MARY STEGMEIR, Courier Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 12:00 am
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WATERLOO - The screams could be heard outside Waterloo's Talk
Shop Cafe Tuesday night when news networks called the presidential
election for Sen. Barack Obama.
Inside, about 80 Cedar Valley African-Americans active in the
candidate's campaign, jumped up and down and exchanged hugs.
A few minutes after the
announcement Eureka Graves, still crying tears of joy, excused
herself from the gathering to catch some air.
"It's a miracle," said the
48-year-old Waterloo woman. "This is something that I never thought
I'd see."
Graves, a special education
para-educator at Lowell Elementary, hopes that election's results
will help show her 11-year-old son, Nate, to strive for the top.
Although she supported Obama because of his policies, the color of
the president-elect's skin also swayed her to cast her ballot for
the senator.
"This will show him that whatever
he wants in life, he can do it," she said of her child. "Obama
didn't let nothing stop him, and that's the message I want my son
to take out of this."
