from the campaign trail and newspaper jobs past, from Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post and Jonathan Alter and Howard Fineman of Newsweek. I would have liked a preview of the inaugural poem from Yale professor Elizabeth Alexander, but all I got was a smile. She looked incredibly relaxed for someone about to face a world of literary critics.

It was a simple picture, though, that stopped me, the latest addition to a gallery on the wall of a room of inaugural ball gowns. And under the photo: “Michelle Robinson Obama First Lady 2009-“

Mary C. Curtis
WFAE Inauguration 2009 blogger
View pictures from the event here

Sunday morning, a church that has been the place of too many of my family’s funerals was a place of peace, “peace of mind, peace of heart, peace of spirit,” as the Rev. Donald Sterling said in his homily. At New All Saints, my sister’s Baltimore parish, the choir sang “He Looked Beyond My Faults and Saw My Needs,” which could be the wish of a country, as well.

The Mass and the Men’s Club program that followed looked to Monday’s commemoration of the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. To celebrate the spirit of King, President elect Barack Obama has urged Americans to perform acts of community service in a return to the original meaning of the day.

“You don’t have to have a college degree to serve,” Sterling reminded the congregation. “You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.”

Deacon Paul Shelton, the speaker at the Men’s Club program, had a different take on the history that King represented. “How could he have prophesied so many things?” Shelton asked the audience in this predominantly African American church. How could he imagine the children of former slaves sitting down with the children of former slave owners?

Because King looked to the future, because he believed in the possibility of change, was the answer.

Shelton chided black folks who are too quick to reference “the bad, old days.” His marching orders: “Stop being so historical; become more futuristic.” Become more like King in his ability to “look into the darkness and grow stronger.”

So many of us are “so caught up in how bad it used to be,” he said, “we’ve forgotten how to dream.”

Shelton was right. Barack Obama’s achievement is an inspiration.

But now it’s up to the rest of us.

Mary C. Curtis
WFAE Inauguration 2009 blogger

The Obamas and the Bidens — on their whistle-stop train trip from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. — made a stop in Baltimore, where I was born and raised. It’s where I was once refused entrance to an amusement park on the Baltimore County line because of the color of my skin.

Did that really happen?

It’s hard to imagine as I looked at the crowd on Saturday – tens of thousands, every age and race represented – jammed against one another in War Memorial Plaza downtown. It was one way to stay warm, as they listened attentively to the Morgan State University choir and waited for Barack Obama.

I loved my Baltimore, “Charm City” as it’s called, when I was growing up. But it was a city of neighborhoods, and you pretty much stayed in your own. When you ventured over the line, you were liable to get at least your feelings hurt.

It’s still a city with problems, right now a mayor under indictment and blocks of boarded-up houses. The people who streamed into the city hours before the inauguration train’s scheduled late-afternoon stop were more interested in hope.

Andre Walters and Jacqueline Wouldridge

Andre Walters of Windsor Mill, Md., waited for the metro at the Milford Mill stop. “This is history in the making,” the 41-year-old information technology programmer said to everyone and no one in particular. His thoughts were on president-elect Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package. “Tax breaks for businesses that retain hiring and start hiring, putting the American people first,” that’s what’s needed, he said during the ride we shared with my sister and others who had wisely left their cars at home.

A disembodied voice over the metro loudspeaker announced that War Memorial Plaza was filling up. Walters was not discouraged. “I want to hear his voice, his thoughts, his intentions for the country.” Walters had brought his girlfriend’s 21-year-old daughter, Jacqueline Wouldridge, a nursing student. This was her first presidential election vote. “It’s the first time I felt I belonged here,” she said.

My sister, Janice, wavered, but not for long. This was something she had waited a long time to see and hear.

Janice Curtis Greene waits with the crowd

In his speech, Obama honored Americans who went before him, “willing to put all they were and all they had on the line — their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor — for a set of ideals that continue to light the world.”

This being Baltimore, he paid tribute to the troops at Fort McHenry, who fought back the British, shored up America’s young and fragile democracy and inspired “a poem that became the Star-Spangled Banner.” In a subtle touch, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden wore purple scarves, crowd pleasers in a city that can taste a Ravens playoff win.

