Isaac Lowe remembers how it was for people of color back in the bad old days.
"I grew up in Texas in a town called Wharton," Lowe, 87, recalled while sitting in her wheelchair on the Washington Mall in freezing temperatures Tuesday morning as she waited patiently for Barack Obama to be sworn in as America's first black president.
"Back in those days, Texas was one of the worst states in the United States," Wharton said. "They had school buses for all of the white kids. But the black kids had to walk."
President Obama reminisced about the bad days as well. But, like Lowe, he reviewed the past only to revel in the nation's new present and optimistic future despite hard times.
"This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed -- why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall," Obama said in his 20-minute inauguration.
"And why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath."
It was a thrilling moment for Lowe, who has been frank about her pessimism that she would ever live to see such a moment.
"This is the most wonderful day of my life. It's like the answer to a prayer," she said. "I never thought we'd have a black president in my lifetime. But Obama was the right man for these times. And he's so intelligent."
Dozens of nationally prominent civil rights leaders were given seats of honor at the inauguration. The Rev. Joseph Lowery, who took helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King, gave a benediction that was a crowd pleaser.
"We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around," Lowery said.
Lowe was also given preferential treatment, being seated within 100 yards of the podium where Obama took the oath. She'd worked for years with the Martin Luther King Jr. Center and the Shasta County Citizens Against Racism. In 1993, Lowe was named Citizen of the Year for Redding, Calif.
But, like everyone else, she had to struggle with the massive crowds. The Washington Post estimates that nearly 2 million crowded the national mall and the inaugural parade route, a new record for any mass gathering in the nation's capital.
"The crowds were just terrible," Isaac said. "But they were also very friendly and kind to an old lady in her wheelchair."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
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