Black Americans Ride The Buses To Witness History

Hundreds of students from Morehouse college in Atlanta came to Washington to watch the country`s first black president being sworn in.

Students who rode 12 hours on a bus to witness history said it was worth it to see Barack Obama take the oath as U.S. president despite the bitter cold.

Hundreds of students from Morehouse college in Atlanta joined more than 1 million others who flocked to the Mall in Washington to watch the country's first black president being sworn in.

Most watched the event on giant screens placed around the park in the center of Washington and some students said that they wished they been closer to the action after their journey through the night.

"I shed tears like I did on election night," said Everett Dixon, 21, who couldn't feel his feet for much of the morning because of the cold.

"I would have loved to have been able to get close enough to actually see Obama but to be in the Mall was amazing," the arts major said.

For African-Americans in general and Morehouse students in particular, the moment was a watershed.

Slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from Morehouse, a college for black American men that stresses leadership and aims to give students a sense of moral and civic responsibility.

"Now, (with Obama as president) I feel that anything is possible," said Malcolm Meredith, 18, who was visiting the capital for the first time.

Hundreds of Morehouse students made the trip, which meant a sleepless night on a bus and hours standing in the cold waiting for the ceremony.

Arriving at 3 a.m. one group of students spent two hours walking the streets in freezing temperatures before they found a way into the Mall which provided the best vantage point for those without tickets.

BUSES FOR CHANGE

Riding buses to demand change has been a significant political tactic in black American history. Some students said they had been brought up to see struggle and celebration as part of their racial identity and wanted a part of what their parents and grandparents had experienced.

Rosa Parks helped ignite the civil rights movement in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama as mandated by law.

In 1963, tens of thousands of people rode buses to the capital for the March on Washington, during which King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Black and white activists rode buses together on "freedom rides" into Southern states in defiance of segregation laws. Many were attacked and beaten by crowds of angry whites.

In 1995, huge numbers again rode buses for the so-called Million Man March in Washington of African-American men.

For some people heading to Washington, Obama's inauguration represented the fruition of decades of struggle. Civil rights leader Joseph Lowery, who was born in 1921 and attended the March on Washington, delivered the benediction.

"Yes we can work together to achieve a more perfect union," he said, quoting one of Obama's more famous campaign speeches.

Earlier, he reflected on the 1963 march and its legacy:

"It was the first time we had called on the nation ... to join us in searching for jobs and justice and freedom. We didn't know how the nation would respond."