A publication of the

Afro-American Newspapers

The Baltimore
Afro-American Newspaper
2519 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
(410) 554-8200

The Washington
Afro-American Newspaper
1917 Benning Road NE
Washington, DC 20002 Table of Contents
(202) 332-0080
General Election – November 4, 2008 4
John J. Oliver Jr. New Hampshire Primary – January 8, 2008 14
Chairman/Publisher South Carolina Primary – January 26, 2008 16
Director of Advertising
Super Tuesday Primaries – February 5, 2008 22
Susan Warshaw Chesapeake Primaries – February 12, 2008 30
Ohio Primary – March 4, 2008 36
Director of Global Markets
Benjamin Phillips IV Texas Primary – March 4, 2008 38
Pennsylvania – April 22, 2008 40
Circulation Managers North Carolina – May 6, 2008 42
Sammy Graham
Edgar Brookins Democratic National Convention - August 25-28, 2008 44

Sales
Robert Blount
Michaela Blanchard Journey to Victory
Marquise Goodwin As we prepare for the historic with their contributions of time, money and votes. Our readers
Annie Russ moment when Barack Obama takes the wanted to know more about Michelle Obama and the family that
Jessie Murphy oath of office and becomes the 44th fully backed his efforts, and we published these and many other
President of the United States, it’s worth stories beyond the numbers. And as we always have done, we were
Editor taking a moment to reflect on the last vigilant in dispelling rumors and innuendos that were rampant and
Zephyr Crenshaw 23 months from when his candidacy too easily presented as facts.
announcement was met with skepticism As primary victories grew, it became apparent that this candi-
Contributing Writers and dismissed in many quarters, to it date could not be pigeonholed – his supporters spanned all quar-
becoming a textbook model for future ters of the population, despite constant attempts to say otherwise.
Zenitha Prince campaigns on using technology to communicate its message, and This was overwhelmingly reinforced when the votes were counted
James Wright by Nov. 4th earning the majority of the electorate’s vote. What on Nov. 4th.
Valencia Mohammed emerged was indeed a journey sharply focused on the end result – This commemorative edition provides an overview of the
Dorothy Rowley victory. road travelled by an unlikely campaign that restored our faith in
Sean Yoes In the process, we witnessed Mr. Obama ignite feelings of the principles this country was founded on. And yes, the African-
Jack White “Yes We Can, ” move a new generation of voters more concerned American community grew in this time to firmly believe in and
with the content of the message rather than ethnicity and earn the support the Obama candidacy.
Monroe Anderson support of Americans after making his case for why he should be As concluded in our endorsement, “… a Black man becom-
Vicki Howell elected president and proving he could handle the pressure. The ing president of the world’s most powerful country would forever
Herbert A. Sample AFRO was the only African-American newspaper to travel exten- remove the ‘iron ceiling’ from the aspirations of kids of all colors
Add Seymour sively with the campaign during the crucial primaries beginning and send a signal to the world that America is ready to work in
Aswad Walker with New Hampshire, and then deployed a team of veteran and a more cooperative fashion. On Nov. 4, a vote for Sen. Barack
upcoming journalists to cover the convention and general election. Obama will be a vote for someone who appeals to the best in us,
COVER: CHRIS METZGER

Alan King
Our news and editorial pages chronicled the challenges and crises
Jesse Washington hurled at his campaign, and in the tradition of this 116-year-old
E. Mosley publication, we were not afraid to raise questions and report both
sides for your review.
Graphic Designers The challenge I gave to my staff was to provide our readers a
Chris Metzger view of the campaign and message that extended beyond the num-
Jenna Frye ber of votes won or lost, discussing instead the issues and the real
stories of his supporters and their reasons for supporting his efforts
not the lowest common denominator. Can Americans finally judge
a national candidate by his talent rather than the pigmentation of
his skin? Yes, we can!!! And, yes, we must!!!”
On January 20, 2009, America can shout Yes, we did!!!
Jake Oliver
CEO and Publisher

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 3

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY – ELECTION

or were leaving with a deepened sense of pride in having

Election
exercised their most fundamental right. Voting turnout
had been projected to be traditionally high in wards 4 and
5 and traditionally lower in wards 7 (with the exception of
AFRO stories from Oct. 28 – Nov. 13, 2008

O
the Hillcrest area in Ward 7) and 8.
Dan Murphy, a spokesperson for the city’s Board
-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba- erful nation on the planet. He accomplished this goal
of Elections and Ethics, said election officials have been
by connecting directly with the voters and motivating
ma! O-ba-ma! them with a message of hope and change.
pleased with the turnout.
“We’ve been seeing a huge number of people all over
After two years of The voters believed and rewarded him with an op-
since the polls opened and it wouldn’t surprise me if we
portunity to make his ideas real. His majority popular
campaigning, a street vote and landslide electoral vote represents the people
ended up with a record turnout,” Murphy said.
fight for the Democratic Party saying, “We want change. We bet our votes on you.
He said the number of absentee ballots is a good
sign. “We’ve had over 12,000 in-person absentee ballots
nomination and a general election We are giving you a chance to make the changes.”
and that’s really good,” said Murphy.
But this will be no easy task.
campaign with more twists and In Prince George’s County, the turnout was consid-
ered high, with voters waiting two hours or more to get to
turns than a mystery novel, Sen. It seemed like Obama’s campaign was an uphill battle,
the voting booth. In the county, as in the rest of Mary-
but that will feel like nothing compared to the chal-
Barack H. Obama, democrat lenges currently facing the nation that is soon his to
land, the polls opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m.
from Illinois, pulled of what many lead. Two wars, a financial crisis spreading across all
The high turnout was evidenced in select precincts
throughout the county.
believed was impossible as recently sectors of the economy and globe, unemployment, and
Lines were on the sidewalk and around the front of
uncontrolled energy and food prices are just some of
as 6 months ago. He became the the issues U.S. citizens are expecting him to tackle and
the Seat Pleasant Elementary School by 6:30 a.m. The
poll workers arrived for their 13-hour shift at that time to
first African-American to be elected solve.
find that at least 50 people were ready to vote. Gary Bates,
to the presidency of the United Obama made us hope again, made us believe that
a Seat Pleasant resident who works for the Democratic
States of America. things can and will get better, made us believe our
National Committee, came to the polls at 7:15 a.m.,
hoping to vote before the crowd showed up. He was too
world can change.
On Jan. 20, President-elect Obama will take the oath late. Bates did not get to vote until 9:20 a.m. “I knew that
of office and become this nation’s 44th President, tak- there would be a heavy turnout but I thought it would be
And now that he’s been elected, ‘change’s gonna come.’
ing over the most powerful position in the most pow- after 5 p.m.,” he said. “I did not think that the people of
Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!
Seat Pleasant would be here so early. I guess that shows
that people take this election so seriously.”
Suitland High School in Forestville had an outside
lenged the seating of the all-White Mississippi delegation line reaching from the building to the front of the parking
Voters call the wait to the Democratic National Convention. Guyot didn’t
make the trip because he had been jailed in Mississippi
lot by 9:30 a.m. The line outside was a representation of
Forestville: predominantly Black with a number of retirees
to vote for Obama for registering Black voters. After the seating challenge,
the Democratic Party was forced to integrate all future
mixed in with working class residents.

‘a privilege’ conventions.
“What Obama has done is simply take the mantra of I was a civil rights
the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi – and he’s been
By Dorothy Rowley and James Wright
AFRO Staff Writers very specific,” said Guyout, 69. “He’s talked about the
decision should come from the bottom up instead of from
worker in the 1960s
For years as a girl growing up in rural Barnwell, S.C.,
Annie Mitchell remembers her mother saying that things
the top down, and that everyone counts.”
Guyot said that as a result, Obama has run a cam-
and this is what
were going to get better for “colored folks.”
But Mitchell said she could never quite figure out
paign that has been turned into a movement.
“For those of us who support him, we have to make we did all of the
what that meant.
“She used to say that all the time,” recalled Mitch-
sure we do what his wife Michelle has asked us to do,”
Guyot said. “She’s been very clear in saying she wants us marching for.
ell, 82, as she smiled pleasantly and handed out Barack to vote for Obama but that she also wants us to question
Obama campaign literature Tuesday near a polling station anyone who wants to take power from us.”
Even the younger generation – those born after the Inside the building, the hall outside of the gym was
on Georgia Avenue. “I read one day it would happen and
March on Washington – are excited about empowering jammed with people. There were four lengthy lines wait-
it has happened.”
Obama. ing for poll workers to process their information.
“It” is the dramatic election of Barack Obama as the
Tanisha Brown, 18, and her friend, Shani Ossutt, Unlike at Seat Pleasant, the line formed at 6 a.m.
nation’s first African-American president.
also 18, said they were jubilant after voting in Ward 5 at and people were streaming in. At one point, Suitland’s
To Annie Mitchell’s generation – and even later ones
Brown Elementary School. “This is my first year voting Camisha Clements, a 36-year-old administrative assis-
– Obama’s election comes in the same lifetime that they
and I’m so proud to say I voted for Obama because I tant, was at the end of the long outside line, but was not
were forced to accept second-class citizenship and were
believe he can make a change in our community – and not deterred. “I am in this line to vote for Barack Obama be-
viewed as less than human. Now, a Black man is about to
just for Blacks, but for every race,” said Ossutt. cause we need him to be president,” she said. “He’s talking
become the most powerful person in the most powerful
She, too, has a sense of history. “During slavery and about change in America and I am all for that.”
country on earth.
shortly after, they tried to vote but were denied,” she said. One of the county’s largest precincts is Largo High
Few people recognize the significance of Obama’s
“It was because of their efforts that I was able to stand here School in Largo. According to the chief elections judge
victory more than Lawrence Guyot, a veteran civil rights
today and vote. My right to vote is something I’ll never Sandra Robinson, a large number of people were there
activist from tiny Pass Christian, Miss. An original mem-
take for granted.” when she arrived at 5:30 a.m. “I arrived here and the line
ber of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Across D.C., at 142 other polling places, voters – was already around the school,” she said. “I was amazed.
(SNCC), Guyot was chairman of the Mississippi Freedom
young and old – were either headed to cast their votes It was so bad that I could not even find a place to park my
Democratic Party in 1964 when Fannie Lou Hamer chal-

4 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

 JANUARY 2009

car near the gym. So I had to park my car on the street at

the edge of the school and walk 10 minutes to work. It
was crazy.”
The prospect of helping to elect a Black president is
what motivated Largo resident Emma Bonner. “I was a
civil rights worker in the 1960s and this is what we did all
of the marching for,” Bonner explained. “I knew the lines
would be long so I grabbed my John Grisham book and
my chair when I left home to keep myself occupied while
I waited.”

AFRO FILE PHOTOS

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 5

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY – ELECTION

about this candidate,” he said. “Anything’s better than older than 7 or 8 years old. Many adults took photographs
Voters brave rain, what we’ve got.”
Although the atmosphere was festive at most polling
to document the occasion.
To Marcus Nole, 66, Tuesday was indeed a special
long lines to cast places, many came prepared for a long wait. Some brought
books to pass the time, many teens played music on their
occasion.
“It’s a historical event because that means in my
ballots iPods and it seemed like every four or five voters were
talking on a cell phone – some to other people in voting
lifetime I’ve seen a Black man at least be a candidate for
president,” he said outside the poll at Dr. Bernard Har-
By Alan King and Sean Yoes lines elsewhere ris Sr. Elementary School on North Caroline Street in
Afro Staff Writers At Largo Senior High, Wyatt Green sat in a fold-out Baltimore.
chair, reading a newspaper as his 10-year-old granddaugh- “I’ve seen segregation; I’ve seen the end of segrega-
Voting at West Baltimore’s Gwynns Falls Elementary ter, Relle Green, held an umbrella over his head. tion. To think about the struggle just for us to be treated
School normally takes 20 minutes on Election Day. On At Resurrection of Our Lord Catholic Church in as human beings tells us, tells our children that you can be
Tuesday, however, it took two hours, even if you’d shown Laurel, Md., the line was also long coming out of the whatever you want to be.”
up at 10 a.m., supposedly an off-peak period. church, wrapping around a large church sign and ending
Even the rain did not shorten the line as ex-felons, on the side of the building. Couples brought their infants
among others, waited patiently. More than any time in the in buggies and others brought kids who appeared to be no
past, there was an abundance of teenagers, many of them
voting for the first time.
Wanda Boyd, waiting to vote at the Dunbar Day
I don’t care if I have to stay here until
Care Center on North Eden Street in Baltimore, relished
the importance of Tuesday’s election. She said, “History is tomorrow. I’m not leaving this line.
being made not because he’s Black; it’s for change, and we
need change.
It was approaching 8 a.m. on Election Day and
Denise Ward was standing in a long line at Friendly High
School in Prince George’s County, wondering whether
she would miss the W13 bus that departs Ft. Washington,
Md. at 8:45 a.m. for Farragut North in the District of
Columbia, about a block from her job.
Speaking to one of her two children on a cell phone,
she said: “I don’t care if I have to stay here until tomorrow.
I’m not leaving this line.”
And she didn’t. Ward waited for two hours and 30
minutes to cast her vote. By the time she voted, only the
W14 bus was running from Ft. Washington, which meant
she would have to take a bus to the Anacostia metro and
then a train into work.
But she did not complain.
“Definitely a long time coming,” she said, referring
to Barack Obama’s name being on the presidential ballot.
Clearly, she wasn’t the only one eager to vote.
Rows of cars and sport utility vehicles lined Al-
lentown Road. About 1,000 residents stood in a line that
filed out of the front doors of the school, curved around a
flagpole and extended the length of the parking lot.
Instead of complaining about the long wait, some
saw it as a badge of honor and, like Denise Ward, were
determined to vote no matter how long it took. One man

When I get in there,

I’m going to hit
the Obama button
100 times to make
sure they count my
vote.
said: “When I get in there, I’m going to hit the Obama
AP PHOTO

button 100 times to make sure they count my vote.”

Don Grate had no plans to vote that many times
for Obama. Once would do the job. “I got a good feeling

