African-Americans voice hope and pride

ATLANTA, Georgia: African-Americans voiced hope and pride Tuesday at the prospect that the country might be poised to elect its first black president, as they voted in unprecedented numbers.   

For Mark Harness, 26, a restaurant server and DJ in Atlanta, it was his first time voting and an election unlike any other.    During the last presidential vote four years ago, Harness didn't bother going to the polls. The candidates failed to resonate with him, and he said he didn't believe his vote could make much of a difference.   

This time, though, "it's just so much more important," he said. "It hits more close to home."   

Reports from across the country suggested that blacks were turning out in never-before seen numbers for the election -- a key part of the Democrats' strategy to put Barack Obama in the White House and turn traditionally Republican states into competitive contests.   

Four minutes after the polls opened in Decatur, Georgia, African-American security guard James Lee joined the quiet line of voters at Avondale Middle School to cast his vote for Obama.   

"With the Bush election, it seemed like black people's votes were thrown away. That took me out of it," he said.   

"When I heard about Obama, it inspired me. He wants to change the country, take it in a new direction, and he thinks of everybody."   

It was a stirring, hopeful moment for blacks who lived through racial segregation and the struggles of the civil rights movement.   

"I never thought I would live long enough to see that," Alnett Wooten, 86, said of Obama's ground-breaking bid, as she went to vote in downtown Washington.   

"But as I always say, God is good. He knows, and I just pray that He will keep him safe."   

Obama, born in 1961 in the middle of the turmoil of the US civil rights battle, has already made history as the first black to be chosen by one of the two major US parties as its presidential nominee.   

Even as Roby Clark stood waiting at a polling station on the south side of Chicago to cast a ballot for Obama, he still couldn't quite believe he would be able to vote for a black presidential candidate.   

It was not so long ago that Clark, 92, was forced to sit at the back of the bus in the segregated southern United States.   
He shook his head remembering how even his army uniform was no protection against the racial slurs and harassment.   

But he has faith that things have finally, truly, changed.   

"I think that we're gonna get him," Clark said as a sunlight flag flapped in an unseasonably warm breeze, referring to his candidate.    "Through God's blessings, I think we're gonna get him."   

Faton Fall, 40, stood quietly in line, soaking in the moment and listening to Clark's story. Tears came to her eyes when she was asked how she felt about the chance to vote for Obama.   

"It means a lot to me," she said. "I'm overwhelmed. I can't say more."   

The predominantly black south side of Chicago was where Obama came after graduating from Harvard University as a lawyer to work as a community organizer. And where he stayed after meeting his wife, Michelle, who grew up in the neighborhood.    

The Obama campaign planned an elaborate election night party in Chicago's sprawling Grant Park, with thousands of people pouring into city streets to celebrate what they hope will be a victory for the Democratic senator.   

In Miami Beach, Florida, Miykel Stinson, 27, said the memory of her grandfather being beaten to death in Louisiana during the civil rights movement of the 1960s was on her mind as she cast her ballot.   

"It means a lot to me," she said.   

In Las Vegas, Barbara Cole, 74, woke up Tuesday so stiff she wasn't sure she would make it to the polls before her scheduled shoulder surgery at 11 am.   

Yet, with the promise of voting for the first black presidential candidate, "I said to my husband, 'If you have to push me out and roll me  up the steps because I was determined to come and vote for him today.' "   

The African-American said her eyes welled with tears as she touched the voting screen for Obama, recognizing the racial progress represented by his candidacy.   

"Yes, yes, yes, I felt it," Cole said. "I've been in this world 74 years and this is a history-making decision."