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For Older Blacks, Election Offers Fruits of Hard Journey
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Barely 5 feet, she prides herself on being a tough New Yorker But when Small talks about voting Tuesday, tears fall down her face.
Her parents, husband and four brothers and sisters didn't live long enough to see this possibility, and Small is so grateful that she did.
"Every day I pray for him and his family," she said of Obama. "I am so thankful I'm still here to see this."
When she and one of her youngest great-grandchildren, Kailah, watch Obama on television, a refrain that has become common among black parents comes to mind. "I always told my children they could grow up to be whatever they want," Small said. "That's what you do as a parent. But now, that seems to be really true."
Small plans on taking a folding chair with her to vote Tuesday so she can rest in line as she waits.
"I still can't believe it," she said during a brief break from one of her daily bridge games at the Holiday Park Senior Center in Wheaton. "At last, we as a black people have stayed here, took a lot, but it was worth all the struggles we've gone through."
Ruth Worthy has lived her life believing in the value of those struggles.
She kept in touch with her former student and her husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the three became friends.
She moved to Washington in 1941 and taught at several schools, associating with such black historic figures as Carter G. Woodson, James Weldon Johnson and John Hope Franklin.
Now, Worthy is putting her hope in Obama. But no matter the election outcome, she said, she's proud of Obama's journey.
"He's been able to reach where he is in part due to what many of us have fought for, to what so many have died hoping to see. So I feel some pride in him. Yes, I think I do," she said.
"Don't you think so, dear?"