6 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

 JANUARY 2009
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 7

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY – ELECTION
First Black president
Barack Obama
makes history
By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
Barack Obama, the son of a Black man from Kenya
and a White woman from Kansas, has been elected
president of the United States, a country whose Constitu-
tion had to be amended nearly 140 years ago in order for
African Americans to vote.
“I had to pinch myself,” said U.S. Rep. Elijah Cum-
mings (D-Md.), a national co-chairman of the Obama
campaign. “When we started this race, people laughed at
us. Now, we see Barack Obama, a man of color, become
the president of the United States.”
Obama won a lopsided victory in the Electoral
College, defeating an older and more experienced John
McCain by a 2-to-1 margin en route to becoming the
first Democrat to win a majority of the popular vote since
1976. Obama became president-elect by winning 95
percent of the Black vote, 68 percent of Latino ballots,
and 59 percent of voters 18 to 34 years old, according to a
The American people have spoken.
And they have spoken clearly.
survey conducted by NBC and the Wall Street Journal.
Obama won as large a share of the White vote as any
Democrat in the past two decades. He won 43 percent,
compared to John F. Kerry, who won 41 percent in 2004,
and Al Gore, who captured 42 percent in 2000.
Although the constitution was amended in 1870
to allow Blacks to vote, it wasn’t until the passage of the
1965 Voting Rights Act that African Americans, especially
those in the South, could vote without trickery or fear of
retaliation.
With some election returns still trickling in Wednes-
day, Obama held a 338-161 lead over McCain in electoral
votes.
McCain, in his concession speech before support-
ers in Phoenix, Ariz., summed up the results best. “The
American people have spoken. And they have spoken
clearly,” he said.
The first indication that McCain would have difficul-
ty making inroads into Obama’s lead came at around 8:30
p.m. when Pennsylvania was called for the Democratic
candidate by a 10-percentage point margin. The McCain
campaign had said earlier that they had to win the state to
have a viable chance at victory.
Ohio, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia, North
Carolina, Indiana and other states won by President Bush
in 2004 were added to the Obama column, making Mc-
Cain’s defeat inevitable.
As soon as the polls closed in California, Oregon and
Washington State – 11 p.m., EST – all of the television
networks projected Obama as the winner, causing thou-
sands of supports to erupt in cheers at an outdoor rally at
Grant Park in Chicago.
For Obama, 47, the victory ended a journey that be-
gan nearly two years ago as he defeated some of the biggest
names in politics along the way, including Hillary Clinton
and McCain, a lionized Vietnam War hero.
According to exit interviews, nearly one in five voters
8 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
who backed Bush in 2004 said they went for Obama.
That swing reflected a general discontent with the
Republican Party, a brand tarnished under the last eight
years of the Bush administration.
“After eight years of Bush and the Republican Party,
there’s no way I’d vote for a Republican again,” said Keith
Parrish, 51, as he walked into his polling station in North-
east Baltimore.
Even among Republicans that disgruntlement
was palpable. Democrats outpaced the GOP in voter
registration. According to polls, the number of voters who
identified themselves as Republican dropped to 31 percent
compared to 40 percent Democrats. And despite the ap-
peal of McCain’s vice presidential running mate, Alaska
Gov. Sarah Palin, two in 10 conservatives backed Obama.
“I’m a born-again Christian and I believe the Repub-
lican Party supports issues that are important to us like
pro-life,” said Ged Valatis, 52, a White, evangelical mis-
sionary of his reasons for supporting McCain as he walked
into Brehms Lane Elementary School in Baltimore. But,
he added, “It was a struggle. I like Obama, too.”
Perhaps a little too late in the race, McCain tried to
distance himself from Bush, asserting in his final debate
with Obama: “I am not President Bush. If you wanted
to run against President Bush, you should have run four
years ago.”
But, by his own admission, McCain had voted with
Bush 90 percent of the time in the most recent session of
Congress. And when exit pollsters asked voters whether
McCain would represent a change from Bush, half of
them replied no. Of those voters, nine of 10 voted for
Obama.
It was that clarion call for change that rallied people
of disparate backgrounds behind Obama. “I am over-
whelmed with joy and excitement for the country as we
have connected on so many levels with folk all over who
share a common goal – we want change and we are not
afraid anymore,” Denada Jackson, a 25-year-old public
relations consultant from North Carolina, told the AFRO.
Among younger voters ages 18-25, Obama was a
fresh new face and voice that drew them out in record
numbers. According to CIRCLE, a non-partisan organiza-
tion that researches the civic engagement of American
youth, young voters sided 68-30 percent with Obama –the
largest share of the youth vote obtained by any candidate
since exit polls began reporting results by age in 1976.
“People don’t usually listen to us but Nov. 4 people
[had] no choice but to listen to us,” said first-time voter
William Epps, 21, a student at Hood College in Frederick,
Md.
For African Americans, Obama’s election became a
source of pride.
“I was in the voting booth crying because it hit me so
hard that a Black man could become our president,” said
Jackson, the public relations consultant. “I had to continu-
ously wipe my eyes to finish my ballot but when I walked
out that door I had my head held high and my fist higher,
yelling ‘O for Change! O for Change!’”
Clarence White, 74, who got the news while on a
night security job at a local Baltimore newspaper, said
he never thought he’d see this day. “I was born in a small
town in the South and I saw Black men beat to death for
trying to vote,” he recalled. “Now, you have a Black man
as president.”
Whites were also moved by Obama’s candidacy.
“He represents what this country can offer…where’s
he from, being a minority… he’s a reflection of how
dreams can be achieved,” said Dorian Dean, 25, a White
Obama volunteer from Baltimore.
And to some degree, it was also about the man.
“I feel personally involved in this campaign because I
believe in what Obama says and what he represents,” Dean
said. “I’ve never felt that way about another presidential
candidate.”
Obama’s calm assurance and intellectual approach –
qualities that many pundits decried – also seemed to give
him the edge in voters’ opinions of who would best bolster
the economy.
For example, in Ohio, a state that was crippled by
the loss of manufacturing jobs, 61 percent of voters said
the economy was the most important issue and of those,
55 percent voted for Obama.
“He seems to be a very thoughtful, confident, and
centered person,” said Bill Millen, 63, a Presbyterian min-
ister, who voted for Obama at his Waverly polling place.
“While his opponent was all over the place grasping at
straws, he was very consistent. I feel very good with him.”
For many voters, that was not always the case.
Throughout the primaries and even in the general election,
some seemed skittish about entrusting their future to a
little-known, first-term senator with a funny name. And
many naysayers doubted Obama’s ability to overcome
those reservations, given this country’s racial history. But
he proved them wrong.
“This campaign is one people are going to be study-
ing for a long time,” said Dianne Pinderhughes, professor
of political science at the University of Notre Dame. “His
campaign is evidence of his ability to build infrastructure
from the ground up and manage it without conflict. It’s
not what you see in administrative agencies in Washing-
ton.”
Obama’s campaign was built on a model of grassroots
organizing, with which he was familiar from his days
working with jobless factory workers on the South Side of
Chicago.
“He used the formula that he was ridiculed for at
the Republican Convention,” Pinderhughes added. “He
is a damn good community organizer. He is able to give
people the freedom to act in ways they never would have
done otherwise; people were able to determine how they
would participate and were trained to do it.”
Even as the former Illinois senator employed old-
fashioned organization, he twinned it with 21st century
technology.
“He’s reinvented the use of the Internet when it
comes to campaign organizing,” Congressman Cummings
said.
Obama capitalized on his Web hub to raise what
some analysts predict will total more than $700 million in
campaign donations, which allowed him to pursue his 50
state strategy—setting up numerous field offices, running
ads and deploying an army of volunteers to locales where
Democrats didn’t usually campaign.
 JANUARY 2009

The Web site also served as a “central switchboard”

that helped maintain organization, unity and message
discipline within the campaign, Pinderhughes said.
“There wasn’t a lot of chaos in the campaign. You
didn’t see people at each other’s throats; everyone was
working cooperatively,” the political analyst said. “Some-
how Obama figured out how to overcome many of the
problems campaigns are faced with.”

AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO: L,R
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 9

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY – ELECTION
‘President Obama’
will be greeted by a
stack of problems
By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
For president-elect Barack Obama, there will be no
time for resting on his laurels now that he has defeated
John McCain. Immediately after he is sworn in, Obama
will begin one of the toughest four-year tests a president
has ever faced in the nation’s history.
“With the economic crisis and two wars being
fought, this is not an easy time to be president,” said
Cordell Faulk of the University of Virginia’s Center for
Politics. “They’re going to have to mold their administra-
tion to the times.”
Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American
University in Washington, D.C., said like great presidents
of the past, however, Obama seems suited to the task of
navigating the country through its current morass.
“He’s very cool, very unruffled; he doesn’t panic and
he’s retained his good humor, like Ronald Reagan, and
that’s going to be very critical,” Lichtman explained. “Also,
he’s been very inspirational and that’s an important quality
because it helps bring people along with you and the only
way to counter wealthy, special interests is the power of
the people. That’s how Teddy Roosevelt countered special
interests in his administration.”
Still, there are major drawbacks. As a relatively
inexperienced executive, Obama will face acute pressure to
produce results and to produce them quickly.
“He doesn’t have four years to make all the changes
that he wants,” Faulk said. “He’s got two years to ensure
that the country is confident having a Democratic White
House [and] a Democratic Congress. It’s going to make
him want to tack a little bit to the center.”
Already, the policy priorities have been staked out
for Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden. And, given
the recent near-trillion-dollar rescue plan for failing Wall
Street firms which has ratcheted up the national debt to
historic proportions, funds to fulfill campaign promises
may prove elusive.
“Their plans are very ambitious [but] honestly, they’re
going to have to cut back on everything … on tax cuts,”
Faulk continued. “It’s hard to see how we can continue
with the bailout of Wall Street and with foreign adventures
in the Middle East and cut taxes.”
What Obama won’t have to cut back on is Supreme
Court appointments, getting one and possibly two during
his first term. With affirmative holding on by a fragile
5-4 margin, Obama most likely will replace 88-year-old
John Paul Stevens with another liberal. The second oldest
justice, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, 75, is also a liberal. Replac-
ing either or both would maintain the present mix on the
court. However, if McCain had won and replaced Stevens
with a conservative, the right-wing would have obtained a
clear five-vote majority.
Obama’s approach to problem-solving – more “cere-
bral” compared to Bush’s “from the gut” reaction, Faulk
said – and his stance on taxes and other policies, analysts
say, answers one demand that an overwhelming number
of voters seem to share after the last eight years under
President Bush – change.
10 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
“I think it’s a return to a kind of liberalism that we
have not seen since the 1960s, early 1970s,” said Licht-
man. “There’s a much greater faith in government, a less
militaristic approach to foreign policy and a much more
multilateral approach compared to the Bush administra-
tion … there’s less of an emphasis on supporting the
wealthy.”
But even though his policies reflect what Faulk calls
a left-of-center point of view, Obama is trying to be prag-
matic about it, seeking ways to inject revenue even as he
spends, the University of Virginia political scientist said.
That approach is evident in the Obama-Biden tax
plan, which his Republican opponent, John McCain,
condemned as a socialist attempt to redistribute wealth.
Roberton Williams, principal research associate
with the non-partisan Tax Policy Center at the Urban
Institute who analyzed the candidates’ tax plans, said
Obama’s plan basically extends Bush’s tax cuts to low- and
middle-income citizens and adds others and pays for the
lost revenue by increasing taxes on the wealthy, defined as
those making more than $250,000 annually.
“Any time you are going to be fiscally balanced, you
are going to end up with that type of income distribu-
tion,” Williams said. “You certainly can’t tax low-income
people to help themselves.”
Several of Obama’s key tax policies are refundable
credits such as the Making Work Pay Credit of up to $500
per worker; Universal Mortgage Credit, a 10 percent of
mortgage interest for non-itemizers up to $800; a revised
Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit equal to 50 percent
of child care expenses that do not exceed $6,000; a saver’s
credit that provides a 50 percent match of the first $1,000
of contributions and the American Opportunity Tax
Credit – formerly the Hope Credit – a 100 percent refund
of the first $4,000 of college expenses.
He’s got two years to ensure that the country
is confident having a Democratic White House
[and] a Democratic Congress.
While these plans could effectively address problems
facing low- and moderate-income people, Williams said,
it would boost debt by $3.5 trillion by 2018. McCain’s
would increase the nation’s liability by $5 trillion.
“It’s an expensive proposition,” the researcher said.
“It’s very progressive, but it does create many fiscal prob-
lems.”
And, it will do little to solve the current economic
crisis if other ways of cutting spending or raising revenues
aren’t found, the report concluded.
Lichtman, the history professor, said Obama should
look to the past for answers.
“Obama can take good lessons from Franklin
Roosevelt, who came into office during a financial crisis,
and that is bold, persistent determination and a willing-
ness to try lots of different things. There is no one silver
bullet for this economic problem.”
So far, Lichtman has been impressed. “He’s shown
tremendous willingness to experiment and change and
try to do new things and not just walk down the line in
Democratic orthodoxy,” he said. By doing so, Obama,
who has already demonstrated a conciliatory approach
that welcomes ideas from all sides, may bump heads with
his own party.
“The Democratic leadership in the House of Repre-
sentatives may want him to move a little more to the left
than he wants to,” Faulk predicts. “But if Congress pushes
the country too far left – and for the most part this is a
center-right nation – Democrats will pay in 2012.”
To boost the economy, Obama has suggested: tax-
ing oil companies’ windfall profits to provide $1,000 tax
reliefs to families; investing $60 billion over 10 years on
transportation infrastructure, which is projected to create
2 million new jobs and stimulate about $35 billion per
year in new economic activity; eliminating all capital gains
taxes on start-up and small businesses; investing $150 bil-
lion over 10 years in renewable energy technology, which
is expected to create 5 million new jobs; increasing the
minimum wage and tying it to inflation; revising lending,
foreclosure and bankruptcy laws to ensure people can keep
their homes and more.
More importantly, Obama would likely invest in
research about the causes of the current economic break-
down and seek long-term solutions, said Dianne Pinder-
hughes, professor of Africana studies and political studies
at the University of Notre Dame. “He’s good at consulting
researchers, scientists and academia and really listening to
their ideas.”
It’s a quality seen in his approach to urban renewal
as part of his long-term approach to healing the economy.
“What is clear is that because Obama understands that
metropolitan areas and urban areas are tremendous
engines of the country, there is an urban agenda designed
to address many of the issues that impact [these areas]
because if you impact metropolitan areas you impact the
country,” said Obama supporter Mayor Michael Coleman
of Columbus, Ohio, in a teleconference with the Black
press.
It’s an urban agenda that many look forward to.
“There are a number of good things in there,” said Ronald
Walters, a Black politics expert and professor at the Uni-
versity of Maryland. “He has already said he is setting up
a White House Office on Urban Policy. If I were him, I’d
get that staffed right away.”
That office would oversee initiatives that include: a
$10 billion yearly investment in early childhood educa-
tion, scholarships to woo and train teachers committed
to working in underserved areas, a fully-funded program
to add 50,000 more police officers on the streets, creation
of a prison-to-work incentive program to reduce recidi-
vism, reforming HUD and support programs to increase
affordable housing, a fully-funded Community Develop-
ment Block Grant, investment in public-private business
incubators and research and development, and more.
Walters said while most of the plans seem sound, he’s
troubled by the method. “He’s likely to take a broad, ge-
neric policy approach instead of a targeted approach. [But]
if you look at Black and White communities, you have to
look at the differential gaps and so this approach that one
size fits all would not work,” he said.
As with any new president, there will be competi-
 JANUARY 2009

tion for President Obama’s attention. “He’s going to have

a number of things on his desk. So I am concerned that
those issues that are important to poor Black and poor 2004
Brown populations will be shoved under the pile,” Walters
said. July 27— Barack Obama, then
A Black man sitting in the White House still will not
be able to ignore the issue of race. “Race is a sore spot,”
an Illinois state senator running
said Lichtman, the American University historian. “He’ll for the U.S. Senate, delivers
have to tread softly but not back down, and he’s shown his
ability to do that. The best way to defuse the issue of race
the keynote address at the
is for Obama to show he can be president of all people Democratic National Convention
and to govern well, and governing well means solving
problems.”
in Boston. The speech served as a
precursor to his current mantras of
hope and unity and propelled him
to political stardom.

AFRO FILE PHOTOS

AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 11

 Congratulations President Barack Obama on President Obama equals opportunity grasped
your historical victory as the 44th President by all youth who are willing to burn midnight
of the United States. We are praying for your oil, persevere and resist weariness and defeat.
success in unifying the country. Best wishes Good reading, writing and arithmetic is the
in all your endeavors. May God richly bless hallmark!
you and your family.
Bishop Herbert J. and Iola Williams and family
Bishop Neavelle A. Coles, Sr., Prelate & Mother Leona Coles,
Jurisdictional First Lady and Washington DC Ecclesiastical Congratulations President Barack Obama, for
Jurisdiction Church of God in Christ an exceptional victory. We are proud of you.
We pray that God will continue to bless you
Congratulations President Barack Hussein and your family.
Obama, To God Be The Glory! We are proud
of you and your family. Yes we can! Proverbs Ruth Tyler, Anthony and Anita Tyler and family
3:5-6
Congratulations, President Obama, your
Mrs. Dorothy McIntyre Lee & Jerita, and the McCrimmons message “yes we can” has been heard by
Thank you for paving the way, giving all the American people, because you have been
Americans hope. No obstacles can stop you! elected the 44th President of the United States
of America.
Mrs. Corene Wade Adams and family
Pastor Allan & Stephanie Davis and family and The Greater Bible
Way Church of God in Christ

Your life’s biggest purchase has VIRGINIA MARYLAND

no small details PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY

POTOMAC CLUB
1-Car Garage Townhome-Style Condos
in Woodbridge
From the upper $100’s • 703-590-0509
Take I-95 South to Dale Boulevard/Rippon Landing exit
and head East towards Rippon Landing. Follow to a left at
1st light onto Neabsco Mills Road. Right on Sheffield Way.
Left on Lancashire Drive. Right on Margraf Circle. Model
ahead on the right at the intersection of Margraf Circle
and Kentshire Drive.
VILLAGES OF PIEDMONT
Luxury 22 ft. and 24 ft. 2-Car Garage
Townhomes in Haymarket
From the upper $200’s • 571-261-4280
From I-495 take I-66 West to exit 40 (Haymarket).
Left onto Route 15 South. Follow Route 15 South
for approximately 1 mile to right onto Market Ridge
Boulevard. Follow Market Ridge Boulevard to Lakeland
and Callaway models on left.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
HIDDEN CREEK
Garage Townhomes in Gaithersburg
From the mid $300s • 240-631-2324
From I-270 take Exit 11 (Montgomery Village Ave, Rte. 124)
to a right on Route 355. At second traffic light turn left onto
Odendhal Road. Continue for approximately 2 miles to the
Hidden Creek community. Sales Center straight ahead at
the top of the hill.
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY
BALMORAL
Executive-style Single Family Homes in
Upper Marlboro
From the upper $400s • 301-780-3095
I-495/I-95, MD exit Route 214 East, go approximately
7 miles to Route 301. Right on Rte 301 south. Go
approximately 6 miles to the Sales Center on right (after
Village Avenue traffic light).

VILLAGES OF PIEDMONT
Luxury Single Family Homes in
Haymarket
From the upper $300’s • 571-248-6691
From I-495 take I-66 West to exit 40 (Haymarket).
Left onto Route 15 South. Follow Route 15 South
approximately 1 mile to right onto Market Ridge
Boulevard. Follow Market Ridge Boulevard to a right oneo
Oakton Avenue. Take first left onto Jordan Crest Court to
models on the right.
BALTIMORE COUNTY
THE FIELDS OF WHITE MARSH
Single Family Homes
From the upper $400s • 410-344-9250
From I-95 to exit 67 to Route 43 East to Route 7 East
approximately .75 mi. Left on Cowenton Avenue. Right on
Ricky Trevor Road. Models on right.

