Feature flash

Millions of people converge on the nation’s capitol to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America. A UMNS photo by Jay Mallin.

A UMNS Report
By Linda Green, Linda Bloom and Kathy Gilbert*
Jan. 20, 2009

United Methodists were among the throngs of people who descended upon the nation’s capital to witness the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America.

When Obama placed his hand on the 148-year-old Lincoln Bible and said, “I do solemnly swear,” he became the first African American to ascend to the highest office in the land and added another layer to the foundation laid by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The significance of the day leaves Bishop Gregory Palmer “breathless and feeling like I’m walking on air.”

“It is unbelievable that this is happening, and I am so grateful to be a witness to it,” said Palmer, president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops. “The barrier of race has been removed from the highest office in the land.” He urged prayers for the president and Congress as they face the challenges ahead.

Obama’s inauguration carried a collective significance for people of all races, but its significance was also different for each individual in attendance and watching worldwide.

“This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed—why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father, less than 60 years ago, might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath,” Obama said.

The Rev. Kelvin Sauls, a staff member of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries in New York, found the inauguration to “be an awesome and powerful experience.” He recalled a line from the movie “Amistad,” a 1997 film depicting a mutiny aboard a slave ship that came to Connecticut in 1839. After the Supreme Court freed the slaves, the principal character, Cinque, said, “It is for this day that my ancestors lived and died.”

“As an African, experiencing the inauguration is a day for which our ancestors lived, toiled and died,” said Sauls, a native of South Africa. “The inauguration is “certainly one stream in the river toward achieving a more perfect union and to continue to labor and journey toward the beloved community that King dreamed of and to usher in the commonwealth of God,” he said.

‘Hope over fear’

Obama provided an assessment of the country's standing and his vision for the future.

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real,” he said, addressing a crowd estimated at more than a million on the National Mall in front of the Capitol. “They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America—they will be met.”

The new president also told those assembled on the mall and those gathered around televisions that they had “chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.”

The Rev. Albert Sampson, pastor of Fernwood United Methodist Church in Chicago, has been among the masses on the National Mall before. He attended the 1963 rally where King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech and was a speaker at the Million Man March in 1995. This time, he had a ticket to what he believes has to be the biggest event so far, both in terms of the number of people present and the diversity of races and cultures represented.

Sampson, who was ordained by King as a Baptist minister before becoming United Methodist, called President Obama’s address “an international message” with a personal touch. “His words were packaged to go around the world like a boomerang,” he said.

The idea that America will extend its hand if others unclench their fists was a powerful notion to this advocate of nonviolence. “According to God, you’ll get more when you open your hand than you will with your fist closed,” Sampson said. “We’ve got to find other strategies for handling our differences. That’s one of the key things he was saying.”

The Rev. Larry Pickens, pastor of Northbrook (Ill.) United Methodist Church, and his wife Debra were among the ticket-holders seated in front of the podium area during the inauguration. Afterward, they went to Capitol Hill United Methodist Church, where meals were being served to the community. Later, the couple was to attend the Eastern Ball, where the Obamas were expected to drop by.

Pickens said he thought the president’s speech “set the right tone,” and he was particularly interested in his suggestion of openness to the Muslim world if there was a desire to relate to the United States in a peaceful way. “I thought that was a very important message for him to send,” he added.

The occasion gave Pickens “a renewed sense of not only the power of this nation, but the ability this nation has to do right.” He believes this sense will be the theme of Obama’s presidency.

Recalling past, moving forward

The vastness and depth of the crowd prohibited Chicagoan Vidette Bullock Mixon and her family from reaching their ticketed seats on the mall, and they watched the inauguration on television. Bullock Mixon, a staff member of the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits, said the conclusion of the celebration with the Rev. Joseph Lowery’s benediction “seemed a fitting way to tie the whole program together.”

As she witnessed the United Methodist pastor and civil rights worker give the benediction, she remembered her late father and the work he did with civil rights and as a member of Black Methodists for Church Renewal. “President Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of individuals like the Rev. Joseph Lowery,” she said. She also noted that Lowery took great pains to communicate “we’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.”

Lowery, in his benediction said, Obama comes into office at a low moment in the national, global and fiscal climate in the country. Obama voiced a similar assessment in his speech, saying, “every so often, the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.”

