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Presidential Election 2008
Something to Bragg about...
Reported by Shauna Jamieson-Carty
 For the first time during their fifty-seven years of marriage, Mr. Theodore Bragg and his wife Mother Merlin Bragg disagreed about which candidate to vote for in the presidential election. During the Democratic primary, Mrs. Bragg supported Senator Hillary Clinton. Mr. Bragg felt that then-Senator Barack Obama deserved the chance to represent the Democratic Party. “I changed her mind. I stayed on her back,” said Mr. Bragg.
“He said, ‘You’ve got to vote for him. You’ve got to give him a shot,’” his wife confirmed.
Her support for Senator Clinton wavered as she learned more about President-elect Obama’s background and all that he and his wife had accomplished. This led her to agree with her husband, whom she had known since elementary school.
The Braggs shared a similar background, growing up in New Jersey during the 1930s and 1940s. They have similar memories of life in the North. They both attended school in Roselle, where blacks and whites learned alongside each other in the classroom.
“We had integration here as far as we can remember, but there were some social differences,” said Mrs. Bragg.
They remember that the school buses were reserved for Jewish students who were bused pass Lincoln School and Harrison School to Chestnut Street School. As children, the Braggs walked to school, but they remember that there were some white children who walked too.
Mrs. Bragg moved to Charles Street in Linden at age 12, and found that she had even fewer black classmates and neighbors than she had in Roselle.
 “We were the first African Americans on the street,” said Mrs. Bragg. “We all got along well. We did not realize the prejudice that was in the South.” After their high school graduation, Mr. Bragg joined the army and was sent down South to Georgia for training. 
“That’s when I hit segregation,” said Mr. Bragg. Almost 20 years old, and eager to fight for his country, Mr. Bragg now had to learn that he needed to step aside if he saw a white person coming down the street. Dressed in full uniform, he now had to ride in the back of the bus. He had to go hungry once while traveling from the South to visit his wife in New Jersey because a train station attendant in Washington, DC, refused to serve him a hot dog.
“There was no reacting to it,” said Mr. Bragg. “You just did what you know you were supposed to do. You didn’t fight anything because you didn’t have any win.”
On the surface, Mr. Bragg said the experiences didn’t bother him, but on that visit, he vented his frustration and humiliation to his wife when he got home. The discrimination continued overseas.
“I saw a change in France,” said Mr. Bragg. “When I first got there, the company was segregated. In July 1952, they took half the company and sent to another company.” He remembers the white soldiers as being upset over this forced integration.
Mrs. Bragg remained in New Jersey and enjoyed friendly relations with the whites for whom she worked. She passed a Civil Service exam and landed her first job.
“I became the typist to 11 men and they were all white,” said Mrs. Bragg. “The 11 white men treated me like a queen.”
After the birth of the Braggs’ third child, Mrs. Bragg became a stay-at-home mom for the next 17 years. Her husband returned to New Jersey right before their first child was born and found work in less than a week. In 1956, he returned to work in Abraham Clark High School, eight years after his graduation from there.
While American society has undergone tremendous change around them, Mr. Bragg’s love for the woman he’s known since childhood remains deep. They’re pleased with the love they see in President-elect Obama for his wife future First Lady Michelle.
Prayer Point: Our Father, we thank you for the example of love and commitment we see in President-elect Obama and his wife, and in the Braggs. We pray that you continue to bind them together in love with cords that cannot be broken. Please bless and protect the men and women you have joined together, Lord—in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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