STAFFORD COUNTY
CAMBRIDGE CROSSING
Luxury Single Family Homes
in Fredericksburg
From the upper $200’s • 540-368-9199
Take I-95 South to exit 136 East and follow to a left on
Route 1 South (Cambridge Street). Proceed approximately
1 mile to a left on Layhill Road and then a right on Forbes
Street. Cambridge Crossing is on the right.
Whether you’re buying or building a new home, every detail is important. For
more than 30 years, we’ve remained dedicated to superior customer service, for more information, visit mihomes.com
innovative design, quality construction and premium locations. To us, it’s not just Sales Office Hours: 11am-5 pm DAILY
another house, it’s your home.
Prices, features, and availability subject to change at anytime and without notice. Photography is for
Every detail makes a difference. illustrative purposes only and may not reflect what is included in the base sales price. Some features
shown may be community-specific. MHBR#3418

Virg-108-12-08.indd 1 12/29/08 1:34:45 PM

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY - NEW HAMPSHIRE
New Hampshire
S
AFRO stories from Jan. 3 – 8, 2008
en. Barack Obama, his cam-
paign staff and supporters
came into New Hampshire
high off a phenomenal win
in the Iowa caucuses. They hit the
ground running, carried by mo-
mentum and the belief that the ra-
cial barriers the candidate managed
to surmount in Iowa made similarly
populated New Hampshire not just
a possible win, but a probable one.
The biggest issue for the campaign, at this point in the
process, was getting out the vote and getting the voters
A victorious Obama
sweeps into New
Hampshire
By Monroe Anderson
AFRO Staff Writer
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Just hours after his un-
precedented victory in the Iowa caucuses, a hoarse Barack
Obama Friday addressed an enthusiastic rally of nearly
500 volunteers here who he hopes will help him make his-
tory again in New Hampshire.
“How’s it going New Hampshire?” the freshman
Illinois senator asked, his voice scratchy and strained. “My
throat is still a little sore, but my spirits are high.”
Sore throat or not, it was obvious that Obama’s quest
to become the nation’s first African American president
was alive and well as he arrived in New Hampshire. In an
Iowa contest that virtually all polls and pundits said up
until the final hours was too close to call, Obama blew
away his rivals with 38 percent of the votes. Challengers
former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and New York
Sen. Hillary Clinton received 29 percent each.
A record number of young voters showed up at
the Iowa caucuses in response to Obama’s battle cry for
change. In one caucus, more than 200 voters showed up as
compared with only 85 four years earlier.
Obama landed in New Hampshire to campaign for
the New England state’s Jan. 8 primary election, continu-
ing his call for change as the core for his campaign, with
hope as its driving force.
“In four days, New Hampshire, you can have a
chance to change America,” he told the crowd.
Brushing aside Clinton’s campaign message that
stresses the importance of experience, Obama said he was
running for president because of what the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr. called “the fierce urgency of now.”
His campaign message Friday was that change in
America is needed now and he is the one to make it
14 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
to hear and know the candidate. Despite announcing his
candidacy the previous February and spending the time
between trying to get the voters to know him, many still
considered him an unknown quantity.
The campaign worked on getting over this hurdle with
volunteers on the ground. They used innovative way to
bring their message to their supporters and voters – web-
sites, text messages and a huge number of field offices.
The volunteers were excited, motivated and tireless in
their efforts to share what they believed about the candi-
date with all that would listen.
Using a combination of old school and high-tech
methods, this organization was highly effective in raising
money, gaining support, answering the questions of the
voters and helping them believe Obama is the agent of
change the country needs.
happen. “There are those who say Obama should not be
running for president, because he hasn’t been in Washing-
ton long enough,” he said to the excited throng. “They say
I need to be seasoned and stewed, so they can boil all the
hope out of me.”
As Obama spoke, the enthusiastic crowd applauded
and waved signs with “Change” in bold print.
Kwame Boadi, a John Hopkins University graduate
student, was in that crowd.
“I’m just up to help through the primaries,” Boadi,
25, said.
Boadi said he made the trip to Portsmouth from
D.C. to volunteer for the Obama campaign because he
relates to the candidate with a Kenyan father and Kansas
AP PHOTO
mother on a personal level. Although he was raised in
D.C., Boadi was born in Uganda and is studying interna-
tional affairs.
Boadi said what excites him about Obama that he
represents change. Boadi said that while he holds no ill
will towards Hillary, “She’s more of a status quo candidate.
That’s not what I want.”
Long before Obama got to New Hampshire for his
primary run, Mary Strassel of Portsmouth, N. H. had
been here.
Until last November, Strassel couldn’t decide whose
camp she’d be in. She liked front-runner Hillary Clinton
a lot. She also liked Obama. “I think I was flip-flopping,”
Strassel, a transplanted Black Chicagoan, said.
Then one night, the equivocating ended. “The defin-
ing moment was when I watched him speak,” said Strassel,
a mechanical engineer. “I decided not only am I going to
vote for him, I’m going to work for him.”
And volunteer work for Obama was just what the
41-year-old manufacturing engineer did.
After becoming a volunteer, Strassel said she con-
vinced “all my friends and all my people in my family” to
vote for Obama. They alone would account for 40 to 50
of the previously undecided that voted for Obama in the
primary.
On voting day, Obama kept up his hectic pace as
voters turned out in record numbers.
They say I need to
be seasoned and
stewed, so they
can boil all the
hope out of me.
Obama attended an early rally at Dartmouth College
in Hanover. He made a couple of stops at coffee shops and
campaign offices to thank supporters and check on voter
turnout.
Obama closed out the day at a primary night rally in
Nashua South High School. Voter turnout was extremely
heavy, with long lines at some voting sites. There were
reports that so many showed up at polling places in Ports-
mouth, N.H., voting officials ran out of ballots.
And even before the final election results, Obama
caught a glimpse of what might happen.
In a long-running tradition, two remote mountain
tiny towns, Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location, in the
Granite state’s northern region, cast their ballots at mid-
night, long before the rest of the state.
New Hampshire law allows towns of fewer than
100 residents to open polls after midnight so that their
residents can cast the first votes of the first primary in the
nation. The ballots can only be counted after all registered
voters have participated.
In Hart’s Location, population 42, Obama received
nine votes, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton three and
former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards one.
In Dixville Notch, which has 74 residents, Obama
received seven votes, Edwards two and New Mexico Gov.
Bill Richardson one. And Clinton, the eventual winner.
She didn’t receive any.
 JANUARY 2009
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 15

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- SOUTH CAROLINA
South Carolina
S
AFRO stories from Jan. 20 – 27, 2008
outh Carolina, was the fifth
major contest in the race
for the Democratic nomi-
nation. It was also the last
stop for the Barack Obama before
Super Tuesday where 2,084 dele-
gates in 23 states and abroad would
be up for grabs. (The senator would
not campaign in Florida; the state’s
delegates were being penalized by
the Democratic National Commit-
tee because the primary was sched-
uled before Feb. 5.)
In this race, the African-American voters would play a
big role in the process. Fifty percent of the registered
voters in the Democratic primary were Black. The single
largest Democratic voting bloc in the state is African-
American women.
In case the outcome of this race seems obvious, noth-
ing, at least before the primary, could be further from
the truth. In fact, if anything could be said about
South Caroline before Jan. 26 it’s that the electorate is
They’re talking about
a lot more than hair
By Valencia Mohammed
AFRO Staff Writer
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Cathy’s Beauty Salon sits
remotely off Liberty Street, a busy three-lane route in
Columbia, S.C. It is a small salon, in comparison to some
of the mega type haircare businesses.
And today, it was open early for business.
This is the place and the people over which presi-
dential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are
battling – African-American women. They will make up
the single largest voting block in Saturday’s presidential
primary, and the question is whether they will vote their
gender with Clinton, or their race with Obama.
The clients and personnel at Cathy’s reflect the
sentiments of many Black women in and around South
Carolina, which hosts the first southern primary. They’re
undecided.
Latoya Asmond, a client getting hair washed, just
kept shaking her head.
“I don’t know which way I’m going yet,” she said. “I
just want them to stop the war,” said Asmond.
16 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
undecided and leaders don’t know which way it will
fall. The question of whether all those Black women
will vote gender or race was repeated often in the days
leading up to the primary, with many voters unable to
answer the question for themselves until entering the
voting booth.
Who to select was debated everywhere from the college
campus to the beauty shop and some of the arguments
included:
“Hillary can bring Bill back to the White House to
help us.”
“A Barack presidency solidifies hope and the possibility
of the American dream for African-Americans.”
Though it is early in the primary process – earlier than
anyone realized at that moment – most of the media
attention is going to Senators Hillary Clinton and
Obama while the rest of the field is practically ignored.
Even those two candidates are focusing largely on each
other, which more than once resulted in squabbles and
attacks that worked to alienate the voters. This worked
more against Clinton than Obama and left voters call-
ing for more talk about the issues.
When the dust had settled and the votes from the
Democratic primary counted, Sen. Obama had won
55 percent of the vote and 80 percent of the Black
vote.
The owner, Cathy Mather, aware of that, has made
sure that her shop has stayed clear of lining up with one
side or the other. “I didn’t want any signs around,” Mather
said.
“My customers vary on who they want elected.”
Mather said that she is impressed with Obama, his
background and his health care platform. “He grew up
with a mother who struggled,” she said. “He understands
what goes on when you don’t have lots of money. All the
past presidents were unable to deliver affordable healthcare
policies. Let’s give him a chance.”
I want them to talk
more about issues
and less about
each other.
Glenda Miller, a hairdresser at the salon, said she has
listened to others claiming that Obama has no experience.
But she said that with veterans in Congress seemingly
making matters worse rather than better, Obama not
being part of the status quo could be a good thing. “I also
understand that Hillary can bring Bill back to the White
House and help us,” Miller said. “But I’m still thinking
about Obama bringing in new ideas that have not been
tried before and how he engages youth to change the
future like no other candidate.”
All that said, there were some things she has seen
in both candidates that she didn’t like. “I don’t like the
bickering between the candidate,” she said. “I want them
to talk more about issues and less about each other.”
Down the road, at Simply Hair, a Black-owned
barber shop, the men were eagerly engaged in conversation
about the most recent debate held in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
“We were just talking about the debate,” said Tracy
Newton, a barber. “Man, this is going to be a tough one.
It seems the whole country is looking at South Carolina.”
While some customers chewed on their McDonald’s
meals, everyone’s eyes were glued to the screen, listening to
replays of the previous night’s debate.
“Keep your eyes on John Edwards,” said Clifton
Morgan, as the barber tended to his hair. “He might be a
sleeper and win this thing. I don’t know anything about
him but he’s coming across in the debates as the good guy.
What does he stand for is the question.”
Ministers energizing
the vote – but for
who?
By Valencia Mohammed
AFRO Staff Writer
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The Sunday before South
Carolina’s Democratic primary was an unusual chilly day
here, but the messages from the pulpits were designed
to fire up the audience to cast a vote for the candidate of
their choice.
The Rev. Roanell Hough, pastor of Bethel AME
Church in Columbia, told his congregation that “God has
provided us good people, male or female, to represent the
country.”
Now it was time for his members to meet their
responsibility and to go out and vote during Saturday’s
primary, Hough said.
“What more sacrifice could we ask of someone who
dedicated their lives to social change so that we would
become corporate executives, serve in the White House,
run for elected office as a man or woman,” he asked. “We
have another opportunity to live the dream of Dr. Martin
Luther King.
“This country is going to rise on Saturday and change
history.”
The first Black governor of Massachusetts, Deval L.
Patrick sat quietly on the front row of the church, listen-
ing to the minister’s message.
Over the past few weeks, Patrick has been campaign-
ing for presidential candidate Barack Obama. He shook
his head when Hough reminded the congregation about
how sacrifices have been made previously by civil rights
leaders for Blacks to vote.
After church he commented about what he is hearing
from people he’s met in the early caucuses and primaries
in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“People want unity and vision,” Patrick said. They
want a leader, like Barack Obama, who can articulate then
motivate people to reach for the vision and change the
 JANUARY 2009

ways that have kept this country from moving forward.

“People don’t want to be used, the way they fre-
quently are in modern politics, and asked to be afraid of
one another and the world around them.”
As the churchgoers returned to their homes, they
seemed energized to vote, but many were still uncertain
about just who they would be voting for.
Sonya Prince, 39, educator, said she needed to pray a
little bit more before making her decision.“I want Obama
and Hillary both to be president. I am listening to both
candidates carefully,” Prince said. “Hopefully, one will say
something to strike my heart in such a way that will make
the ultimate different in my vote. But right now I’m rely-
ing on prayer.”
Chaunte McClure, 31, managing editor of an Inter-
net web site, said she was also seesawing between Clinton
and Obama. “It will be good either way for this country to
have an Black man or a woman in that position,” she said.
“It’s definitely time for a change.”
While some people remained undecided, others were
firm on their commitment to a candidate.
Herman Davis, 53, owner of a painting company,
hopes Obama will stop the flow of immigrants coming
into this country, who he said are being hired for low
wages, taking jobs away from Americans.
“I’ve voted for every Black person who ran for higher
elected office, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, just for loy-
alty, but this is different,” Davis said. “I truly feel Obama
can bring this country together.
“He is a candidate for change, the kind of change
that looks out for all Americans. He wants Americans to

AP PHOTO
have jobs, have health care, own homes and receive a good
education. He puts Americans first, and that’s why I sup-
port him, wholeheartedly.”

This country is going to rise on Saturday and change history.

Tony Grant, a former banker and now CEO of
Grant Business Strategies, his support for Obama comes
with his fresh ideas to solving America’s problem.
“Obama has solid leadership skills,” he said. “I liken
him to a blueprint to get people involved in giving back,
similar to that of Kennedy long ago. His candidacy says
to anyone, especially Black youth, that you can be a viable
contender for the highest office this country.”
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 17

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- SOUTH CAROLINA
Barack Obama and
the philosophy of
hope
By Monroe Anderson
AFRO Staff Writer
ROCK HILL, S.C. —Rita Moore-Johnson asked the
question that caught everybody’s attention.  It was a ques-
tion rooted in the darkest days of America’s history and
years of Southern oppression.
Moore-Johnson, 45, a medical lab technician, had
come to Rock Hill to hear presidential candidate Barack
Obama speak at one of the many rallies here before Satur-
day’s Democratic primary.
Her father, she explained, is 77 years old. He is the
grandson of a former slave. He, like his father, and his
father, has spent all his life in South Carolina, where the
Confederate flag still flies outside the state capital.
Segregation, lynchings and the Ku Klux Klan are real
memories for him, not just something out of a history
book. He repeatedly has seen Black aspirations beaten
down; he repeatedly has seen Black efforts met by irratio-
nal White resistance.
And for those reasons, he is afraid to vote for Barack
Obama.
Following the MLK
Debate, Obama
continues attacking
By Monroe Anderson
AFRO Staff Writer
GREENVILLE, S.C.—The morning after his no
holds barred presidential debate with challengers Hillary
Clinton and John Edwards, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama
continued in his combative mode, taking President
George W. Bush and Clinton to task for their economic
policies.
With the stock market plunging more than 400
points when it opened and talk of recession growing
louder and louder,  Obama, just days away from Satur-
But Washington did what Washington does – it looked the other way.
day’s primary here, departed from his stump speech about
change and hope to address the morning’s bad financial
news.
“For the second day in a row, the global stock market
has continued to plunge as the world continues to fear
that the United States government won’t do enough to
prevent a recession,” Obama told a packed auditorium at
Furman University.  bill, but was glad when it didn’t pass.
He said he hoped the rate cuts announced earlier in
the morning” will restore some confidence and stop the
damage, but the fear remains.”
What started as a crisis in the housing market “has
now spilled over to the rest of the economy,” Obama said.   Advisors in the Obama campaign said the Illinois
Obama said he’s been warning “for years that this
18 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
So, during a question and answer session following dots, but I’ll still vote for him.”
Obama’s speech at Winthrop University, Moore-Johnson,
an Obama supporter, explained to the candidate that her
“The thing I want you to tell him is this. This goes
to what I said about hope earlier. What if Dr. King looked
father “feels that a Black president will not be able to do
what he needs to do in Washington to get change done.”
over 400,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial and said,
‘Y’all go home, this is too hard, we’re not going to change
And then she asked, “What do I tell him and people
like him, in a small sense that will change his mind?”
people’s attitudes’ What if John Kennedy looked up at the
moon and said, ‘That’s too hard. We can’t go.’
I am absolutely convinced that the American
people, right now, they don’t care if you are
black, white, brown…green.
Obama said, “Tell him this. First of all, people said I “Part of the test of leadership is breaking through
couldn’t win the United States senate race. Illinois is only barriers. And most of the barriers are not barriers outside
12 percent African American. And everybody said, ‘Wow, us, but barriers inside us, in our heads. We tell ourselves
this black guy with the funny name. People will not vote we can’t do something. And part of what I want to do is to
for him. We won by 20 percent in the primary and 30, 40 say “yes, we can” and I want to send that message to our
percent in the general election. children. I don’t want to perpetuate this notion in our kids
“Number one, we have shown that we can win. I am that there’s a limit to what their dream is.
absolutely convinced that the American people, right now, “Tell your father that he’s got to be thinking of mak-
they don’t care if you are black, white, brown…green. ing sure he doesn’t pass that mindset on to his grandchil-
“What they care about is, are you going to help dren and even their grandchildren. If they try, they may
them. If I came here and I had polka dots and you were succeed. It’s always possible that they won’t succeed, but
convinced that I was going to put more money in your you definitely won’t succeed if you don’t try.”             
pockets and help you pay for college and help keep
America safe, you’d say “Okay, I wish he didn’t have polka
might happen. But Washington did what Washington
does – it looked the other way. It rewarded lenders and
lobbyists with whatever they asked for while ignoring the
voices of working people who needed help most.”
He accused President George W. Bush of being a
president “who’s done more to contribute to this country’s
widening inequality than anyone since Herbert Hoover.”
He also continued his in-your-face attack on his chief
rival, New York Sen. Clinton. 
“In the debate last night, we spent some time talking
AP PHOTO
about the economy,” he said. “And one of the things I
brought up that concerned me was that when Sen. Clin-
ton first released her economic stimulus plan, she didn’t
think that workers or seniors needed immediate tax relief,”
Obama said. “She thought it could wait until things got
worse.  Five days later, the economy didn’t really change,
but the politics apparently did, because she changed her
plan to look just like mine.”
Obama criticized Clinton for saying she voted for a
“I know you can get away with this in Washington,
but most of us know that if you don’t want to see a bill
pass, there’s a pretty easy option available,” he said. “You
can vote against it.”
senator is changing his campaign strategy and has decided
to get tough with Sen. Clinton, pointing out the contra-
dictions in her record.
 JANUARY 2009