Also unable to reach their ticketed seats was the Rathod family from Hasting, Neb. Jason, who was one of six youth to give the Young People’s Address at the 2008 United Methodist General Conference, said just being on the mall and hearing Obama’s inauguration message was “an amazing experience.”

It was “great to be around so many people who are ready for the country to move in a new direction and past what has been a pretty rough last eight years,” Jason said.
His mother, Ella Rathod, said the family migrated from India in 1971 and was no stranger to crowds, but the crowd on the mall witnessing the inauguration “was unbelievable.”

“I could not believe all the people that we saw,” she said. “Everyone has such a hope, and having an African American to be the first president is seen as hope for the whole world. We are happy that we are here to witness it.”

Bullock Mixon celebrated the people who came from all over the world to witness the historic event. “The magnitude of the people who braved the cold and stood out was phenomenal,” she said. “The tenacity and determination of the people speaks well of the support President Barack Obama can count on when he says, ‘I’m counting on you, the citizens of the United States, to make this work.’ ”

Everyone working together

The Rev. Robert Besser, pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church in Beaumont, Texas, found Obama’s speech and the inauguration “awesome and wonderful.” The speech, emphasizing the past, present and future, “was the best part” of the day, he said.

As he watched the inauguration on a Jumbotron screen, Besser paid particular attention to Obama’s call to work together without divisiveness and his assertion that there would be sacrifices to get the United States moving in another direction.

“But like our forefathers and ancestors in the faith and in the country who were able to make it happen, we have that same spirit,” Besser said, “and if we work together, we too can move forward in our country’s future together.”

As the great-great-grandson of a slave and a Native American, Larry Hygh Jr., a United Methodist communicator from the Los Angeles area, called the inauguration “a great time for me personally.” Hygh had preached the night before at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in Washington, and challenged his listeners “to go forth and change our communities.”

Hygh heard the new president’s address through loudspeakers as he stood along the Inaugural Parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue. He caught a glimpse of the motorcade as it headed toward the Capitol from the White House and hoped to see President Obama later during the parade.

“I am feeling this overwhelming joy at our first African-American president being inaugurated,” he said. “Hopefully, it will not be business as usual. Hopefully, we will get some change for our country.”

But Sampson noted that the responsibility for change belongs to all Americans. Citizens should not just sit in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue during Obama’s first 100 days “as if he’s Santa Claus in the White House preparing little gifts for us. The question is, for the 100 days, what are we going to do?”

Sampson said he is challenging everyone to be involved. One hundred churches can open tutoring programs, 100 lawyers can help people facing foreclosure and 100 painters, carpenters and plumbers can fix up homes in 100 communities. “We’ve got an opportunity while he’s doing his 100 days for us to do our 100 days,” he added.

‘Once in a lifetime’

Herman L. Fraser, 60, member of Abyssinia Baptist, Harlem, N.Y., brought an ecumenical group to Washington for the inauguration. They arrived at Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington at 5:30 a.m. Jan. 20 and made it their home for the day.

Fraser said he “just wanted to be in Washington, D.C., today.” He knew he “could not get near Barack Obama but just wanted to be in the same place. It was a once in a lifetime experience. I do not think we could have found a church as warm as this one. They just welcomed us in.”

Christine Christian-Roy, a member of St. Charles Borromeo and St. Ann’s Catholic Church, Nyack, N.Y., watched the inauguration from the sanctuary of Asbury Church. She said she cried throughout the entire inauguration. “I never believed I would live to see this day.”

“Anything can happen now but our president cannot do it by himself. We need to forget the big I’s and little you’s.” She really liked what Obama said about “working in the daylight and being honest and everyone needs to go back and start at their community.”

Juanita Omilami, 23, Atlanta, came with the group from Cascade United Methodist Church but is a member of Abundant Life, a nondenominational church. “As soon as I heard that Obama was president-elect, I knew I had to get to D.C.” She said it was a “very surreal experience, and I couldn’t believe it was happening—the expressions of the crowd and the sea of the people and the beautiful words that Barack spoke.”

She said the inauguration was especially meaningful to her because she is from Atlanta, which played a major role in the civil rights struggles. “It was a dream come true.”

*Green and Gilbert are United Methodist News Service news writers based in Nashville, Tenn. Bloom is a UMNS news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Video

Bishop Gregory Palmer: “Race and ethnicity are no longer barriers.”

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