Jim Crow Survivor Casts First Vote for Obama

By GottaLaff

Tears:

In his 103 years, Ernest Smith says, he never drank, smoked or voted. Though he’s yet to sample tobacco or alcohol, on Thursday, Smith cast his first ballot —- for Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

“I voted, and I want to vote again,” said Smith, a testament to clean living. “It felt good.” [...]

Born in 1905 in Pembroke, N.C., Smith lived most of his life there and was first eligible to vote in 1928 —- then the voting age was 21.

But for African-Americans like Smith, suffrage was far from universal. Literacy tests and poll taxes were enacted through much of the Jim Crow South to suppress black turnout.

Had Smith attempted to vote in 1928 —- he says he never tried to register —- his choices would have been Herbert Hoover, campaigning as a Republican maverick, and Democrat Al Smith who, like Obama, was a historic nominee. [...]

Ernest Smith is confident that this year, he’s backing a winner.

“We’ll make it, thank the Lord,” said Smith, bolting up from his rocking chair, clapping. A snapshot of Obama sits on his dresser.

The retired railroad worker plans on being around for the next presidential election, in 2012, to vote for Obama a second time.

“I wish I had done it before,” Smith said. When he was young, he added, “we never thought about voting.” [...]

He was reluctant at first.

“We told him he had to go vote,” joked Robert Elliott, 64, Clara’s husband. After Smith cast his ballot in last week’s advance voting in DeKalb County, “he couldn’t stop talking about it.”

“I had tears rolling down my eyes,” Clara Elliott said. “It makes you think about how far we’ve come.”

Smith won’t be the only member of his family to vote for the first time this year.

Step-granddaughter Chiquetta Route said nothing will keep her from voting Tuesday.

“It made me want to vote even more,” said Route, 26. “On Tuesday I’m getting up at 4 a.m. [and] dropping the kids off, and I’m going to stand in line as long as it takes.”

That night, Ernest Smith will be watching the returns on TV. He’s normally in bed by 9 p.m., but he’s determined not to miss out on history.

“Just like the old tent revivals,” he said when a visitor asked if he’d be able to stay up late. “We’d go all night with no sitting down.”

Mr. Smith GObamas to Washington.

H/t: One of our Anonymi