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 19

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- SOUTH CAROLINA
Obama sweeps
“big time” in South
Carolina
By Valencia Mohammed
AFRO Staff Writer
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Illinois Sen. Barack Obama
crushed political rivals in the first southern Democratic
primary, giving his campaign a huge boost as he and his
challengers head into Super Tuesday on Feb. 5th, when 22
states hold primaries.
Obama won with 55 percent of the vote, compared
to 27 percent for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and 18
percent for John Edwards, according to exit polls.
AFRO FILE PHOTOS
Obama won about 80 percent of the Black vote and
attracted about one of every four White voters, based on
exit polls.
In a rousing victory party before hundreds Saturday
night, Obama told supporters that campaign has attracted
the most diverse group of voters.
“As I traveled throughout this state observing the
conditions of people who yearned for improvements and
a new direction, I did not see a Black or White South
Carolina,” he said. “I saw South Carolina.”
… I did not see
a Black or White
South Carolina,” he
said. “I saw South
Carolina.
Obama’s supporters interrupted his victory speech
with chants of “Yes, we can!” and “Race doesn’t matter!”
During the South Carolina campaign, tension grew
between Obama and Clinton after a heated debate on and
20 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
statements about Obama by former President Bill Clinton,
the husband of the candidate.
Some political analysts’ say Clinton’s tactic may have
backfired, sending more African-American voters into
Obama’s camp. About a week before the primary, Black
voters were nearly evenly split between the two.
Obama and Clinton have now split the first four
contests of the campaign, with Obama winning Iowa and
Clinton taking Nevada and New Hampshire. The candi-
dates face the possibility of a conflict that could stretch
into March or even April.
According to polls, Clinton holds leads in the two
largest Feb. 5 primaries, California and Texas, but Obama
leads in Illinois, another big state.
People from all over
working to turn-out
the S.C. vote
By Valencia Mohammed
AFRO Staff Writer
ORANGEBURG, S.C. – It was a telephone call out
of the blue.
D.C. resident Lawrence Guyout was at home when
a Chicago volunteer for presidential candidate Barack
Obama called and asked him to go south and organize
youth in Orangeburg.
Two other District residents, Timothy Jenkins, a
fourth generation Republican, and Taft Thompson got the
same request.
That was two weeks ago, and since then, the three
have been here speaking at churches, high schools, col-
leges and businesses, trying to inspire residents to vote for
Obama and get involved in his campaign.
They have been living at the home of Adeline Chuk-
wuka, a social worker, who agreed to take them in.
She didn’t know her guests were longtime civil rights
leaders and organizers. “I didn’t need to know who they
were,” Chukwuka said. “I just wanted to do whatever I
could to help Obama win in South Carolina.”
The trio are part of scores of out-of-state, and
sometimes out-of-country volunteers who have flooded
into South Carolina to work for Obama. Some have come
from as far away as the Caribbean.
Thursday, two days before the state’s Democratic
primary, was the type of morning to which Guyot, Jenkins
and Thompson have become accustomed. No coffee, no
tea, just dialogue with students as breakfast.
As they headed out, Guyot grabbed his coat, while
Jenkins read over his speech.
Guyot said. “We’ve got to make these students
understand that the power to change America is in their
hands and that Obama represents this movement of
change.”
We’ve got to make
these students under-
stand that the power to
change America is in
their hands…
Thompson, who formerly worked on New Mexico
Gov. Bill Richardson’s campaign, drove the van and
listened as Guyot and Jenkins, who during the civil rights
era were jailed and beaten for the right of Black people to
vote and be considered as equals in America, went over
their lines.
It was a practice session for what the students were
about to hear.
The students at Orangeburg Wilkinson High School
sat attentively in Ralph Alexander’s U.S. history class.
“Is there anything not political in our lives?” Guyot
asked the students.
“Church,” one student said hesitantly.
“No, indeed,” said Guyot, who organized boycotts
and sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement. “There
are laws that govern not only about what can and not be
said on church grounds and functions that determine a
church’s status as a non-profit entity.
“I believe if you think closely about it, there is abso-
lutely nothing in our lives that is not guided by politics.
This is one reason you must as students get involved with
the election on Saturday.”
The students talked with the speakers about their
views of the top three candidates running in the South
Carolina Primary – Obama, New York Sen. Hillary Clin-
ton and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.
“Hillary is a woman,” a female student said.
“Yeah, but it’s time for a Black man to become
president,” a black male student said. “It will give me such
pride.”
“Why would a Republican help Obama,” a student
asked Jenkins after his presentation.
“Obama is the only candidate, Democrat or
Republican, that welcomes Independents, Republicans,
Democrats, Whites, Blacks and others to become a part of
a paradigm shift to change the way politics is done in this
country,” Jenkins said.
At the end of the presentation, a few students signed
up to participate while others stood watching the histori-
ans in awe.
“What about if someone kills Obama,” a student
asked.
“We must never allow fear to prevent us from pro-
gressing to do what is right,” Guyot said. “It’s time young
people to do more than stand around and do nothing.
Become a part of history.”
 JANUARY 2009

2007
Feb. 10 – Sen. Barack
Obama announces his
candidacy for president of
the United States on the
steps of the Old State Capitol
Building in Springfield, Ill.,
where Abraham Lincoln once
declared that a house divided
against itself cannot stand.

March 29 – Civil rights leader

Jesse Jackson, a former
presidential candidate,
endorses Obama which he
reaffirmed later after he was
quoted accusing Obama of
“acting like he’s white.”

May — Media mogul Oprah

Winfrey endorses Obama.

Sept. 12 – In a major national

security address in Iowa,
Obama outlines his plan to
end the war in Iraq.
AP PHOTO

October – A widespread
smear campaign, first aired
on Fox News, alleges that
Obama is a Muslim, one
of many smears thrown at
Obama by right-wing pundits
during the campaign.
AFRO FILE PHOTOS

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 21

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY-SUPER TUESDAY
Super Tuesday
I
AFRO stories from Jan. 28 – Feb. 4, 2008
t’s the single largest day of vot-
ing short of the general election
and probably the biggest finan-
cial, physical and psychological
hurdle of the campaign. Mounting
a serious challenge in as many states
as necessary – proper allocation
of resources, candidate’s time and
covering the sheer distance between
the points – while not necessarily
a good barometer for the ability to
lead, is definitely an indication of a
desire for the job.
Despite making a strong showing in the prior primaries,
including Florida where he took 33 percent of the vote
without even campaigning in the state, many voters
felt – and certainly Sen. Hillary Clinton was preaching
– that the Democratic race would be settled at the end
of this day of voting and that she would have clinched
the nomination.
But this position was going against what people were
seeing on the ground. In Alabama, Sen. Barack Obama’s
message had energized young voters, reaching them in
new ways and effectively calling them to action. Those
voter/workers, of all ages, were engaged by Obama’s
Early wins change
tide for Obama in
Alabama
By Vicki Howell
Special to the AFRO
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Until Sen. Barack Obama’s
startling wins in Iowa and South Carolina and close defeat
in New Hampshire, Blacks in Alabama were almost evenly
divided between him and his rival, New York Sen. Hillary
Clinton.
Alabama Democratic Conference (“ADC”), the
state’s leading Black political organization, had given its
nod to Clinton. ADC president and political king maker
Joe Reed urged Blacks to vote for Clinton, saying America
wasn’t ready for a Black president.
Meanwhile, the Alabama New South Coalition, the
ADC’s rival organization, placed its chips on Obama.
Now, there is no divide, said Rep. Artur Davis
(D-Birmingham), the first among Alabama’s influential
Black leaders to jump on the Illinois senator’s presidential
bandwagon.
“The Black community in Alabama is strongly ral-
22 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
message of hope and change and crossed both racial and
party lines with their support.
Then, just days before the flurry of contests, the Ken-
nedy family, led by senior Sen. Ted Kennedy and joined
by his son and the daughter of late President John F.
Kennedy, endorsed Sen. Obama’s bid for the presidency.
“I believe in the bright light of hope and possibility,”
Kennedy told a packed auditorium on Jan. 28, 2008. “I
know what American can achieve. I’ve seen it, I’ve lived
it, and with Barak Obama. we can do it again.”
Some called these words from Kennedy a “transfer
the Kennedy mystique and their vision of the kind of
America that this can be to Obama.”
Despite her confident words, Sen. Clinton’s speeches
and ads stepped up the attacks on Sen. Barack Obama.
While she tried to appear in control and in the lead,
and continue to promote the perception she was heir
apparent to the White House, voters had a different
idea, delivering 13 of the 22 states in play – including
Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,
Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri,
North Dakota and Utah – and Democrats abroad to
Obama, leaving Clinton with 9 states and American Sa-
moa, and most importantly, still trailing in the delegate
count.
Coming out of Super Tuesday the race was still on ...
with Obama in the lead.
lying behind Barack Obama,” said Davis, chairman of
Obama’s campaign in Alabama. The ADC will certainly
squeeze out some votes for Sen. Clinton in smaller rural
counties that don’t get much exposure to national or even
state media. That’s where the ADC has the strongest influ-
ence on voters.”
But in the state’s urban and suburban areas, Birming-
ham, Montgomery and Mobile, where Blacks constitute
large blocks of Democratic voters, Davis predicts an easy
win among Black voters by margins of 75 percent or more.
Obama now has 68 percent of the Black vote in Ala-
bama, up from 54 percent within the past month, while
Clinton’s share of Black voters dropped from 20 percent
to 16 percent in the same period, according to a recently
released poll by Capital Survey Research Center, the poll-
ing arm of the Alabama Education Association.
Among White Democrats, Clinton’s share grew from
47 percent to 51 percent within the past month, while
Obama’s stayed the same at 17 percent, according to the
poll.
Due to the shifting allegiance of Black voters, AEA
polls, with a 5 percent margin of error, now give Obama
a slight lead in Alabama over Clinton, 44 percent to 37
percent.
The numbers are in sharp contrast from September,
when she had 40 percent of Democratic voters compared
to his 21 percent.
Whether the Black vote will be enough for Obama
to clinch a win in Alabama is still in question, as he would
also have to pull in at least a quarter of White voters, as he
did in South Carolina.
But Obama spent a year going back and forth to that
South Carolina. In contrast, he has made only three trips
to Alabama, including his 2007 visit to Selma in com-
memoration of “Bloody Sunday,” the infamous beating of
civil rights marchers by state troopers as they tried to cross
the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
But each visit brought large numbers of enthusiastic
Whites across social and party lines.
One is Mary Katherine Backstrom, a recently-mar-
ried 23-year-old who has been an Obama supporter since
reading his book “The Audacity of Hope.” He is the first
Democrat she plans to vote for.
“I was raised in a Republican household,” Backstrom
said. “So it’s almost like a religion, you know; you just
blindly vote. “Honestly, the message started to matter
to me. I started researching platforms and realized there
wasn’t a Republican candidate that was going to meet the
needs I wanted my children to have in the future. That’s
what attracted me to Obama.”
Having spent a year without health insurance, the
University of Alabama at Birmingham student said, helped
bring Obama’s message home to her.
His speech last week at the university energized a
racially-mixed crowd of about 10,000 with a message of
affordable health care, money for primary education and
college, fair wages, honest and effective government, equal
treatment, and troop withdrawal from Iraq.
The Jefferson County registrar’s office in Birmingham
processed close to 4,000 voter registration applications
between Jan. 21 and 25, a dramatic surge leading up to
the Feb. 5 primary; hundreds of applications came from
the university, officials said.
Statewide, voter registration is up 58,341 since No-
vember 2007, a dramatic increase compared to presiden-
tial primaries in 2004 and 2000, according to figures from
Alabama’s Secretary of State office.
“The thing that really fires me up about Obama in
particular is, it’s the most unappreciated voters who are
making the difference in his campaign,” Backstrom said,
“the college voters, the Black voters.”
Real estate agent Marquelon Sigler, 28, canvassed
Birmingham neighborhoods Saturday for Obama. Like
other Blacks, he too questioned whether the time was
right for a Black president, despite being impressed with
Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention and
with the political platform outlined in the senator’s book.
“But when I saw that he could raise the money, that
people were buying into his message of hope and change, I
knew he could go all the way,” Sigler said.
It’s young voters like Backstrom and Sigler who
Obama is successfully reaching with his message.
Amaya Smith, spokeswoman for the Obama cam-
paign in Alabama, said young campaign workers, some
fresh from South Carolina, have made more than 16,000
phone calls, and knocked on 7,500 doors in two days.
The grassroots campaign includes the standard tech-
niques, phone banks and television commercials, but it
also targets young voters through YouTube videos, e-mails,
mobile phone text messaging and ringtones.
People aged 18 to 25 are turning out overwhelmingly
for Obama in the early primary states by as much as 67
percent, Smith said, so much so that the campaign has or-
ganized Students for Obama, where college students work
 JANUARY 2009

to turn out the vote among their peers on campus.

However, Larry Powell, a political communications
professor at the University of Alabama Birmingham,
questions whether young voter turnout will give Obama
the boost he needs to win Alabama, and the Democratic
nomination.
“In every past election in memory, there has always
been a campaign that tries to register and turn out young
voters on their behalf,” Powell said. “They always fail,
because they don’t get to the polls for various reasons.
However, there is a different kind of interest behind
Obama than there has been in the past.”
Powell attributes young voter interest to the general
public’s disenchantment with President George W. Bush’s
administration, and Obama’s ability to articulate a vision
for change that reaches across socio-economic, racial and
generational lines, even if his vision is somewhat short on
specifics.
“Having something to vote against, and something
to vote for, is a double motivation,” he said. “They are the
ones most affected by the Iraq war and education, and
young White voters don’t see color like their parents or
grandparents did.”
Mobile County held early voting last week, because
Super Tuesday coincides with the city’s annual Mardi Gras
celebration.
Voter turnout was so high in some polling places,

AP PHOTO
Smith said, that election officials ran out of Democratic
ballots. Some local organizers were troubled that these
incidents happened at large, predominantly Black polls.
“People are excited about the kind of change that
Sen. Obama represents,” Smith said. “So, we’ve seen
record turnouts this year. “(Mobile) is an indicator of the Whether the Black vote will be enough
turnout we’ll see in Alabama, and not just Alabama, but
all across the country.” for Obama to clinch a win in Alabama
is still in question…
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 23

