Brothers and Sisters, I went to five predominantly black precincts in Charlotte before noon this morning. At each of them, the voting was averaging 2-3 times the normal number of voters for that time of day.

At each precinct, the word was basically the same: a large number of young people are voting. 

However, as one construction worker in his early 50s said to me “Brother Jones, I feel real good about my vote for Obama but if the brother wins in November, I am going to stay in my house a couple days to see how these folks are going to react before I come out!"

Brothers and Sisters, I woke up this morning with my mind set on freedom and the ancestors bouncing around in my mind and spirit.  My grandparents AA and Mary Jones were both born slaves but had managed to learn to read--him, at 14 and she, at 10 years old--so that when Emancipation came they became teachers.  

This morning, my ancestors came with me and my wife, Jacqueline to our poling place at Philip O. Berry elementary school less than a mile from home. The persons working at the precinct were all elders, black women we have known for years who were all beaming with that quiet dignity and pride.  At 9AM, they said, there had been three times as many people who showed up to vote this time, compared to the last election.

They smiled and said they felt great about what they were seeing and hearing from the voters. Apparently brother Obama has excited and inspired more voters than ever so far this morning. The black men both young and old came to me and enthusiastically assured me that they had voted for Obama. There is a joy in their spirits and voices about their vote for him. I have known most of them since they were children and this is something very special for them.
 
I have voted in every presidential election in the past 50 years and there has been much excitement for some of them, but I have never felt this excited about any of the past elections.

I've spent most of the last 70 years in Charlotte and North Carolina politics and I have never seen this kind of excitement for a primary. Truthfully, it reminds me so very much of the excitement of our movement in the 1960s.

Back then, I was harassed or arrested all over the South for fighting for my rights.  While a student at Johnson C. Smith University in 1960, I led more than 200 students into downtown to desegregate the lunch counters. We felt good about ourselves, doing the right thing by grabbing hold of a nonviolent way to change our society.  We sat at the lunch counters every day until by July of that year they opened to all people regardless of race.

I helped organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at Shaw University. I was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama as a freedom rider. I was arrested in Rock Hill, South Carolina for sitting at a lunch counter.  I spent 30 days hard labor on the chain gang just for trying to order a hamburger and Coke.

I went to jail with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while organizing the desegregation campaign in Albany, Georgia. SNCC was successful there because the people were ready and we achieved a level of total community organization that attracted Dr. King. Working with him then, I came to more fully understand the power of national and international communities working together.

This primary is very different for black North Carolinians of my generation.  Jessie Jackson showed us in '87 that some day, if we worked and stayed together, we would have an African-American President of the United States of America. Brother Obama is that man and this is our time. He is us.

Brother Obama has generated such excitement for me, as a Black man, my friends and my community. He has the power and support of most black folk in the state, as well as a broad coalition.  Everyone sees that he is real.  And, that he has the policy ideas and experience to raise Americans to a level of mass involvement that is sorely needed at this time.

One of the most inspiring moments of my life was shaking Brother Obama's hand after the rally that drew 14,000 people on Friday.  I told him how proud I was of him and gave my and my generation's blessings to him and his generation.

I will with great pride be voting for Obama today and taking many of my neighbors to the polls to also vote for him.  I expect that he will win.  I have always believed that given the facts and the truth about the issues, the majority of Americans will do the right thing.  Electing Barack Obama president of these United States is the right thing.


J. Charles Jones, Esq., a key organizer of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, is a graduate of Howard University Law School.  He has been practicing in Charlotte for 30 years and loving every minute of it.