From King to Obama, history unfolds, comes full circle

WASHINGTON – Lee Robert Jones waited 69 years for today.

Jones, a black man originally from Mississippi, remembers a time when he couldn’t walk down the street without lowering his head in the presence of a white person for fear of being killed.

Monday was his first chance to witness history coming full circle.

Jones and his son-in-law, Roderick Kennedy, were standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They were standing in the place of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. They were also just 20 hours from the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first black president.

That’s when John Cusick, a white man from Chicago, began passing around the text to Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech. And 45 years after it began, the same speech was read again.

But this time, black and white spoke together.

“Next thing you know, people started gathering around, and it just got more powerful and just started getting bigger, and next thing you know tears was coming to my eyes; I was getting hoarse,” Kennedy said. “It was very emotional.”

Looking down the reflecting pool toward the Washington Monument, the group’s eyes rested on the Capitol building far in the distance, where Obama would give his inaugural address the next morning as the nation’s first black president.

By the time the speech finished, a small crowd had gathered, some crying, one man thanking Jones and Kennedy for what his young son had just witnessed.

The pair drove from Louisville, Ky., and, like most of the other spectators of the Inauguration, don’t have tickets to the swearing-in ceremony. They plan to head downtown around 3 a.m. today to get a spot on the Mall. About two million people are expected to stand in a long stretch that extends from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol building.

“We’re going to be right out here with the people in the cold,” Kennedy said. “We don’t care if we have tickets, we just want to be here on the ground and say that we were here.”

Jones smiled at the celebration that had formed around the memorial, reflecting on his past and how the dream had been realized.

“You have to be oppressed to actually know what freedom means,” Jones said. “For people to join in with me knowing that I know what freedom means to people, it’s unspeakable.”

Kennedy echoed the emotion that captured the crowd.

“To be able to stand on these steps where Lincoln is and to be able to read the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech is just the most powerful thing I’ve ever been involved in in my life,” Kennedy said. “I’m just happy that I was able to do it with him.”

Jones and Kennedy represented just two people within the swarm of Americans that poured into Washington Monday afternoon anticipating Obama’s inauguration. Despite bitter cold, large crowds, and limited tickets, spectators said they just wanted to be there for the historic moment, whether they could see it or feel it.

One woman described Tuesday’s ceremony as “reclaiming America’s reputation.”

Others just kept describing their excitement to be able to tell their children and grandchildren “I was there” – a phrase that could be found on the stickers and buttons sold throughout the downtown.

Ray Mooring of Atlanta said history was the only reason he needed for driving to Washington, even though he is ticketless and will likely be separated from Obama by several city blocks or even a couple of miles.

“There’s only one first,” Mooring said of Obama’s milestone as the first black president. “History becomes history when he becomes president.”

Two sisters from Atlanta also sat on the memorial’s steps and discussed their plans to find a spot on the mall by 6 a.m. Wednesday. Worries of not seeing much didn’t bother them, said one of the sisters, Gretchen Heurich.

“There’s a different little feeling in the air,” Heurich said. “It’s like things have come full circle.”

Jessie Griffin, from Pittsfield, Mass., who also lacked a ticket, said she was there “just to be in the aura of everything that’s going on.”

“Martin had his day; now it’s Obama’s day,” she said. “It’d be a good thing if he were alive to see this moment.”