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY-SUPER TUESDAY
Latino vote could
be difference in
California
By Herbert A. Sample
LOS ANGELES – For the first time in several
decades, California will play an important role in the
presidential nominating contests on Tuesday, but unlike in
South Carolina’s primary last month, Latinos and White
voters will wield far more influence over the results than
will African Americans.
Presidential nominating contests in past years usually
were decided by the time Californians vote was taken,
rendering the state’s primary essentially meaningless. But
on “Super Tuesday” this year, California, with its 441
delegates, will play a crucial role in determining which of
the two remaining major Democratic candidates, Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama, will be the eventual party
nominee.
Polls and political observers expect Obama to do
exceedingly well among African Americans in California,
just as he did in South Carolina. “I think African Ameri-
cans will vote overwhelmingly for Obama,” said Robert
Smith, a political scientist at San Francisco State Univer-
sity. “I would not think Californians would deviate much
from South Carolinians in that regard.”
But unlike in South Carolina, where African
Americans accounted for half or more of the Democratic
primary electorate, Smith estimated that only 7 percent of
California’s Democrats are African American.
About 20 percent are Latino, and Clinton is banking
on strong support from Latinos.
A recent Los Angeles Times/CNN/Politico poll
found that six out of 10 Latino Democrats back Clinton
while three of 10 said they’ll vote for Obama.
Clinton appears strong with Latino voters for a
variety of reasons, ranging from name recognition to
memories of good economic times during the presidency
of her husband, Bill Clinton.
AP PHOTO
24 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, California
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and other prominent
California Latinos are backing her. She campaigned in
heavily-Latino East Los Angeles on Saturday.
“Even at the height of the impeachment controversy,
polls by the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute indicated that
(former President) Clinton had a 70 percent approval rat-
ing among Latino voters,” Harry Pachon and Rodolfo O.
De La Garza, president and vice president of a Los Angeles
think tank wrote recently. “In contrast, Obama is a rela-
tively new face and voice for all but Illinois Latinos.”
While the support of U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy of
Massachusetts will assist Obama with African-American
voters, it may most help him with Latinos, for whom the
Kennedy family also is an icon. Kennedy is the brother of
former President John F. Kennedy and 1968 Democratic
presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.
Obama is running at least two ads on Spanish-
language television stations in Los Angeles, one of which
begins with a photo of Obama and Sen. Kennedy. The
candidate also is backed by several Latino polls here, as
…endorsements of Clinton by
African-American politicians are
unlikely to sway many rank-and-
file African American voters….
well as La Opinion, the leading Spanish-language newspa-
per in Los Angeles, and two large labor unions with many
Latino members, the Service Employees International
Union and UNITE HERE.
Debbie Mesloh, spokeswoman for Obama’s state
campaign, said California was always going to be an “up-
hill climb” for the Illinois senator, given Clinton’s name
recognition and her husband’s nurturing of the state in the
1990s. But, she added, “We believe we’re in a strong posi-
tion with the Latino vote.”
About 35 percent of the state’s total population is
Latino and 6.3 percent is African American, according to
state estimates. However, a significant number of Latinos
either are undocumented or are not registered to vote, thus
African Americans make up a slightly larger percentage of
the Democratic electorate than they do in the population
as a whole.
Among notable African Americans in the state,
Clinton has won the backing of former Los Angeles Laker
turned businessman Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Oakland
Mayor Ron Dellums and Rep. Maxine Waters, two long-
time fixtures among African-American politicians.
But Smith said endorsements of Clinton by African-
American politicians are unlikely to sway many rank-and-
file African-American voters. “African Americans, after
Iowa, began to rally around Obama once they saw he
had a chance to win,” he said. “ I don’t think that will be
altered by anything Black politicians say or do.”
There are cross-racial tensions here. Some African
Americans are resentful of the economic and cultural
impact Latinos and Asian Americans exert here, but Smith
said it is unlikely that voters will select one candidate
or the other based on such reasons. Those tensions were
touched on briefly at the televised debate in Hollywood
last week when the candidates were asked to address fears
that immigrants cause unemployment and force down
wages among African Americans.
Obama said suggestions that immigration results in
inner-city unemployment amounted to “scapegoating,”
while Clinton said the country “should be honest,” that
employers who exploit undocumented workers drive down
wages and generate job losses.
Both called for more secure borders, creation of a
pathway toward legalization for the 12 million or more
undocumented workers already in the country, and a crack
down on employers who exploit undocumented workers.
AP PHOTO
 JANUARY 2009

2008
Jan. 3 – Obama wins the nation’s
first Democratic presidential
contest – the Iowa caucuses, a
pivotal victory for his campaign
that wowed the party faithful. John
Edwards comes in second and
Sen. Hillary Clinton a surprising
third. That month, the campaign
reports $32 million in campaign
AP PHOTO

donations.

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 25

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY-SUPER TUESDAY

Young people in the region who have backed Demo-

Obama builds a crats are becoming more and more enthralled by Obama’s
talk of hope and change. And in a place like Atlanta where
diverse coalition for the Black female vote is coveted, Obama and his wife,
Michelle, have made deep inroads. “They make an incred-
success ible team,” Williams said. “The genuine respect they have
for each other is obvious. Black women in Georgia hear in
By Add Seymour his voice, in his words and in his background the empathy
Special to the AFRO that he feels for African American women.”
Rural Georgia is rural Georgia and will still be a
ATLANTA – At the near center of Georgia is tough sell for Obama.
Atlanta, the African-American Mecca, the sophisticated But it’s all been enough to make Wheeler, 55, proud.
economic engine that houses offices for nearly each one “I have been delighted to see him rise to the status where
of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies, the liberal-leaning he is,” Wheeler said. “It’s evident that he’s intelligent and
headquarters to the nation’s busiest airport, a favorite these respectful and can connect with people of any race.”
days for the country’s rap and hip-hop recording industry
and “The City Too Busy To Hate.”
But Atlanta is not Georgia. In Georgia, there is
Atlanta, and then the rest of the state.
He happens
Georgia voted for President George Bush in both of
his election bids. In 2001, the state elected its first Repub-
lican governor since Reconstruction.
to be Black.
Georgia is largely rural and conservative. A ride
through the countryside reveals mostly trees and flatlands
accompanied by flat Southern drawls.
It is there, however, that the impact of Illinois Sen.
Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy becomes startlingly
clear.
In one of those places, Augusta, a few hours east of
Atlanta on the state’s eastern edge, Obama is a constant
topic of discussion. “My friends talk about him,” said
Chester Wheeler, Augusta’s director of Housing and
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO
Development. “They respect him. We’re delighted that he
is African American, but he is also committed to changing
the world. He happens to be Black.”
As the state heads towards a historic primary Tuesday,
Obama, and to a lesser degree, his rival, New York Sen.
Hillary Clinton, are on most people’s tongues.
Obama and Clinton have been campaigning heavily
in the state in preparation for Super Tuesday, when Geor-
gia and 21 other states hold primaries.
Both have been running a series of television ads
touting their candidacies.
No major polls are out yet, but some minor ones
have placed Obama far ahead of Clinton.
Meanwhile, the state’s largest and most influential
newspaper, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, which has
a White woman editor, endorsed Obama. “While both
Clinton and Obama would make good presidents, Obama
is the person,” the newspaper said in its endorsement.
“This is his time.”
Even in the uneven state of Georgia, one thing has
become consistently clear, Obama’s campaign has lit fires
here.
“It’s just an amazing thing to see,” said Tonya
Williams, an Atlanta public relations consultant. “This
candidate has energized Black voters, White voters, young,
old, little old White women and Black women.”
Williams is a volunteer in Obama’s Atlanta office,
where the diversity of his supporters is immediately evi-
dent. They are young, old, Black, White and Asian, men
and women.
On Saturday, his supporters could be seen out in
neighborhoods across Atlanta. Hundreds of Obama volun-
AP PHOTO

teers, who are often in mixed-race pairs, have been going

door to door, stumping for his campaign.

26 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

 JANUARY 2009

2008
Jan. 26 – After a bitter and
divisive contest, Obama
wins a decisive victory over
Clinton in South Carolina with
strong support from the Black
community. Afterwards, Bill
Clinton appeared to brush off the
victory, saying Jesse Jackson Sr.
had also won the state in 1988.
Obama’s South Carolina win was
the beginning of the end of Black
support of Hillary Clinton in the
campaign.

Jan. 28 – Two generations of

Kennedys (Caroline and Sen.
Ted Kennedy) – the Democratic
Party’s best-known political family
– endorse Obama for president,
with Ted Kennedy calling him
a “man with extraordinary gifts
of leadership and character,” a
worthy heir to his assassinated
brother.
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 27

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY-SUPER TUESDAY
Obama expected
to sweep Clinton in
Illinois
By Monroe Anderson
Special to the AFRO
Chicago – While Barack Obama trails rival Hillary
Clinton in the national polls and in some of the big states
going into Super Tuesday, it is matter-of-factly believed
that Feb. 5 will to be the day he sweeps away Clinton in
Illinois.
The latest polls place the Illinois senator with a 2 to 1
advantage over Clinton, a New York senator, almost to no
one’s surprise in his home state.
While the latest Gallup poll has Clinton leading
Obama nationally 48 to 41 percent, a Chicago Tribune/
WGN-TV poll found that Obama had the support of 55
percent of likely Democratic voters in Illinois. Clinton
had only 24 percent.
That projected margin of victory matches the
actual vote in the South Carolina primary eight days ago.
“Obama’s got the momentum and the wind at his back
after South Carolina,” said Dick Simpson, professor of
political science at the University of Illinois Chicago and a
former Democratic Chicago alderman.
As a state senator, Obama earned a good reputation
among independents in Illinois when he successfully car-
ried through reform legislation while working with the late
Early ballots have been coming in at a record number…
AP PHOTO
28 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
Illinois Sen. Paul Simon, Simpson said.
Obama is so popular in Illinois that other candidates
up for votes on Feb. 5 are hoping they will reap the benefit
of his ability to attract new and young voters. “They’re
hoping that everyone voting for Obama will drop down
and vote for them for Congress or water commissioner,
whatever they’re running for,” Simpson said.
His political strength in his home state, particularly
in the metropolitan Chicago area, even extends to two
groups where polls say Clinton has either wrapped up or
splits with the Illinois senator in other states – Hispanics
and Black women. “He’ll do well with the Latino vote
here,” said Miguel del Valle, Chicago city clerk and a
former Illinois state senator.
Obama got the lion’s share of the Latino votes when
he ran for the U.S. Senate four years ago, del Valle said,
pointing out that he outpaced a strong Hispanic con-
tender, Gerry Chico, in the primary contest for the party’s
Senate nomination. He said Obama is popular among
Illinois Hispanics because of his support for immigration
reform and that the main distinction between Obama
and Clinton is “we felt Barack is committed to taking that
issue on early in his administration.”
Although Clinton is admired in Illinois, Obama’s
popularity is strong among women in the state, said
Sandra Finley, president and CEO of the League of Black
Women, a Chicago-based national organization that fos-
ters the leadership potential of African-American women.
AP PHOTO
She predicts that he’ll do well in Illinois because he has
done well in previous primaries. “He’s had the advantage
of time to answer the questions,” Finley said.
Before the other primary contests, women wondered
whether Obama was true presidential timber, she said.
“They now know that he is,” she said.
They also wondered if Obama, who could become
the first African-American Democratic party nominee for
president, would address their interests on health care, the
economy and education. “He answers that,” she said.
Tim Wright, a Chicago attorney, a former Clinton White
House appointee and former chief of staff to Congressman
Bobby Rush, argued that the New York senator is going
to do better in Illinois than the polls and pundits predict.
“She’s not a stranger here,” he said. “She’s from here. She’s
a native daughter.”
And because Clinton is from the state, Illinois is no
different from the rest of the nation, with family members
are split in their support between Obama and the former
first lady. One of the nation’s wealthiest families, the Hyatt
Hotel’s Pritzkers, is split between Obama and Clinton.
Penny Pritzker is Obama’s national finance chair.
Her brother, J.B. Pritzker is national co-chair for the
Clinton campaign. The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and his son,
Congressman Jesse L. Jackson Jr. have endorsed Obama,
while the civil right’s leader’s wife, Jackie, and their son,
businessman Yusef Jackson, are Clinton supporters.
Wright has had to deal with his own personal conflict
between the two camps. “I’m caught in the middle,” said
Wright, who is on the Clinton steering committee but has
acted as an Obama mentor in the past. “It’s like a family
feud.
“It’s a toss-up for a brother.”
Contributing to her performance here will be a great-
er share of the Black vote than is expected, because Obama
has avoided talking about hard core Black issues. “Hillary
talks about them more than he does,” Wright said.
Professor Starks disagreed. “The Clinton people will be
lucky if they get 20 percent of the Black vote,” he said.
 JANUARY 2009

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 29

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- CHESAPEAKE PRIMARIES

Obama heads into Tuesday following crushing

Chesapeake Primaries
victories in Washington, Nebraska, Louisiana and the
U.S. Virgin Islands on Saturday. Analysts say he stands a
good chance of sweeping the primaries on Feb. 12, given
his support among professionals, the youth, indepen-

F
AFRO stories from Feb. 9 – 12, 2008
dents, who can vote outside party in Virginia, and African
lush from a Super Tues- to ask, “Who is really going to bring about a change in Americans.
business as usual?” Barbara Jackson, 57, of Columbia, Md., said
day upset of Sen. Hillary Obama’s race is not a major factor in her support for him.
Clinton – whose hopes for It was in the Chesapeake contests that the strength “I’m not voting for him because he is African Ameri-
of Obama’s youth movement began to shine. Scores
an early lock on the nomi- of young people, with energy and enthusiasm, were
can,” she said. “I’m voting for him because he is a brilliant
man who happens to be African American and who has a
nation were dashed by Sen. Ba- growing amongst the ranks of his supporters. Their chance to be president of the United States,”
rack Obama’s performance – Sen. numbers increasing, it was during this period that his She brought her granddaughter, Jazmin Watts, 9, to
appeal with this demographic really began to show. see Obama. “This is Black History Month, and I wanted
Obama made several appearances in her to see history being made and to listen to a brilliant
the Maryland, Virginia, District of By this time, pundits were starting to recognize and man,” she said. “She can tell her children she was at a rally
talk about how broad Obama’s appeal was, no longer
Columbia before ever growing and relegating him to being the African American’s can-
with the first African-American president of the United
States.”
diverse crowds. didate. It was clear his message of change and hope
was resonating with the educated, young, and women
While the earlier contests were more about indecision,
by the Chesapeake primaries, Obama had an estab-
voters. And his growing crowds were reflecting this as He decided to go
well.
lished base of support and the electorate was beginning outside the power
Maryland comptroller Peter Franchot, another
structure. He bypassed
Thousands greet Obama supporter, said the senator’s grass-roots approach
to campaigning has brought him success. “In South
the establishment and
Obama at U of M Carolina, Clinton had the establishment, she had the lawn
signs and everything, but Obama’s campaign kept saying,
went straight to the
By Zenitha Prince ‘We have people,’” Franchot said. “He decided to go out-
side the power structure. He bypassed the establishment
people.
Washington Bureau Chief
and went straight to the people.”
COLLEGE PARK, Md – It could have been a
University of Maryland basketball game given the packed-
to-the rafters crowd, except for the red and blue “Change”
signs that littered the crowd and the ringing cries of
“Obama! Obama!”
One day before the Democratic primary in Mary-
land, Washington and Virgina, presidential hopeful
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama continued his call for change
at a rally before nearly 18,000 to fire up voters to cast their
ballots for him at the polls.
As has been usual at Obama’s rally, the crowd was
huge and excited. As Obama came to the stage, deafening
screams echoed across the gymnasium.
Campaign volunteer Harold Johnson kept his son
Johnathan, 12, out of school to bring him to the rally.
“We brought a lot of Marylanders around as they heard
more about Obama’s message of hope and unity,” Johnson,
41, said, as shouts of “Obama ‘08” rang in the back-
ground. “You see how spirited and united and diverse this
crowd is here.”
Obama and his contender Sen. Hillary Clinton
will vie for nearly 200 delegates in the so called Potomac
Primaries Tuesday. “I’m still undecided, because on paper
he and Hillary are very alike,” said Temi Fakinlede, 18,
a freshman at the university. “It helps that he is here and
personality also plays a big role.”
The big crowds, the near tie with Clinton for del-
egates, are far from the early expectations when Obama
announced he was running for president last year. “When
he came to me a year ago and said he wanted to run, I
couldn’t find anybody to help him,” said Maryland Rep.
AP PHOTO

Elijah Cummings, chair of Obama’s statewide campaign.

“They laughed at me, and yet he had the audacity to
hope.”

30 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

 JANUARY 2009

2008
Feb. 12 - Obama sweeps Super
Tuesday’s Potomac Primary,
winning Maryland, Virginia and
Washington, D.C.

Feb. 27 – Civil rights icon,

Cong. John Lewis, switches his
support of Clinton to Obama,
saying, “Something’s happening
in America, something some of
us did not see coming.” He said
his decision was a difficult one, a
choice between a longtime friend
AP PHOTO

and a little-known Black man.

