Campaign, acceptance speech called the realization of King's dream
DENVER - Forty-five years ago, Dennis Callwood was a 21-year-old clerk at a Harlem grocery store who took a day off and hopped a bus to Washington. Lauren Dugas Glover was a 6-year-old "tag-along" in Chicago, annoying her older siblings. James Beverly III hadn't been born.
On that day in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his landmark speech in the nation's capital, demanding equal rights from the American government. And yesterday, Callwood, Dugas Glover, and Beverly witnessed, first-hand, another defining moment in American history: the acceptance speech of Barack Obama, the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party - 45 years to the day of King's greatest speech.
Although they have never met, the three, like the vast majority of African-American Democrats at this convention, and black America at large, used words like "incredible," and "unimaginable" to describe their emotions before witnessing Obama give his own historic speech.
"It's an incredible emotional experience," said Dugas Glover, 51, chairman of Maryland's Democratic delegation, who grew up in segregated Chicago. Though a youngster at the time, "I was very much aware of what was going on" in America during the civil rights movement. She recalled watching "horrifying" TV reports of police attacks on demonstrators and attending local meetings with her family.
Obama's improbable run for the White House "is the realization of the dream that Dr. King talked about," said Dugas Glover, who lived in Chicago when Harold Washington, the city's first black mayor, was elected in 1983. Still, she added, acceptance of King's color-blind vision of America is far from universal: she said she has personally experienced many people react to Obama's candidacy with "fear and suspicion" because of his race.
Callwood, 66, said he ditched the store on West 143d Street, hopped a southbound bus, and joined the crowd on the National Mall in Washington when King spoke. Though he lives in Los Angeles now, he spent two days on a cross-country bus to be in Denver last night.
"I said to myself, 'Why am I in L.A.? Why am I not here?' " said Callwood, who came on his own to photograph the event.
Despite having seen King first-hand, Callwood said he was certain he would never get to vote for an African-American presidential nominee. But Obama's remarkable early primary wins convinced him otherwise. "After Iowa, everything changed," he said.
Still, it didn't seem real for Callwood until Wednesday night, when he heard speaker after speaker - including former president Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton, Callwood's early pick for president - throw their weight behind Obama.
For Beverly, 38, an Obama delegate from Georgia, the moment also came Wednesday night when, during the traditional roll-call vote, Hillary Clinton made a surprise appearance to seal Obama's nomination.
On the floor, "We started grabbing each other and hugging each other," said Beverly, and the love spread through the arena "like the coming of a gathering storm. That's when I knew it was real."
Standing in the shade of a news tent inside Invesco Field, hours before Obama would take the podium, Beverly said he could not believe he was attending his first convention, casting his vote for a man who could become the first African-American president.
The experience brought to mind his grandfather, a slightly built man born into segregation who as a youngster fetched water for crews laying railroad track.
This moment in history "would have been inconceivable for him," said Beverly. "What would my grandfather think right now? I get the feeling he's watching still."
Joseph Williams can be reached at jowiliams@globe.com. 