'I never thought that I would see this day'
Vermonters of color savor the moment
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Terrance Richardson of Rutland is a Barack Obama supporter. Albert J. Marro |
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By DANIEL BARLOW
Vermont Press Bureau - Published: November 9, 2008
One of Terrance Richardson's early memories is of being 4 years old and witnessing a race riot break out in the streets of Newark, N.J., where he was living with his mother and sisters.
Forty-one years later, Richardson, now a resident of Rutland, watched as the first black president of the United States was elected. He had proudly voted for the Democrat earlier that day.
"I never thought that I would see this day," says Richardson, who is black. "Heck, I never thought my kids would see this day. We went from Rosa Parks to Dr. Martin Luther King and now to this."
Vermont was the first state to outlaw slavery, in 1777, and the first to elect a black legislator, in 1836, but its minority population is a tiny fraction of the whole.
According to 2007 U.S. Census figures, Vermont and Maine had the highest percentage of non-Hispanic white residents – 96 percent.
A New York Times story in 1987 on race relations in Vermont noted that the state, which then had about 1,200 black residents among a population of 530,000, had "no black lawyers … no black judges and no black Cabinet members or department heads in state government."
Vermont's official face doesn't look much different now. Robert Appel, the executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Commission, says Vermonters of color have held top leadership positions in and out of state government, but right now there are few examples to point to.
"There are African-American lawyers in Vermont, but I don't think there are any judges," he said Friday. "Things are changing, but progress here in Vermont has been slow."
Major Jackson is a prominent African-American poet teaching English at the University of Vermont in Burlington. Watching election results at his home Tuesday night with his 15-year-old son Langston, Jackson recalls, his first reaction was shock.
He adds that his thoughts quickly drifted to his ancestors and the long civil rights struggle that eventually led to Barack Obama being elected the 44th U.S. president. The election is also vital to his son, he says, who learned about politics and national elections by watching this one and studying the prior ones in school.African-American poet teaching English at the University of Vermont in Burlington. Watching election results at his home Tuesday night with his 15-year-old son Langston, Jackson recalls, his first reaction was shock.
He adds that his thoughts quickly drifted to his ancestors and the long civil rights struggle that eventually led to Barack Obama being elected the 44th U.S. president.
The election is also vital to his son, he says, who learned about politics and national elections by watching this one and studying the prior ones in school.
"I made sure I told him each time I made a donation online to Obama," Jackson says.
Jackson hasn't written a poem yet about the vote – although he notes that "hundreds and hundreds of poets" will create art based on their feelings at seeing Obama elected. More interesting to Jackson than the joy artists feel is art that also represents the weight the new president will carry.
"What is going to be different for this man — he carries and represents the weight of so much history and so many hopes and dreams," Jackson says. "And for him to carry that as a single human being almost seems like a Herculean struggle."
On the same day that a vast majority of Vermonters voted for a black Democrat as president, residents of Franklin County voted to elect a black Republican state senator. Randy Brock, the former state auditor, will return to the Statehouse in January.
Brock supported Republican John McCain in the presidential election – he was co-chairman of the Arizona senator's campaign in Vermont – but says that the message he takes from Obama's win is that race is no longer a major factor in politics.
"The Obama victory shows that anyone of any race, color or background can run for higher office and be successful."
When Brock ran for state auditor in 2004, he remarked to a journalist that some Vermonters might vote against him because he is black and others might vote for him because he is black. Both votes are wasted, he says.
"That's as silly as voting for someone because of the color of their hair," Brock says. "I proudly voted for McCain because I agreed with his policies."
Curtiss Reed Jr., the executive director of the ALANA Community Organization in Brattleboro, says he thought McCain's campaign and surrogates did try to use race as a divisive weapon against Obama.
Reed's organization works to build inclusive and equitable communities throughout New England.
In its use of pointed "pro-American" slogans and other coded language, he says, the Arizona senator's campaign reminded him of the era of George Wallace, the Southern politician who strongly supported segregation in the 1960s.
Coupled with Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachman's on-air, McCarthyesque suggestion that the media investigate Obama and other Democrats for their "anti-American" views, Reed says the message from that camp this year was clear. "They really came out strongly using race-baiting language."
But looking forward, Reed says Obama's election is important for all Vermonters of color – especially the younger generation who will now grow up knowing that being elected president is an attainable goal.
He says his household got several phone calls from friends in Africa soon after the election, all expressing their excitement at Obama's win.
"I grew up in the Jim Crow era, in a segregated St. Louis, and my family has roots in Mississippi," Reed says. "I never thought I would see this happen in my lifetime."
Beyond the historic social implications, Reed adds that Obama won this race because he ran on – and was on the right side of – the major political issues.
"He's a role model for everyone," Reed says.
Earlier this summer, Shirley Boyd-Hill of Fairfax watched Republican Gov. James Douglas sign a law creating a state holiday of Juneteenth, which celebrates the day when word of their emancipation reached slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865.
Just a few months later, she went to bed early on election night secure in the knowledge that the United States would elect the first black person as president. But for her, the significance of a change in direction for the country was more relevant than the social change his election brings.
"I just keep thinking about all these jobs we've lost over the years," she says. "Obama has a lot of work to do, starting with putting a lot of that money back into circulation."
Contact Daniel Barlow at Daniel.Barlow@timesargus.com.
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