Church group heads to Washington

As a young member of the NAACP in the summer of 1963, Evelyn Barbour took a crowded bus from Charlottesville up to Washington to watch as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
Today, nearly a half-century later, Barbour will again ride a bus from Charlottesville to Washington — this time to see Barack Obama take the oath of office to become the first black president of the United States.

“This is history in the making,” said Barbour, a retired Albemarle County teacher. “I want to be among the people able to say and pass along to generations unborn that I was there and witnessed it as it happened.”
Barbour was among 100 people expected to depart from Charlottesville’s Mount Zion First African Baptist Church at 4 a.m. today aboard two chartered buses.
The members of the church group are among hundreds of Charlottesville-area residents heading to Washington today to attend Obama’s historic inauguration as the country’s 44th president. Many more will travel through the Charlottesville region today on their way to the proceedings in Washington. Several Charlottesville-area hotels reported heavy bookings in connection with today’s inauguration.

Yvette Pleasants, a Charlottesville resident who helped to organize today’s Mount Zion bus trip, said the swearing-in of Obama marks a momentous moment in American history. It has, she added, a profound level of importance for many black Americans, particularly those — such as her — who lived through the struggles of the civil rights era.
“It means a whole lot,” she said. “I’m just so proud. It’s long overdue. It was God’s plan.”
Pleasants, who works in Albemarle County’s human resources department, is bringing her 8-year-old grandson with her on today’s trip to the inauguration.
“This is something that he’ll always remember,” she said.
Most of the people riding the buses from Mount Zion do not have tickets to the actual inauguration ceremony, but they planned to watch the proceedings via the 20 JumboTron screens being set up along the National Mall.
“People want to be a part of history, man,” said Jack Ridley Jr., who also helped to organize the bus trip. “It’s one of the biggest points in American history. They want to go even if it’s crowded, even if it’s cold. They just want to be there in the atmosphere. They want to be able to tell their kids and their grandkids that they were there to see the first African-American be sworn in as president.”
Ridley, who volunteers with the church’s youth ministry, said he was hoping to pick up inauguration souvenirs while in Washington to hand out to young members of Mount Zion.

Ridley and the others heading to the inauguration can expect big crowds. Some 2 million people are projected to attend Obama’s inauguration, a sum that would exceed the previous record of 1.2 million that was set in 1965 by Lyndon B Johnson’s inauguration.
The inaugural attendees can also expect subfreezing weather, with possible snow flurries.
Ridley, a Keswick resident who works as the operations supervisor of Charlottesville’s transit system, said the arguably uncomfortable conditions would not dissuade the group from Mount Zion. “You can’t focus on the negatives,” he said. “It’s about witnessing history.”

M. Rick Turner, president of the Albemarle-Charlottesville NAACP branch, is attending the inauguration today with his family and his wife’s family, who flew in from California. Obama’s inauguration, he said, is an especially poignant moment in history and marks a step forward for America.
“People my age and older never thought there would be an African-American president,” Turner said. “It brings tears to a lot of people’s eyes.”
Turner added, however, that he believes Obama will be distinguished as a president regardless of his race.
“Obama has probably one of the brightest minds and one of the clearest hearts of anyone who has taken the office of the American presidency in a long time,” Turner said. “It’s a time of joy for the African-American community and for the country.”