The Road to The White House: 

By Shauna Jamieson Carty

               
During the campaign leading up to the presidential election, GG Woody had an answer for everyone he met who said they feared that if a black man won, he would be assassinated. He told them to vote for Senator Barack Obama anyway.

            “We gotta do it,” he told them. “This is our great chance.”

            On election night, Mr. Woody watched the election results with his wife, Beulah McClinton Woody. From the security of their home in Roselle, they wondered if Americans had changed enough to elect the first African American president. History had also taught them that if Senator Obama won, there was a possibility that someone would try to kill him.

            “People are still afraid of losing him that way,” Mr. Woody said. He explained that the fear stems from the 1960s when three men who advocated equal rights for African Americans were assassinated. “It’s a horrible feeling. They understand how they felt when Martin was killed, how you felt when President Kennedy was killed, how you felt when Bobby was killed; all the people who sacrificed their life to voter registration in the South.”

Most Americans have only seen Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, former President Kennedy and Senator Robert “Bobby” Kennedy on television, or read about them in history books. Mr. Woody knew some of them personally. During the 1950s, Mr. Woody became the first black City Councilman elected in Roselle.

“There were only a handful of black elected officials in the country and we all knew one another,” Mr. Woody said.

 His prominence as one of few black politicians at that time led him to meeting other people who were involved in the struggle to overcome discrimination and obtain equal opportunities for African Americans. He possesses pictures and documents that capture significant moments from that era. An invitation to the White House is mounted in a frame on one wall of his house. A picture of Mr. Woody standing beside Senator Robert Kennedy hangs nearby. Another photograph shows Mr. Woody standing with the son of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

Mr. Woody was among the elected officials who paved the way for the election of America’s first black president. He explained that he recognizes that people attitudes have changed.

“That tells me that younger people are thinking differently,” Mr. Woody said, citing the number of white Americans who voted for President-elect Obama. “The younger people are getting to know one another to respect one another.”

Mr. Woody feels optimistic about the future and praises God for the progress people have made. “He’s working His way in His own time because somehow Obama came and Obama is from a mixed heritage. That in turn is bringing respect from all around the world. He has to be God sent.”