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 31

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- CHESAPEAKE PRIMARIES
Obama brings
message of hope to
Baltimore crowd
By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
BALTIMORE, Md. – Charm City was the final stop
on Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s stomp through Maryland
to rally voters around his call for change before voting Feb.
12.
An estimated 13,000 filled the 1st Mariner Arena in
downtown Baltimore, a gathering of the already convinced
and the curious, to see and hear the man who could very
well become the first African-American president of the
United States.
It was his second event in Maryland that day – only a
few hours before, he had headlined a rally at the Univer-
sity of Maryland, College Park’s Comcast Center.
This is a movement
to change to world.
The contrasts between the two events were marked.
In College Park, the crowd was entertained by the
hip-hop and pop sounds of a 92Q deejay. In Baltimore,
attendees listened to some old school funk and rock and
the accomplished, though somewhat melancholy stylings
of 14-year-old violinist Josh Coyne.
In College Park, the delirious crowd of youngsters
released pent up excitement in independent outbursts of
chants, I-love-you-Obamas and applause. In Baltimore,
the crowd of retirees, college students and a liberal helping
of suited professionals was more sedate, waiting for or-
chestrated cheers and scarcely uttering a complaint when 5
p.m. rolled by without an appearance by the candidate.
There was a common denominator, however.
I don’t care if I have to stay here until
tomorrow. I’m not leaving this line.
When Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings
stood and welcomed to the stage “the next president of
the United States,” the sleeping crowd in Baltimore came
alive, erupting into a cheer that seemed to swell beyond
the walls of the arena.
“I’ve got your back, Obama!” one woman screamed.
“It’s your time! It’s your time! It’s your time!” the
crowd promised.
Cummings said the record attendance at Obama
events across the country signifies that the senator’s bid for
the presidency is more than just a campaign. “This is not a
campaign for the presidency of the United States, this is a
movement to change to world,” Cummings said.
When Obama started his campaign almost a year
ago, he trailed former first lady Sen. Hillary Clinton of
New York by deep margins and according to common
wisdom, the Democratic race would be in Clinton’s favor
on Super Tuesday.
Instead, Obama leads in the number of primary and
32 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
caucus victories, winning 19 states compared to Clin-
ton’s 12 and cutting his opponent’s lead in the number
of delegates. Clinton currently has 1,136 delegates to
the Democratic National Convention, while Obama has
1,108.
Obama is expected to win a significant portion of
the 238 delegates up for grabs in the Potomac Primaries
on Tuesday. The senator has the backing of many area
leaders, including Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, Mary-
land Attorney General Doug Gansler, Comptroller Peter
Franchot, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, Virginia Gov.
Tim Kaine and several of that state’s local and national
lawmakers.
In Virginia, which has open party elections, Obama
has a 16 percentage point lead over Clinton, possibly
because of his support among independents.
According to the survey by Mason-Dixon Polling
& Research Inc. of likely Democratic primary voters, 53
percent support Obama while 37 percent lean towards
rival Hillary Clinton.
And he seems to be garnering more supporters by the
AFRO FILE PHOTOS
hour. “He won my vote; I wasn’t sure who I was voting
for before today,” said Joseph Davis of Baltimore after the
candidate’s speech.
Davis said he liked Obama’s plans for universal
health care; his plans to provide a $4,000 credit to college
students in exchange for community service and his idea
of expanding the focus of No Child Left Behind beyond
testing to music, art and other ways of assessing students’
progress.
Obama also laid out his plans to pursue a foreign Alfre Woodard leads
policy that included “talking to both friends and enemies”
and raising America’s standing in the world. He promised hundreds at Morgan
to end the war in Iraq and bring troops back home within
a year; to ensure that veterans weren’t homeless or reduced State Obama rally
to begging; to support companies that did not ship jobs
oversees and to cap the emission of greenhouse gases. By Sean Yoes
Afro Staff Writer
His policies resemble his opponent’s in many ways,
but what distinguishes Obama can be summed up in
one word, Cummings said. “A year ago when Senator Baltimore, Md – Hundreds of enthusiastic support-
ers of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama
Obama started this campaign, this movement, he had no
money, he was 40 points behind in the polls, the pundits braved brutal winds and bitter cold to further fuel the
campaign they hope will propel the Illinois Senator to a
much-needed primary victory in Maryland this week.
They packed the Turpin-Lamb Theater on the
campus of Morgan State University to hear many of
Baltimore’s top Obama backers as well as Wisconsin
Congresswoman Gwen Moore and award-winning actress
did not even know his name,” Cummings said. “He was Alfre Woodard.
“This is the time for change,” said Woodard, winner
unknown, unappreciated and unapplauded, but he had
some things going for him. He had the courage of his of an Emmy and Golden Globe award. “Let us get back
to what we aspire to be as a nation, change how we look
convictions. He had great ideas. But he had something
else, H-O-P-E.” personally and how we look at ourselves collectively.”
The event was hosted by Maryland state Sen. Verna
It’s a quality that has seemed to grab the attention
of a country in the throes of a recession and an unwanted Jones, chair of Maryland Women for Obama, the group
that sponsored the rally. “Sen. Obama wants to make sure
war; a country that has been reduced in the eyes of the
international community and an electorate that appears women are integrated into every facet of his campaign,
every facet of his future.” Jones said.
hungry for a change in status quo.
“I was betting on the fact that Americans were hun- A number of local elected officials were there in
support of Obama, including state Sen. Lisa Gladden, Bal-
gry for a new kind of politics,” Obama told the cheering
crowd, “that they were tired of a politics that was all about timore Deputy Mayor Salima Siler Marriott, City Council
President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the city’s State’s
tearing each other down and were more interested in a
politics of lifting the country up, that people were tired of Attorney Pat Jessamy.
We’re here this evening to talk about “Barack-ing”
being tricked, bamboozled, fooled and hoodwinked
“They recognize that the last thing we need is to have the vote,” Jessamy exclaimed as she stepped to the stage.
Jessamy, who is originally from Mississippi, spoke
the same cast of characters, doing the same old things,
playing the same old games, running the same old okey- about the guidance she received from her 90-year-old
mother.
doke and somehow expect a different result. We need a
change, a new direction and that’s why I am running for “She registered to vote in Mississippi in 1940, when
president of the United States.”
 JANUARY 2009

1 percent of African Americans were registered to vote,”

she said. “She said, `Baby, the time is now.’ She tells me
this man has what takes. Hope is on the way. Change is on
Salima Siler Marriott echoed Jessamy’s sentiments.
“We know that we can do this,” she said. “We need to
make this happen in a big way in Maryland.”
the way. Unity is on the way.
After singing and a poem by a choir of Morgan State
University students, Congresswoman Moore said, “Hope
is on the way. Change is one the way. Unity is on the
way.”
Then she invoked the Biblical story of David versus
Goliath.
“We have to show up for the showdown just like
David did,” she said.
Towards the end of the evening Woodard asked those
in attendance to hold up their hands and look at them.
“With our hands our people have been writing his-
tory in this country for hundreds of years,” Woodard said.
“You have the power in your hands right now to change
the course of history.”
At the very end of the evening Rep. Elijah Cum-

AFRO FILE PHOTOS

mings, co-chair of Obama’s campaign in Maryland, talked
about how the Obama revealed his plans for the presi-
dency.
“About a year ago he said, `I’m running for president
of the United States.’” Cummings told the crowd. “I said,
‘Can you win?’ He said, `I will win.’”

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 33

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- CHESAPEAKE PRIMARIES
Supporters put
Obama at lead of
crusade
By Jack White
Special to the AFRO
RICHMOND, Va. – Here are two telling scenes
from the unfolding political drama that will reach its
climax with Democratic presidential primaries Tuesday in
Maryland, the District and Virginia:
First, there was Hillary Clinton shaking hands with
party activists moments after delivering a well-crafted ap-
peal to the heavily attended Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner
on Saturday night, the Virginia Democratic Party’s most
important annual fund-raiser, when from the rafters of the
cavernous basketball stadium in downtown Richmond,
swelled a resounding, rhythmic chant, “Obama! Obama!
Obama!” drowning out her exit from the hall in a wave of
adulation for her opponent.
Fast forward to the moment when Obama, propelled
by decisive wins in Louisiana, Nebraska, the state of Wash-
ington State and American Samoa Saturday, bounded
unto the same podium where Clinton had spoken, then
bringing the audience to its feet with a pledge to turn the
page to “a new chapter in American history.”
Almost palpable delirium filled the hall.
Taken together, the contrasting images illuminate the
contours of what has become known as the Chesapeake
primary. Clinton is running a solid traditional campaign.
Obama, on the other hand, is at the head of a crusade.
Our party can’t stand for business
as usual in Washington.
That could be enough to sweep him to victory
in all three contests Tuesday. A poll conducted for the
Richmond Times-Dispatch and other state newspapers
gave him a 53 percent to 37 percent edge over Clinton in
Virginia.
As in previous primaries, Obama leads among
Black, young, and better-educated voters, while Clinton
is stronger among older, White voters, especially women,
and those who believe that experience counts the most in
selecting a candidate.
Clinton sought to build on that advantage by
stressing that her proposal for healthcare reform, unlike
Obama’s, mandates universal enrollment, an issue with
particular appeal to female voters.
She scarcely mentioned Obama by name during her
address, focusing instead on the presumed Republican
nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, whom she accused
of choosing to “be more of the same” as President George
W. Bush. She closed with an impassioned reference to abo-
litionist Harriet Tubman’s exhortation to escaping slaves
to “keep on going” no matter how difficult and dangerous
the journey.
But whatever excitement she generated was soon lost
in the raucous chanting from hordes of young Obama
supporters who jammed the upper tiers of the arena,
where walls were dominated by Obama signs so huge that
they made Clinton’s smaller banners almost invisible.
34 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
Obama’s speech, with its echoes of the styles of King
and Kennedy, made Clinton’s seem almost prosaic. The
message was change, not only as an aspiration but also as
winning political tactic. “Our party can’t stand for busi-
ness as usual in Washington,” he thundered.
He contended that his unvarying opposition to the
war in Iraq, refusal to accept contributions from lobbyists
and attractiveness to independent voters make it more
likely that he can defeat McCain. “There’s a reason why
the last six polls show that I’m the strongest candidate,”
Obama said to loud applause before departing on another
wave of frenzied chanting.
It was his night.
AFRO FILE PHOTOS
Voters turn out
in force for hope,
change
By James Wright
AFRO Staff Writer
Janice Thorpe, the election judge for Central High
School polling place in Capitol Heights, Md., knew her
work was cut out for her when she arrived at the polls at
6:30 a.m.
“There were already people in line,” Thorpe said.
“When we opened up at 7 a.m., there were 300 people
waiting to come in to vote.”
Thorpe said that she noticed that this election was
different from others.
“People really want to vote,” she said. “There are
people who have been kicked out of the system because
they had not registered to vote in years, but they are here
and they want to vote.”
Lena Madison walked proudly out of the Central
High polling place. A resident of Prince George’s County
for 31 years, she put on her black hat, covered herself with
her yellow heavy sweater and went to her car with her
head held high. A cold rain began to trickle down on her
but that could not keep the twinkle out of her eye and a
smile.
Why was she so happy?
“I have been living in Prince George’s County for a
long time,” she said. “I never thought that I would live to
see the day that I would be able to vote for a Black man
that might be president.”
Madison was among the thousands of Black Prince
George’s County residents who braved the ice and rain to
vote in the Feb. 12 Democratic Party primary election.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and his winning campaign for
the party nomination motivated many to come out and
vote.
AP PHOTO
 JANUARY 2009

Some voters looked beyond the political races and

viewed the vote as a matter of civic duty. “Voting is my When we opened 2008
up at 7 a.m. there
obligation, no matter who the candidates are,” Chaz
Crawford of Largo, Md., said. “Voting is a privilege and
people died for this right. I don’t think it is right to waste March 13 – On “Good Morning
this opportunity.”
Crawford voted at the Largo-Kettering Library in
were 300 people America,” ABC airs clips of some
Largo, one of the county’s heaviest precincts. According to
the election judge, John Gordon, there were 489 voters by waiting to come in controversial sermons delivered
by Obama’s then pastor, the
the 11 a.m. count and 833 by the time Crawford got in
line at 3 p.m. “The turnout looks good,” Gordon said. to vote. Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in which
There were only 13 people at the polls at Suit-
land High School in Suitland at 2 p.m. That was not a
he asserted that the Sept. 11
disappointment to Debbie Culbreth-Washington, the terrorist attacks were a function of
election judge there. “We are taking a breather,” Culbreth-
Washington, said. “It has been pretty good today with the
cause and effect, and that African
crowds coming on and off.” Americans should sing “God damn
Culbreth-Washington said that after the morning America” instead of “God bless
rush, it had mainly been senior citizens voting. She said
that would change at 3 p.m. “when people start coming America.” Wright’s comments
home from work.” gain traction and draws negative
George Chapman, the judge at Seat Pleasant Elemen-
tary School in Seat Pleasant, Md., said that a mixture has attention to the Obama campaign.
come by to vote. “Generally we see the seniors but a little

AP PHOTO
bit of everybody has come by,” he said. “I am delighted at
the number of young people who are here to vote. That is March 18 – Obama delivers the
encouraging.” speech, “A More Perfect Union,”
at the National Constitution Center
in Philadelphia. In the speech,
later called his speech on race in
America, the candidate attempts
to place Wright’s comments in a
historical and sociological context,
though he does denounce the
sermons as “not only wrong but
divisive.”

June 3 – After defeating Sen.

Hillary Clinton in the final primaries,
Obama declares in St. Paul, Minn.,
“I can stand before you and say
that I will be the Democratic
nominee for President of the
United States.”

July - To buttress his international

and foreign affairs credentials,
Obama travels to Europe where he
is enthusiastically received.
AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 35

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- OHIO

Ohio

A
AFRO stories from Feb. 29 – March 4, 2008

t this point in the cam-
paign, it was clear the
race was going to contin-
ue for a while before the
Democratic nominee was selected.
Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Ba-
rack Obama continued to split wins
and delegates, with Obama gain-
ing momentum with each primary.
Issues of race and gender continued
to present a quandary, especially for
the African-American women voters
interested in finding a change agent
and unsure which candidate would
provide the most upset to the status
quo.
The Black church, while walking the strict line of
a non-profit, continued to get the word out about
the importance of casting a vote and found ways to
convey their support of Obama.
Also of importance to voters in Ohio – along with
the candidates’ positions on jobs and foreclosures
– was information on their urban policy. This is
something neither candidate seemed to address to the
voters satisfaction during their stops in the state.
The issues in the Ohio primaries were not restricted
to those put on the table by the candidates. All eyes
were on the state to see if the underlying elections
issues so rampant in 2004 would be resolved. Of-
ficials had been hard at work to fix the problems and
were anxious for the election to happen to erase the
negative perceptions.

further compounding the ability to predict Tuesday’s

Race and gender still

splitting vote in Ohio
By Zenitha Prince
Afro Washington Bureau Chief
CLEVELAND – Local City Councilman Kevin
Conwell is testimony that Barack Obama is the presiden-
tial candidate of change. Before Obamamania swept up
the country and apparently Hillary Clinton along with it,
he was firmly in the Clinton camp. After his constituents
let him know in no uncertain terms that they were back-
ing Obama, he changed his mind.
“My residents sat me down and talked to me,”
AP PHOTO
outcome.
“When I heard she was running, I thought, ‘At
last,’ said Susan Soden of Columbus, as she stood in
the snow passing out Clinton campaign literature. “I
could not live with myself as a woman if I did not vote
for her.”
Eileen Hamblen, a registered nurse from Cleve-
land, agrees. Her reason: “Men have screwed up for so
long, I think it’s time for a woman.”
In voting elsewhere across the country, Obama
has won the overwhelming majority of the Black vote,
including those of Black women Many expect him to
continue that pattern in Ohio.
Constituent’s

recalled Conwell, who was the recipient of a stream
of e-mails and a barrage of angry telephone calls. “My
residents love me because I changed my mind. What they
are mad about now is when I run out of Barack Obama
lawn signs.”
While Conwell followed the lead of Rep. John
Lewis, a prominent Clinton supporter from Georgia who
switched his endorsement to Obama, others, such as Ohio
State Rep. Eugene Miller, remain loyal to the New York
senator.
“I was on board from day one,” Miller stated. “There
has never been a doubt in my mind.”
He said there is another reason he is sticking with
Clinton: “I gave my word,”
The separate routes charted by Conwell and Miller
makes it more difficult to predict the outcome of the
March 4 Democratic primary here.
The latest polls show that Obama has won over large
chunks of Clinton’s base. Clinton continues to hold the
advantage among women, 52 percent to 41 percent. Black
women, a key Democratic group, are deciding between
an African-American and a woman. And their choices are
voices swaying
elected officials
support.
There seems to be little doubt that Obama will
carry large urban areas, such as Cleveland and Colum-
bus, where most African-Americans live.
“His community organizing skills bring him
closer to voters,” said City Councilman Conwell, who
switched to the Obama bandwagon. “They feel he has
genuine concern and a sensitive ear to the common
people’s concerns.”
Some casting their ballot on Tuesday are elated
that an African-American has a real opportunity to win
his Party’s nomination and go on to become president
of the United States.
Dave Ali, 56, owner of the People’s Marathon
AP PHOTO
Gas Station on 117th Street in Cleveland, pointing to
the walls of his shop that are festooned with Obama
paraphernalia,said, “When I heard he was running I had
tears in my eyes.”
He turned to Miller and said, “You don’t remember
going to [restaurants] and not being able to eat a ham-
burger because you were a ‘nigger.’ Do you know what his
becoming president will do for our race?”
Ali was among those pressuring Miller to abandon
Hillary Clinton. He explained, “I knew Eugene as a kid. I
love him and I’m proud of him, but I’m trying to get him
on the right side of history.”
Christopher Leake, a 26-year-old Clinton volun-
teer, has also been feeling pressure. And so far, he has not
capitulated. “I get a lot of pressure,” he said. “I’m a Black
man in his 20s with an Ivy League education, so they
figure I should be supporting Obama, but I’m a lost cause
at this point.”

