Memories of Election Day by Audrey Davis

I was out of the office on Election Day. I got in line to vote by 6:00 am, and found there were already 25 people ahead of me. 

The polls in Washington, DC did not open until 7 am. By the time I left at 7:30am, the line was three long blocks and had over 100 people waiting to vote.

The best moment of the day was taking my 94 year old Aunt Alice to vote.  She was so excited. As a teacher in Virginia in the 1930s, she sued the state of Virginia to obtain school buses for her students. African American children in her area walked three miles to and from school each day, and were not allowed on county school buses. Her lawyer was a young Oliver Hill (later a famous Civil Rights attorney). She won the case, and her county was forced to provide buses for African American students. 

Unfortunately, she lost her job and had threats to her life. Unable to work in Virginia, she moved to DC and worked for the federal government. Yesterday, I was able to take my aunt's picture coming out of the polling station. You have never seen a happier woman. Later, after Obama won, I had a chance to call her. She was in tears, never thinking she would live to see an African
American president of the United States. 

I attended an election party Tuesday night. There were tears, cheers, and people coming out of their homes and into the streets to rejoice - it was an amazing night! Our intern Dennis (who was in downtown in DC), told me people stopped their cars in the street and got out to hug each other. Later, throngs of people marched to the White House to celebrate. On my way home at 2 am, people were still honking their car horns and yelling greetings to you as you passed.

Wednesday, we were out field collecting Obama memorabilia for our collection (at the Alexandria Black History Museum). The hardest thing to find were newspapers. Everyone sold out by 8 am. Even today, all the newspapers sold out in my area by 9 am. The most exciting thing today was taking to a reporter in London from the BBC. They may be sending a camera crew to the museum for an interview.  Its all been a lot to take in - it still seems like a dream. I hope the next four years are good for us all.