First Black President Overcomes a Nation’s Legacy of Hate

By Shauna Jamieson-Carty

            Mrs. Dinah White was about seven years old when she watched a group of white men murder her teenage uncle by placing a noose around his neck and hanging him from a tree. The incident devastated her family and made a permanent impression on her of race relations at its worst in the United States. The election of the first African American president of this country was something Mrs. White thought she would never live to see. Senator Barack Obama won the election one month after Mrs. White’s eighty-eighth birthday. She believes that the election of an African American president shows more racial harmony, but we still have a long way to go.

            “I think change is still coming,” said Mrs. White. “There is a lot that has to be done.” She prays that the new president will ask God to guide him.

Election Day 2008:

            Mrs. White traveled to Abraham Clark High School to cast her vote. Duane White, her forty-five year old grandson, drove her there from their home on the west side of Roselle. They had been focused on the news all morning and had heard about how long the lines were. Mr. White wanted to be sure his grandmother wouldn’t grow weary while waiting, so he brought a folding chair, but she didn’t use it because at mid-day, the lines were fairly short.

Fear for his life:

            That night, Mrs. White stayed up late awaiting the results. She felt nervous for Senator Obama and his family, just as she had been during his campaign. Her experiences with racism had taught her a tough lesson about hate, and she feared for Senator Obama’s life.

“I was quite upset because I just knew that even before he won the election, somebody was gonna kill him,” she said.

While she was listening to the news, her grandson would run downstairs periodically to make sure she was keeping up with the results. She paid close attention to the states she used to live in, or was familiar with from her childhood. These were states where she had heard terrible stories of racism and discrimination. “I was surprised that McCain didn’t win Virginia,” she said. “I was surprised at North Carolina.”

            Senator Obama’s opponent, Senator John McCain won in South Carolina, and Mrs. White was not surprised that a white male had won there. Mrs. White was born in South Carolina, and as a child, she had witnessed the tragic lynching of her uncle in front of her grandparents’ home.

Lynch* mob murders a teenage boy:

            “I keep getting flashbacks,” Mrs. White explained. “I’ll never forget. Sometimes, I can see it. They lynched my uncle in the yard.” A pained expression contorted her face as she described what happened to her uncle, Charlie James, who was a teenage boy when he was murdered. “He came running and telling my grandmother and grandfather. He said he didn’t get off the white lady’s path fast enough.” Her uncle outran the men who followed him home. When they arrived, they told everybody to get out the house, but Mrs. White’s grandmother moved quickly and hid the children in the cellar, a hole in the ground that had been dug at the side of the house. Mrs. White cowered there in fear, holding the baby. Big Momma (her grandmother) had told her to keep the baby quiet by shoving a sock in the baby’s mouth. The children peeked out to see what was happening to their family from their hiding place.

            “They made them watch. They didn’t know we were around… What they did to my uncle was terrible… They left him hanging from a tree.”

New president signals a brighter future:

            More than eighty years later, the memory of that tragic day is still vivid in Mrs. White’s mind. She feels grateful that although she experienced many other incidents of racism and discrimination in her lifetime, she also noticed positive changes. Her children and grandchildren who were born in New Jersey have had better opportunities than she had when she was growing up. She views the election of America’s first black president as a sign that her great-grandchildren will face even greater opportunities.