36 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

 JANUARY 2009

AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 37

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- TEXAS
Texas
AFRO stories from Feb. 27 – March 4, 2008
B
y March 4, the majority of
primaries had been de-
cided. Sen. Barack Obama
was slightly ahead in the
race for the nomination. Sen. Hil-
lary Clinton was not giving up and
campaigning increasingly nega-
tively.
Negative attacks, an effort to sway voters away from
Obama, were not going well and was generating criti-
cism from the voters and causing anxiety within the
Democratic Party.
Obama campaign
continues to
energize new voters
By E. Mosely
(Special from The HOUSTON DEFENDER)
A long line wrapped around the Toyota Center and
down Bell Street, but it wasn’t the Rockets, a pop star or
just any traveling show that drew the large crowds.
People flocked to see presidential candidate Sen.
Barack Obama (D-Ill. ) at a Feb. 19 rally to catch Obama
fever.
The passion to see and hear Obama came from some
unlikely places.
“I don’t know it’s just something different this elec-
tion,” Gregory Pippin said. “I’m just more interested in
what he has to say than the same ole politics as usual. ”
A change in policy and politics is also what drew
Houstonian Tammy Dawson to the rally. “I think this is
just history in the making,” Dawson said. “I’m a strong
supporter of Barack Obama and I would like to say, not
just because he’s Black, just everything that he stands for. I
think he familiarizes himself with the common people and
I think that’s what we so need at this time and this hour of
our lives. ”
The historical impact of Obama was evident in Har-
ris County as he encouraged the audience to vote early.
On the first day, the Democratic primary drew 9,243
people who voted in person compared to 2,916 people
who voted in person in the Republican primary. If the
Democratic primary draws on the remaining days only
1/3 of the people it did on the first day of early voting,
then it will still be on track to break the voter turnout
record in the 2004 Democratic primary. That year 17,211
people voted early.
Dawson and other Obama supporters like Mona
Simmons agreed that Obama drew people to the polls
who had not voted in the past. Simmons and her husband
38 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
How voters – already polarizing around each of the
historic campaigns – would behave after the Demo-
cratic National Convention had becoming a concern.
Would Clinton backers rally around Obama as the
nominee? Would Black voters feel robbed and forego
the polls altogether in November if Clinton got the
nod? And how would elected officials, that early on
pledged themselves to Clinton, deal with the backlash
from their constituents that were now, in large num-
bers, casting their votes for Obama?
In the midst of these questions, Obama continued
to reach new voters in all segments of the electorate,
speaking to increasingly larger crowds and continuing
to raise record amounts of money.
Kevin relocated to Houston after Hurricane Katrina.
“I’ve got people back at home in Louisiana who’ve
never voted and they went out to the Louisiana primary,”
Simmons said. “He’s bringing out a whole new crowd. ”
Simmons said she agreed with “pretty much” all of
Obama’s policies and likedthat he has done well despite
being raised by a single mother. She said attending the
rally is the “equivalent of hearing Dr. Martin Luther King
speak. ” Her husband agreed.
“I think it’s historical in the fact that we finally have a
chance to put someone in office who’s really going to make
a change,” Kevin Simmons said. “We’ve been for eight
years now, in my opinion, under very horrible govern-
ment. I think we had a president that was disconnected.
We needs somebody that has seen both sides of life and
knows what’s needed out there. ”
He’s bringing out a whole new crowd.
Jennifer Pammit of Missouri City said Obama is
a candidate that connects with younger people, which
is why his presence has created so much excitement.
“Houstonians have been ready for a change but when
you have the people in power not listening or provid-
ing our basic needs, our generation stops listening and
has no motivation to participate in making a change and
just conforms,” 28-year-old Pammit said. “It takes the
right candidate to get our generation motivated again
and as senator he’s been a force. If you take a look at the
thousands of Houstonians that came to support, you feel
that excitement, you feel that change is definitely about to
happen and with Barack Obama . . . it will. ”
Obama told supporters that if elected president
he would: reform health care by providing a universal
plan that ensures everyone has the opportunity to have
health insurance at least as good as he has as a member of
Congress; provide college students with a $4,000 tuition
credit and in return students must do community service;
end the Iraq war by 2009; reform education, give more
money to build schools and higher wages for teachers;
roll back tax cuts President George Bush signed into law;
abolish taxes for elderly people who earn below $50,000
a year; create better jobs and reward companies that do
not outsource labor to other countries; and demand that
automakers make more fuel efficient cars.
De’Awn Barkers, a recent Emory University graduate,
said she supports Obama because he seems more inter-
ested in improving the everyday lives of “normal” people
and not just spewing political rhetoric. “I think Obama
has presented a great platform and has plans to improve
many facets of the American economy,” Barkers said. “He
has a forward-looking approach, with an emphasis on cor-
recting unsuccessful plans and past problems sooner rather
than later - sort of a “Why wait?” thought process. ”
But even if Obama is elected, Barkers said he will see
more scrutiny. “What if his ‘promises’ for better education,
healthcare, wages, etc. are left unkept, or if problems he
proposes to fix are not resolved as fast as people desire? If
elected President and his plan of action fails, people may
lose trust in his leadership and lose faith in his change
strategy,” she said.
In the interim, as Election Day approaches, Barkers
said she does have concerns about how his message of
hope will reach America’s more affluent voters. “He will
have made more appearances, but I’m not sure if trying
to affect families/individual’s personal situations will gain
traction with those who are not considered ‘nderprivi-
leged’ or ‘under-represented,’” she said.
Still, the historical significance of that night wasn’t
lost on Matthew Vallie. While he supports Obama’s poli-
cies as well, he admitted that he enjoyed seeing an African
American man have a chance of becoming the next presi-
dent. “I just turned 60 years old two months ago, this may
be my only chance to see a Black man in the presidency,”
Vallie said. “I was just telling my daughter, when you go to
the classroom you’ve got two classes of people; you’ve got
the smart group and then you have the rest of the class.
We’re in the smart class because all the smart people are
voting for Barack. ”
After his speech, Obama departed leaving his crowd
of adoring supporters to pack up and go home. But, for a
moment, the sea of faces — Black, white, Asian, Hispanic,
young and old — all joined to watch history unfold. “In
our generation we learn about (history) in textbooks and
we see it on TV, but to actually be here,” Pammit said. “I
can’t really describe it. I can look back and say, ‘Wow, I
was a part of history. ’”
AP PHOTO
 JANUARY 2009

2008
Aug. 23 – Obama returns to
Springfield, Ill, to announce his
pick of Sen. Joe Biden as his vice
presidential running mate.

Aug. 28—Obama delivers his

nomination acceptance speech
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO
before a crowd of more than
80,000 at Invesco Field at Mile
High in Denver, Co., capping
the 2008 Democratic National
Convention.

Oct 19 - Former Secretary of State

Colin Powell broke with his party
to endorse Obama. “He has both
style and substance. I think he is
a transformational figure,” Powell
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO
said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 39

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- PENNSYLVANIA
Pennsylvania
P
AFRO stories from April 13 – 23, 2008
ennsylvania was the largest
of the 10 remaining pri-
maries that pitted Barack
Obama against Hillary
Clinton for the Democratic Party’s
presidential nomination. And the
state was a struggle for both candi-
dates.
While the Democratic establishment there was firmly
and vocally behind Clinton, Obama’s message of
change, hope and inclusion was reaching the voters – at
least the African-American ones – loud and clear. The
contrast between the stance of elected officials in the
state and the opinions of their constituents, as it related
to which candidate to choose, was particularly striking.
Candidates get
tough on trade at
forum
Both promise to end outsourcing
and unfair foreign trade practices
By Christian Morrow
Courier Staff Writer
Though both Democratic presidential hopefuls
were in the same room at Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence
Convention Center, they did not address the Alliance
for American Manufacturing April 14 forum at the same
time. So while they did take a few shots at each other –
and at Republican candidate John McCain – the damage
was minimal.
The forum, sponsored by the alliance, U.S. Steel, A K
Steel, ArcelorMittal, and the United Steelworkers, allowed
the candidates to address issues of job outsourcing, unfair
foreign trade practices – particularly involving China, and
the current lack of trade agreement sanction enforcement.
AFRO FILE PHOTOS
40 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
The people of Pennsylvania came looking for the
candidates to address a variety of critical issues – low-
income housing, the loss of jobs, unions and trade
issues – in addition to ones already getting national at-
tention. While on most fronts the voters were satisfied,
many called for the candidates to speak more about
housing issues not related to the country’s foreclosure
problems.
AFRO FILE PHOTOS
Negative campaigning was bumped up a notch here,
with some calling Obama weak for not striking back
forcefully.
Despite winning the state, this approach hurt Clinton
more and it showed in her margin of victory. While she As for outsourcing, she pointed to a company in
won the state, she did not close the gap between herself Indiana that made the magnets used in the targeting
and front-runner Obama, and with each day is less mechanisms of U.S. smart bombs. Despite numerous pleas
likely to be able to win the Party’s nomination. for the Bush administration to kill the deal, it was bought
by a foreign company – a Chinese company. “They’re
building a blue-water navy and they intend to compete
Both Sen. Barack Obama, D-Il., and Sen. Hillary with us everywhere,” she said. “I’ve urged President Bush
Clinton, D-NY., pledged to stop unfair foreign trade prac-
tices and vowed to restore the country’s manufacturing
to boycott the Olympic opening ceremony. My opponent
said he is of two minds on that. As a president you’ve got
base. John McCain was invited to attend but declined.
Obama, who spoke first, reminded the audience that
to be able to make up your mind and you’ve got to be able
to stick with your decisions. If you can’t stand up to China
he opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement in
the 1990s and just voted to kill the Columbian Free Trade
over an opening ceremony, how are you going to stand up
to China on trade?”
Agreement. He also reminded the audience that Clinton Clinton said “McBush” is perfectly fine with the U.S.
did not oppose NAFTA. Military outsourcing manufacturing of critical defense sys-
“Now, you can have a debate about whether my posi- tems. She would reinstate “buy America first” provisions
tion is right or wrong. But here’s what you can’t do. You for the defense department, which just authorized buying
can’t spend the better part of two decades campaigning a new fleet of air refueling tankers from France.
for NAFTA and PNTR for China, and then come here “The pentagon said it can’t consider the affect on
to Pennsylvania, and tell the steelworkers you’ve had their the economy in matters of national security,” she said. “A
back all along,” he said. “You can’t say you are opposed strong economy is part of national security.”
to the Columbia Trade deal, while your key strategist is When asked by a steelworker in the audience why
working for the Columbian government to get the deal her husband signed the NAFTA treaty after removing
passed. environmental and labor protections, Clinton got off her
“That’s not respect, that’s just more of the same old best line: “Well as smart as my husband is, he does make
Washington politics – and we can’t afford more of the mistakes,” Clinton responded. “What I will do is to tell
same.” our neighbors Canada and Mexico that we have to renego-
Obama said we should welcome trade with foreign tiate NAFTA or we will pull out of NAFTA and I am on
nations and companies that follow the rules of the road. record having said that.”
But he said China has to be made to respect intellectual
property laws, to allow U.S. goods into its markets, to stop
“dumping” goods on our markets and to stop the currency
manipulation that keeps its money undervalued by about
40 percent.
He blamed a Washington beset by lobbyist for inac-
tion on these issues. “People like you haven’t had a seat at
the table negotiating these deals because the special inter-
ests have bought every seat at the table,” he said. “I don’t
want to wake up in 20 years and find the American Dream
is still out of reach for too many. There is a moment in
the life of every generation where that spirit of unity and
hopefulness has to come through if we’re going to make
our mark on history. This is our moment.”
Clinton, who was not received well when she opened
by trying to score points referencing Obama’s “bitter”
AP PHOTO
comment from the previous weekend, spent more of her
time focusing on remedying the inequities in current trade
deals and actually holding violators accountable.
 JANUARY 2009

2008
Nov. 3 – One day before the
historic election, Obama’s
grandmother, Madelyn Dunham,
dies in Honolulu; she was 85.
Obama temporarily halted his
campaign schedule a week
before to visit Dunham who
raised him and whom he called
a “cornerstone” of his life and
affectionately called “Toot.”

Nov. 4 – Obama is elected to be

the 44th President of the United
AP PHOTO

States of America, the first

African-American to ascend to this
office.
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 41

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina
what’s wrong with Washington,” he said at a town-hall-
style meeting in Durham, N.C., Monday. “Nobody really
believes this gas tax will solve the problem.”
AFRO stories from May 3 – 7, 2008 The Illinois senator said oil companies will likely raise

A
t this point in the race,
there were several issues
before the voters and the
candidates. There was
lots of talk about whether or not
Sen. Barack Obama could actually
win the White House if he man-
aged to grab the nomination.
There was concern over whether he could sway Sen.
Hillary Clinton’s demographic – conservative, rural,
working-class/lower income – of voters in the general
election.
Of concern to North Carolina voters, more than
housing or jobs, was the rising cost of everything, but
most importantly, gasoline. The voters were looking for
leadership and relief on this issue.
Also noteworthy about this race was its importance in
terms of the Democratic Party nomination. Nor-
mally by the time of the North Carolina primary, the
nominee has been decided, but this time, voters in the
state had a heightened significance. The excitement of
this and the historic campaigns could be seen in the
number of new voters and the number of party affilia-
tion switches.
Early, one-stop voting changed the way the candidates
had to address North Carolina voters. With a two week
period to cast their vote, campaigning the weekend
before election day would not have been enough to
reach the undecideds. And with North Carolina being
a must win for Clinton to stay competitive, so this was
very significant indeed.
In the end, Obama prevailed with a staggering win
in the state, coupled with a 2 percentage point loss in
Indiana to effectively shut down Clinton’s hopes of win-
ning the nomination.
prices to make up the difference and, at best, the gas tax
suspension will net voters only $30 over three months, a
claim Congressional budget analysts substantiate. A simi-
lar measure used in Illinois in 2000 which he supported
turned out to be a mistake, Obama said. He later refused
to support a permanent tax respite, partly, because it had
not saved consumers money, he added.
According to a working paper on the policy by the
National Bureau for Economic Research titled, “$2.00
Gas! Studying the Effects of a Gas Tax Moratorium,” the
suspension of the 5 percent sales tax led to decreases in
retail prices of 3 percent, however, the effect of falling
wholesale gas prices was not factored in. And, when the
tax was reinstated, retail prices rose by roughly 4 percent.
Like Obama, economists also are skeptical about the
Clinton-McCain plan.
“It’s really silly,” said Dean Baker, economist and co-
director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
“The vast majority of this money would go to the oil com-

fill up at the pump,” he said.

Gas price is flash
issue in North
Carolina
By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
RALEIGH-DURHAM – Toshiba Price stands in
the British Petroleum gas station beside her minivan. Gas
pump in hand, she watches as the numbers whiz by – $15,
$25, $35, the numbers keep rising.
“I don’t think about it,” Price said, even as her eyes
remain locked on the display. “I’m a Christian so instead
of concentrating on this I just look to a higher power
because if I didn’t, I would faint.”
At about $62.50 the pump clicks off. With all the
running around she has to do, Price said, she’ll be at the
gas station again within two to three days. “I’m a mom of
four kids; my office is way over in North Hills and I live
in Knightdale; I have to pick my kids up from daycare and
drive my son to track meets all over the city and all over
the state,” said Price, who runs a consultation firm that
offers self-help advice to people who have been the victims
of subprime loans.
As the presidential candidates make their way along
the campaign trail, Price’s complaint about soaring gas
prices has become a much sung refrain.
“That’s what’s on everybody’s mind,” said Gene
Mayer, an equipment technician at CREE, an LED tech-
nology company in Durham, N.C.
His colleague Steve Goeller said the price of gasoline
is just one among myriad close-to-the-wallet issues voters
in North Carolina are taking to the ballot box during the
While the loss of jobs dominated the elections in
places like Ohio and Pennsylvania, the cost of gas has
become the flashpoint of public debate as the specter of
an already encroaching summer – and its attendant higher
fuel prices – looms.
According to a Gallup poll released May 1, “Forty-
two percent of Americans say rising gas prices at the pump
are a ‘crisis,’ while 29 percent point to the declining value
of the dollar, 28 percent to rising healthcare costs, 28
percent to the housing debacle, and 20 percent to each of
the following: rising food prices, declining real wages and
job losses,” wrote chief economist Dennis Jacobe in his
analysis.
“My concern is to be able to fit this into my budget,”
Price said of rising fuel prices. “It’s starting to overflow
into my grocery money ... I’m outspending my income.”
As the battle over working-class voters like Price
grows fiercer, gas prices have become the new toss-up in
the tussle between Democratic candidates Sens. Barack
Obama, D-Ill. and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
Following in the wake of Republican nominee John
McCain, Clinton said she would impose a moratorium on
the 5 percent gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day,
the peak driving season. “At the heart of my approach
is a simple belief,” said Clinton at a Graham, N.C. rally
Monday. “Middle-class families are paying too much and
oil companies aren’t paying their fair share to help us solve
the problems at the pump.”
To fund the measure, Clinton said, she would
introduce legislation to impose a windfall-profits tax on
oil companies, an idea that has made its rounds through
Congress over the years.
Contender Sen. Obama disparaged the Clinton offer-
ing as “classic Washington” and “bogus” “gimmick,” and
“a strategy to get through the next election” which fails
to address the long-term problem in a new ad and in an
AP PHOTO

state primary on May 6.

