Reality of election sets in

Sense of disbelief turns to joy and amazement among many in Fresno's black community.

Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2008

The day after Barack Obama became the first black man to win the White House, Roy Hensley, 62, was still wearing his "I voted" sticker.

He hadn't changed shirts. He hadn't been to bed. He couldn't leave the TV.

"I'm too excited. At first I thought, 'This is just a play on my imagination.' Then I started believing it had really happened and I had to contemplate everything leading up to it. Now, I'm ready to celebrate," he said at 2 p.m. -- 17 hours after Obama gave his acceptance speech.

On Wednesday, many in Fresno's black community said a sense of disbelief and numbness was just now lifting. For many, the historic moment triggered so many memories, dreams, hopes and anxieties that it took time to sort through emotions and embrace the optimism Obama focused on in his successful campaign.

"Has it sunk in yet?" Mary Ali, 72, owner of Salaam Seafood in Chinatown, asked her customer Sandra Magee, 62.

"Not totally. When I think about it I go a little numb. But every now and then I find myself just going 'woo-hoo!' " said Magee, who remembers not being able to rent an apartment because of her race.

The night before, while watching Obama's speech, Ali -- the daughter of Willa Mae Morgan, who was the daughter of Arkansas sharecroppers, who were the grandchildren of slaves -- found she had lost her own powers of speech.

Mary's son Nadar called and first tried to speak to his father, Nadar Sr. But all his father could choke out was, "I'm kinda speechless. I got tears."

Nadar called back later and tried his mother.

"All I could say was, 'Full. Up. Here,' " she said holding a hand to the top of her head.

"There were so many things crowding into my mind. I thought of Hunts Quarters where my grandmother lived in Arkansas. I went to an all-black elementary school. I thought about wishing my mother had lived to see the day. I thought about how I told my children and grandchildren they could be anything, but, now, I could actually believe it."

On Election Day, Greg Kelley, 53, a former Fresno police officer, had watched a crowd walking down Kearney Boulevard, heading to the polls at Chandler Airport in west Fresno.

"I saw all these young people, not just a few, but 15 to 20. I knew they were first-time voters. It was amazing to see."

That night, Kelley talked to his friends, also retired police officers.

"Tough cops getting teary-eyed. Everyone said the same thing: 'Never thought we'd see it in our lifetime.' I honestly didn't think I'd see it. Then he was giving his speech and it hit me that the reality of this day had come."

But, Kelley -- who remembers stories of Southern relatives gone missing and police refusing to look for them because they were black -- was anxious.

"I listened to his speech. But then I was, 'OK, good, now get him off that stage, get him off that stage.' I just hope and pray for him and his family."

Obama didn't leave the stage. He stood there with his family, including his two young daughters, and the family of Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

"Can you imagine those little girls in the Rose Garden?" said Hensley, who stayed up all night letting an Obama presidency sink in.

"It means that none of us have to lie to our children anymore. We can say, 'Hey, it's up to you. You can belong anywhere. Anything is possible.' And not be saying something we don't really believe to be true."

When Darrell Richardson, 46, picked up his daughter Genice, 7, from school Wednesday afternoon, she asked him, "What's the big deal with Obama? Why is everybody talking about him?"

Two hours later when they walked Genice's sister, Tiamaria Williams, 13, and her cousin, Cheyenne Jackson, also 13, home from school, Obama was still the subject, with Cheyenne and Tiamaria taking the lead.

"It's everything that came before," said Tiamaria, who had "Obama" penned on her arm and spent recesses Wednesday with her friends cheering "Obama, Obama, he's going to rock it harder."

"It's the lady who gave up her seat on the bus -- Rosa Parks. It's Martin Luther King. It's your grandmother," Tiamaria said.

Richardson told Genice that Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that children would grow up and be "judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

"Last night people judged a man by his character. That stepped up that dream big-time," he said.

Cheyenne, who said she plans on becoming the first black female president and said she likes Obama because of "his ideas for the stock market, the economy and the way he speaks and acts," told Genice to think of it like a story.

"There was a dream about hope and change. Then Obama came along, and hope and change -- 'Yes we can' -- that's his thing. That's the reason Obama is a big deal.

"He made a dream come true."