I’ve heard Barack Obama speak in a lot of cities since 2007, and I’ve lived in a lot of cities since I left my hometown.

I was proud of the face my imperfect Baltimore showed on Saturday.

On the metro back to my sister’s house, Angel Monroe, a 30-year-old social worker as pretty as her name, didn’t remember much about Obama’s speech. She was “just taking it all in.”

She works with 12- to 19-year-old boys in a group home, who have trouble just making it from day to day. Perhaps, she said, with Obama’s example, people’s attitudes toward themselves will change. She doesn’t expect miracles, but will watch the inauguration with the young men she works with – and hope.

Mary C. Curtis
WFAE Inauguration 2009 blogger

A few bundled-up pilgrims made their way to peek through the gates and ponder what kind of president the new occupant will be. They had already looked past President George W. Bush, who said his farewell to the nation Thursday night with optimism and just a bit of regret. Bush was looking to the future, as well, when he called the election of Barack Obama “a moment of hope and pride for our whole nation.”

Robert Coleman of Wisconsin was busy taking pictures in the early darkness Friday night. In Washington on business, he had spent the day recording photographic memories of historic spots before his return home the next day. The White House was his final stop. The new president “has a steep learning curve,” he said. “But he’s smart,” he said, with more hope than enthusiasm. Coleman, 64, who is involved in organic agriculture, said Obama’s “the right man for the job.”

It’s not just Americans who are waiting and watching. Ludovica Ceschi and Pietro Montecelli don’t have tickets, but they will join the expected millions on the mall for Obama’s swearing-in. The two – who operate a bed and breakfast in Lucca, Italy – believe Obama “will open up minds and hearts,” said Ceschi. He will use diplomacy to tackle world problems, she said, as she backed away, eyes still on the soon-to-be-president’s soon-to-be-home.

Can anybody live up to the expectations of the country and the world?

One thing is certain: Washington wants Barack Obama’s time to start with style. And, despite the cold, it seems everybody wants to be there. After I picked up the credentials that give me the right to stand and freeze along with everyone else, I was approached by a man with the look of a sports fan outside the stadium on playoff day.

“Do you have any inauguration tickets you can sell me?”

Mary C. Curtis
WFAE Inauguration blogger

Shortly after that visit I ran into Obama at our neighborhood grocery store, the Hyde Park Co-op.  I remember thinking, “Well, now’s as good a time as any to get practice talking to public officials…”  So before getting to the produce section, I stuck my hand out, said hello and reminded him that he spoke to my class.  I think he mumbled something, like “yes, yes.  How’s that going?”  I said something like “Good.” and we shopped our opposite ways.

Some time after that, as part of a class assignment, I covered Obama’s primary election loss for Congress, to Bobby Rush- of Black Panthers fame.  This time, I got one on one time with the senator and after jotting down his remarks on the loss, I thought I’d ask possibly the most insightful, brilliant question I could come up with:  “Do you want to be mayor of Chicago?”

Ummm, he laughed and said something like it was too soon to tell what he would do next.  As far as I was concerned, I had cracked my first “revelation” as a cub reporter.  I knew in my bones he would be the next mayor, the next Harold Washington who was Chicago’s first black mayor and also a Hyde Parker.

I had one more Obama sighting at  the Hyde Park Co-op.  By now, I had felt a little embarrassed by his response to the “do you wanna be mayor?” question, so I just smiled and said, “Hello, Senator.”  And he said hello but no small talk this time.  I felt certain he just thought I was some supporter, not a “hard-hitting” journalist, albeit student journalist, trying to have my voice heard in the country’s third largest media market.

Years later, I realized Obama had real aspirations when he ran for US Senate and during the campaign gave that knock out speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention.  So much for my Chicago mayor theory… By the way, I got to cover Alan Keyes’ failed bid against Obama in that senate race.  I don’t remember what Keyes said when I asked what his political plans would be, but I was certain he would run for president again.

Simone Orendain
WFAE Reporter