“Taxes are too high, food prices are too high, gas appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
prices are too high ... I’m paying three times as much to “This debate around gas tax is a perfect metaphor for

42 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS


pany. Why on Earth we’d want to do that when they are
already making record profits? The logic is almost crazy.”
Not only would the gas tax suspension siphon money
from the highway trust fund to the tune of about $9 bil-
lion and endanger thousands of jobs, but also, the windfall
profits tax, which Clinton said she will use to fund this tax
relief, will likely not get past the Bush administration, he
added.
“I will absolutely guarantee you will not get a wind-
fall tax while Bush is in the White House,” Baker said.
“She’s telling [voters] that she’s going to decrease the gas
tax but it can’t work. I know this because I’m an econo-
mist.”
When asked about the lack of support for her plan
from economic experts, Clinton derided their take as “elite
opinion” and said she would not put her lot in with them.
“When the federal government, through the Fed and
Treasury, gave $30 billion in a bailout to Bear Stearns, I
didn’t hear anybody jump in and say, ‘That’s not going
according to the market, that’s rewarding irresponsible
behavior,’ “ she said in a town hall meeting organized by
ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”
The tax relief is a clear appeal to hard-pressed,
working-class voters – a stalwart Clinton voting bloc – to
whom even $30 would appear as a good deal. “Sounds
good to me,” said Catherine McLean, a cashier at an
Arby’s fast food restaurant in Raleigh.
Painted by rivals as an elitist after an unwise state-
ment about “bitter” small-town voters in Pennsylvania,
Obama has had much catching up to do among the “ev-
eryman” electorate. It’s a fact he seemed to acknowledge as
he toured small, rural towns throughout North Carolina
and Indiana, held the question-and-answer session with
workers at the CREE plant and offered his idea for im-
mediate aid.
“People need relief right now,” he said. “That is why
I’ve said, let’s put in place the second part of the tax stimu-
lus package that I proposed a long time ago to get some
immediate money in your pockets.”
It’s starting to overflow into my grocery
money ... I’m outspending my income.
Obama also said he would offer a permanent or at
least long-term tax cut to the middle class.
To address the more deep-seated problem – the over
A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
JANUARY 2009
dependence on fossil fuels and its effects – the senator and
his Democratic opponent share similar ideas: They would
invest federal dollars in renewable energy, impose taxes on
oil companies, institute measures to curb global warming
and more.
In fact, this divergence of opinion on the gas tax
respite is fairly rare and it may well decide who wins over
North Carolina voters on Tuesday.
As she heads over to the cashier with credit card in
hand, Price said she agrees with Obama that the tax break
is an inadequate, “short-term, quick-fix” answer to a com-
plex problem. “It’s a temporary solution, not a long-term
solution,” she said. “But, if we’re patient we’ll see how
Barack’s plan will benefit us in the long run.
AP PHOTO
43
 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
DNC
AFRO stories from August 2008
A
fter a tough fight for
votes and primary wins,
the moment of truth
arrived – the Democratic
National Convention. This was
where all the collected delegates
cast their votes to confirm what had
been counted and speculated for
months, that Sen. Barack Obama
had made history as the Democratic
Party’s first African-American
nominee for President of the United
States.
Hillary Clinton
supporters bitter
over nomination loss
By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
DENVER – The race between Sen. Hillary Clinton
and Sen. Barack Obama has been as much a clash between
personalities as it has been a clash between two social
movements, each vying for the ultimate prize. And this
week, those movements come to a head at the Democratic
National Convention as the nation celebrates two anniver-
saries: the 88th anniversary of women winning the right
to vote and the 45th anniversary of civil rights leader Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech.”
For many African Americans, having Sen. Obama
claim the Democratic Party’s first nomination of a Black
candidate on the anniversary of King’s auspicious speech
is the ultimate triumph over centuries of enslavement and
racial discrimination.
I’ve been a Democrat all my life but I will never vote for him.
It’ll be a stolen vote. I’m sitting this one out.
But that victory is overshadowed by a feeling among
Clinton’s supporters that sexism was at the heart of her
loss and that somehow, the Democratic Party was trying
to suppress the voices of the 18 million people who voted
for the New York senator. “Eighty-eight years and we still
don’t count … Eighty-eight years and they’re still trying
to shut us up. We’re 52 percent of the population – we
count,” shouted Betty Jean Kling, her face awash in tears
and her raspy voice tinged with a sharp edge of regret that
cut like a knife.
The Shippensburg, Pa. resident was one of hundreds
who marched from the Civic Center Park as part of the 18
Million Voices march organized by RiseHillaryRise, one of
several grassroots organizations supporting Clinton.
44 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
The fierceness of the fight for the nomination left the
party bruised and divided and while the Convention
provided some room for healing and reconciliation, in
actuality, unity for the Democrats would not come for
many weeks.
The Convention was Obama’s time. He outlined his
policies and gave the American people another op-
portunity to hear his story and understand his very real
experience with a life like most of theirs.
And when all was said and done, Democrats were
ready to move forward and take the White House, the
ultimate prize driving the party to mend its wounds
and unify behind their candidate.
Frani Candlin, of Colorado, a member of grass-
roots Clinton organization Party Unity My A** said of
the event: “We want to send a clear message that the
[Democratic National Committee] and Obama need to
take sexism as seriously as racism.”
Saying she understands more clearly why some Afri-
can American don’t vote, Candlin said many of Clinton’s
female supporters feel like the Democratic Party was
taking them for granted and accusing them of whining
instead of listening to their legitimate concerns. “Women
are being expected to fall in line and support the DNC
without the DNC supporting us,” she said. “And they are
torn apart – they want to support the Democratic Party
but they don’t know what to do with their feelings.”
Carol Parlin, co-coordinator for San Francisco’s
18 Million Voices march said the event on Tuesday was
less a protest and more of a celebration. “We’re at this
interesting point in history where you had the first viable
woman who had the credentials to become president and
so we want to celebrate that achievement along with the
women’s right to vote.”
For her supporters, a proper celebration of the former
first lady’s achievement would have been her inclusion on
the ticket. An act, they say, that would have satisfied the
DNC’s call for unity. “[Fostering unity] could have been
done by simply putting her on the ticket,” said William
Chirolas, 66, from Boston. “[But] Obama doesn’t want
unity; he wants concession to him as the head of the
party.”
Most Clintonites said they will settle for having her
name on the ballot during voting on Wednesday. Though
DNC officials say they expect a smooth process, Clin-
ton’s supporters aren’t so sure. “We are supporting Sen.
Clinton’s candidacy and we want a vote; we want to honor
the 18 million votes for her, the 18 million cracks in the
glass ceiling,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein ( D-Calif.), told the
marchers. “And if you are an elected, pledged, Hillary
delegate – like I am from California-the DNC rules say
honor your conscience. And if the voters elected you, you
should vote for Hillary on the first ballot.”
After much applause Feinstein added, “And then
after Hillary’s candidacy is recognized and respected and
those 18 million voters are recognized we will come out
and support Obama.” Feinstein’s last statement was met
by near silence, signaling a continuing reluctance among
some Clinton supporters for Obama.
To some degree, it signals a belief that the DNC
somehow stole the vote from Clinton. “She is the officially
elected candidate; Obama was selected by the DNC –
[Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and [Senate Majority Leader]
Reid – and the media,” said Cate Sampson, middle-aged
African-American woman from Columbus, Ohio. “I’ve
been a Democrat all my life but I will never vote for him.
It’ll be a stolen vote. I’m sitting this one out.”
For others, it is simply a matter of familiarity. Paul
Moreno, ‘dean’ of the Texas House of Representatives, said
though he would abide with DNC voting process and
support Obama, his “conscience will be with Hillary.”
He said, “I’m a Democrat; I will vote for a Democrat. But
Mexican Americans know Hillary much better than the
senator from Illinois and I still think Hillary would have
been the best representative for [us].”
Others say they just don’t trust the Illinois senator.
Referring to “NAFTA-gate,” an alleged memo sent by
Obama’s campaign to Canadian officials to saying they
should disregard his criticisms of NAFTA – which later
turned out to be false – and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright
imbroglio, Chirolas said though he wants to believe in
Obama, he can’t. If I believed his policy positions I would
vote for him,” he said. “Hillary’s wishing he does pursue
those policies, too, and she’ll do what it takes to elect him.
But I’m done wishing. I’ll write in Hillary’s name or vote
for McCain.”
Chirolas is one among many Clinton supporters who
say they will not vote for the Democrats’ choice, a reality
the Obama camp has yet to accept, Candlin said. “I think
Obama is in the honeymoon stage and it hasn’t really hit
him yet how many women are unhappy,” said Candlin,
who said she has not seen enough effort on the part of
Obama to reach out to Clinton supporters. “I think he
thinks they’re going to come around because they don’t
want to vote for McCain.”
Fifty-two percent would, according to an Aug. 20
NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. However, another 21 per-
cent of Clinton supporters say they will vote for McCain
and another 27 are undecided or will vote for someone
else.
The trend bodes ill for Obama’s chances in the
fall but also for the Democratic Party, some said. Judy
Fralia-Mantello, who came from Portland, Ore., with her
husband Danny declared: “I used to be a strong Democrat
– not any longer because I saw so much corruption in the
Democratic Party this year.”
 JANUARY 2009

AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 45

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

those years ago in Chicago, setting up job training to get

Michelle Obama
brings it home
By George E. Curry
AFRO Staff
DENVER – Michelle Obama claimed a double-vic-
tory Monday night, painting an endearing portrait of her
husband and revealing a softer side of herself, especially as
a wife and mother.
“And I come here as a daughter, raised on the South
Side of Chicago – by a father who was a blue-collar city
worker and a mother who stayed at home with my brother
and me. My mother’s love has always been a sustaining
force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing
her integrity, her compassion, her intelligence reflected in
my daughters,” she said.
“My dad was our rock. And although he was diag-
nosed with multiple sclerosis in his early 30s, he was our
provider. He was our champion, our hero. But as he got
sicker, it got harder for him to walk, took him longer to
get dressed in the morning. But if he was in pain, he never
let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing, even while
struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes
to get himself across the room to give my mom a kiss. He
just woke up a little earlier and he worked a little harder.”
Having made the case for family values without
ever mentioning the term, Michelle Obama linked her
upbringing with that of her husband’s.
“And you know, what struck me when I first met
Barack was that even though he had this funny name,
and even though he had grown up all the way across the
continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine.
He was raised by grandparents who were working-class
folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who
struggled to pay the bills just like we did. And like my
family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have
opportunities that they never had for themselves.”
Michelle Obama explained her role in rearing their
two children, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.
people back to work and after-school programs to keep
kids safe; working block by block to help people lift up
their families. It’s what he did in the Illinois Senate, mov-
ing people from welfare to jobs, passing tax cuts for hard-
working families, and making sure women get equal pay
for equal work. It’s what he’s done in the United States
Senate, fighting to ensure the men and women who serve
this country are welcomed home not just with medals and
parades, but with good jobs and benefits and health care,
including mental health care.”
Michelle’s brother Craig, head basketball coach at
Oregon State University, provided a brother’s perspective.
“Sometimes, when I look at the – the woman you’re
about to hear from, it’s funny to think that this is the same
person who used to wake me up early – and I mean early
– on Christmas morning,” he recalled. “This is the person
who would play the piano to calm me down before my big
games in high school. This is the person who, even though
we were allowed only one hour of television a night, some-
how managed to memorize every single episode of “’The
Brady Bunch.’”
After pausing for laughter, he continued: “But when
I really think back, I can also see how the person she is
today was formed in the experiences we shared growing
up: working hard, studying hard, having parents who
wanted more for us than what they had, and always being
reminded that in this country of all countries those things
were possible.”
In my own life, in my
own life, in my own
small way, I have
tried to give back to
this country that has
given me so much.

AP PHOTO
“I come here as a mom – as a mom whose girls are
the heart of my heart and the center of my world. They’re
the first things I think about when I wake up in the morn-
ing and the last thing I think about before I go to bed at
night. Their future – and all our children’s future – is my
stake in this election.”
Michelle Obama has been criticized by conservatives
for a comment she made about how this campaign was
the first time she had been proud of the United States.
Campaign officials later stated that she meant to say that
she has never been as proud as she is now. To answer that
criticism, the First Lady-in-waiting made repeated refer-
ences to her love for the United States.

‘In my own life, in my own life, in my own small

way, I have tried to give back to this country that has
given me so much. See, that’s why I left a job at a big law
firm for a career in public service, working to empower
young people to volunteer in their communities, because
I believe that each of us – no matter what our age or
background or our walk of life – each of us has something
to contribute to the life of this nation.”
AP PHOTO

She continued, “And it’s a belief Barack shares, a

belief at the heart of his life’s work. See, it’s what he did all

46 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

 JANUARY 2009

AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 47

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY- DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
Speech touched all the right bases
Obama answers
critics while outlining
his vision
By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
DENVER – In the glare of a world-sized spotlight,
Sen. Barack Obama stood, a lone figure in a sea of 84,000
crammed into Invesco Field at Mile High, faced with a
daunting task – giving a speech that would firmly define
his American roots, lay out his agenda for change and offer
a forceful challenge to rival Sen. John McCain and the
Republican Party.
If a campaign can restore that, imagine what
four years in the White House can do.
“Tonight I say to the American people, to Democrats
and Republicans and Independents across this great nation
– enough!” Obama declared, stunning the crowd into a
moment of silence.
“This moment, this election, is our chance to keep,
in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because
next week, the same party that brought you two terms of
George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a
third. … On Nov. 4 we must stand up and say: ‘Eight is
enough.’”
In past weeks, Obama has been dogged by attacks
from McCain and the GOP, who have equated him to
everything from an airhead celebrity to an egotistical
messiah-wannabe, and his supporters have been clamoring
for a more hard-hitting response.
On Thursday, in his speech accepting the Democratic
nomination for president, while Obama did not take a red
meat, attack dog approach – saying he refused to descend
into petty attacks against his rivals “character and patrio-
tism” – he certainly established that he was no pushover.
“He clearly said, I’m not going to let these folks
attack me and not fight back,” said U.S. Donna Edwards,
D-Md., who earlier this year survived a grueling congres-
sional race. “And I think all of us left that stadium hopeful
about the future and convinced that Barack Obama will
be president in January 2009.”
Throughout his speech, Obama counteracted the
attacks against him and offered stark contrasts between
himself and McCain.
On national security: while Obama had the foresight
to oppose the Iraq war, has called for a timetable for troop
withdrawal and has called for resources to be redeployed
to the eradication of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, he said, McCain seems prepared
to perpetuate a misguided war. “If John McCain wants
to have a debate about who has the temperament, and
judgment to serve as the next commander-in-chief, that’s a
debate I’m ready to have,” he said to loud applause.
The GOP candidate has also painted the Illinois sen-
ator as aloof and elitist, a belief that has distanced many
voters. “His biggest challenge as the first African-American
running for president is to convince those recalcitrant
working-class Whites, those 18 million Hillary Clinton
48 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
voters, those coal miners in Appalachia and farmers in
Kentucky that he is on their side and really understands
their issues,” said J. Terry Edmonds, former White House
speechwriter for President Bill Clinton.
Obama answered that challenge with stories of his
mother, who survived on food stamps and later died from
cancer when her insurance wouldn’t cover treatment; and
stories of his grandfather, who fought in Gen. George
S. Patton’s Army and his grandmother who rose from a
secretary to middle management. “I don’t know what kind
of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this
has been mine,” he said. “These are my heroes. Theirs are
the stories that shaped me.”
John McCain, on the other hand, doesn’t know
what happens in the lives of ordinary Americans, Obama
asserted. “Why else would he define middle-class as some-
one making under $5 million a year? … How else could
he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people’s
benefits or an education plan that would do nothing to
help families pay for college or a plan that would privatize
Social Security and gamble your retirement? … Because
John McCain doesn’t get it.”
Accused of being too intellectual, Obama also faced
the task of outlining his platform in simple, direct terms.
“In addition to high rhetoric, he needs to put meat on the
bones and say exactly what change means,” said Edmonds.
“His language has to be a mixture of the poetic and pro-
saic but with much more emphasis on the prosaic.”
And that’s what Obama did, spelling out his agenda
to: cut taxes for 95 percent of working families and capital
AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO
gains taxes on small businesses; reduce dependency on
foreign oil within 10 years while investing $150 billion in
renewable energy; improving sick days and family leave;
reforming bankruptcy laws so that CEOs aren’t favored;
invest in early childhood education and make college
education affordable; resurrect foreign diplomacy and end
the war in Iraq among other policies.
“He laid out a clear agenda for the country that is
in a critical time and he touched on all the issues that
this country will have to confront,” said John Jackson of
Boston.
And for those voters who see him as a stranger, he
gave a clear picture of who he is and what he stands for,
said Charles Perko, 24. “They know now, and if they
don’t, [it’s because] they’re not willing to listen,” said the
Colorado School of Mines student.
Obama’s policies and life experiences spoke directly
to their experiences, said several attendees, including
Joanne Maniche, who grew up with a single mother like
Obama did. “Barack is everyman,” she said. Beside her
stood Christine Yancey, who, with tears streaming down
her face, said that like Obama, she had to fight insurance
companies to get her mother hospitalized and treated for
lymphoma. “That hit home to me,” said Yancey. “I know
he understands the pains of the working-class commu-
nity.”
However, it was Obama’s reference to the 45th anni-
versary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”
speech – a risky move some thought, since it could prove
too overtly racial – that really moved the crowd.
In cadences that flowed like a finely-timed waltz,
Obama referenced King’s words during the historic March
on Washington, conjuring a vision of ordinary citizens –
in this age – from all creeds, races and backgrounds work-
ing together to rebuild a nation whose promise had been a
source of hope to so many.
“And as I looked around the stadium I saw African
Americans, I saw Latinos, I saw Whites who had some
doubts about their country over the past four years –
money spent in the war, the lives lost, what happened with
[Hurricane] Katrina – and saw people once again proud
to be Americans,” Jackson said. “And, if a campaign can
restore that, imagine what four years in the White House
can do.”
 JANUARY 2009
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO
AP PHOTO

A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS 49

 JOURNEY TO VICTORY
AP PHOTO

AP PHOTO L, R
CHRIS METZGER

AP PHOTO

50 A PUBLICATION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS

 President Barack Obama
44th President of the United States