WASHINGTON, DC – Less than 15 minutes into his presidency, President Barack Obama uttered the words “we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.”
Retired schoolteacher Judy Brooks, 64, of Amherst, Mass., yelled out a “Yes!”
“He’s going to be the man to change our future,” Brooks later told Diverse.
In some ways, Obama already had. Brooks and her husband, Barry Brooks, 67, a retired school guidance counselor, had one of their first dates on Aug. 28, 1963, at the other end of the National Mall at the Lincoln Memorial. There, they listened to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“We saw him say the words, ‘I have a dream,’’’ said Brooks, who Tuesday, more than 45 years later, sat with cane in hand at the opposite end of the Mall near the U.S. Capitol to witness the inauguration of the nation’s first Black president. “We now have overcome.”
