Alabama delegate watches the end of a journey he never thought he'd see completed

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 29, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez / The Rocky

An enthusiastic crowd waves flags and signs during the final night of the Democratic National Convention at Invesco Field.

When Barack Obama walked to the podium Thursday night, he finished the early steps taken by Hank Sanders and about 2,500 other blacks when they strode boldly on U.S. 80 in Alabama.

Selma to Montgomery. Montgomery to Denver.

Forty-three years. A journey that Sanders never thought he'd see completed.

"We didn't stop marching. We kept taking steps," Sanders said. "And now he's standing on all of the shoulders of those who marched before him."

The 65-year-old Selma resident wiped his eyes. He brought tissues for this occasion. He knew he was going to use them.

When Obama said he accepted the party's nomination for president, Sanders looked up and remembered his father, Sam Sanders - a sawmill worker with a first- grade education. A man who worked 10-hour days, got shorted on paychecks and harassed on his way home - a seven-mile walk each way.

Sometimes, the hours were longer.

"We called it 'can't see-to-can't see' - as in, can't see in the morning and can't see at night."

Alabama, with 70 delegates present on the floor of Invesco Field, isn't likely to go for Obama this November. Sanders knows that. But it doesn't matter. He said that simply having Obama as the nominee is a huge mark in the nation's history.

It's a history he can't forget. A history that brings tears to his eyes.

Like the time his brother was picking cotton in a field when a white man tried to hit on his brother's girlfriend. His brother wrestled him to the ground. Three white men showed up, one pulling a gun on him. Another pulled out an ax. The third began kicking him in the ribs until he couldn't walk.

Then, the white men called the cops and his brother was thrown in jail.

Sanders said the judge told his brother to leave the state and never come back.

He didn't for 10 years.

Such stories aren't unique for the generation that fought in the civil rights era.

Emma Sanders, no relation, came with the Mississippi delegation. She was a friend of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers. She found out he had been shot in his driveway when a neighbor came and told her.

She went to his funeral and cried.

As she sat waiting for Obama to take the stage, she said it was one of many regrets - that Evers wasn't alive to see history in the making.

"Those that came before us and fought should be here," she said. "But I guess we knew they all wouldn't be - even back then."

They all have stories.

Mississippi state Sen. David Jordan remembered being slapped about by a white man because he didn't like the way Jordan said "sir."

"I couldn't do it to his liking," Sanders said. "But others had it worse than I did."

Both states were epicenters for unrest during the '60s and both became shorthand for racism in America. The delegations now sit together at Invesco Field - black and white.

And when Obama took the stage, Hank Sanders let his eyes wander to those around him - white, black and Hispanic - all applauding the same man. He wiped his eyes from beneath his glasses and clapped.

"History," he said. "I guess it's official."

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