Grandaughter of Slave Never Thought She'd See A Black Man Elected

Meet 80 year-old Mary Dowden of Como, Mississippi. She is the granddaughter of slaves.

Photos by Robert Johnson / CNN

By Wayne Drash CNN.com Senior Producer
COMO, Mississippi (CNN) -- Mary Dowden smiles when she thinks about this moment in history. At 80 years old, she's the granddaughter of a slave who was born in a cotton field outside of Como, Mississippi.

It's difficult to put into words how she feels about Barack Obama, the issues so complex for a black country girl who lost both her parents by the age of 18 and then had to work a hard-scrabble life as a sharecropper.
"I was really afraid for him, because I didn't want nobody to kill him," she says when asked about casting her ballot for Obama.
But she pauses and smiles. "I'm awfully proud of him, as a black person."
Did she ever think she would see this moment?
"No, I didn't," she says. "I always thought that, you know, the white was over the black, that they was the leading folks, that one nation is gonna be over another one, and that would be the white over the black. I never thought it would be a black president."
With Obama's election, CNN.com traveled to the town of Como to talk with African-Americans about their experience growing up black in Mississippi and what this moment in history means to them.
Como is a town of 1,400 people 45 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, along Interstate 55. It is a hard-hit rural community, home to a school with the dubious distinction of being among the worst-performing schools in the nation. In 2007, the IRS froze the town's bank accounts for not paying payroll taxes.
A railroad track cuts through the middle of town. Even to this day, blacks largely live on one side of the track; whites on the other side.
Dowden is a living testament to a life of struggle, sacrifice and ultimately success. When she was 10 years old, her mom cooked a dewberry pie after working the cotton fields all day. She then went to a friend's house and died.
"It was real devastating," Dowden says softly. "I was 10. My sister was 12, and we didn't know how to do nothing. And we had to take care of our little brother."
She missed one year of schooling because her father, Moses Wilson, couldn't afford schoolbooks. He died four days after she turned 18.
She had two photos of her parents, but they were lost over the years. She knows even less about her grandparents.
"All I know is, he said that his momma was sold. She was auctioned off," Dowden says. "I don't know where she was from. I don't know anything about her." Story continued here

Ms. Mary was born in the cotton fields outside

of Como, Mississippi.

Growing Up Black -- Then and Now

Crossing the railroad tracks amid a new time in history

By Wayne Drash CNN.com
COMO, Mississippi (CNN) -- Seconds after Barack Obama was declared the winner of the presidential election, the countryside of Como, Mississippi, erupted in celebratory gunfire. It was an impromptu party on the black side of the railroad tracks -- a joyous moment as African-Americans raced from their homes and fired into the air to celebrate the first black president in our nation's history.

I knew then that it was time to head back to my home away from home to do what I'd long wanted to do: Cross the railroad tracks to meet with blacks on the other side of town. To ask them about their lives, their struggles and what it's been like growing up black in Mississippi. And most of all, to ask them what this moment in our history means to them.
The unsung heroes of the civil rights era, to me, were the ones who I saw in my youth: The blacks of Como and the surrounding areas who remained behind, living quiet, unassuming lives when the odds were stacked against them. They worked their tails off, often for mere pennies, yet rarely complained. Grown adults would call me "sir," even if I was just 14 years old.

Full story here

What video below: Grandson of Slave says: "Obama, He Come Up Just Like Me."






AND DON'T MISS THIS FEATURE STORY: Grandson of slaves: Obama is our Moses
Editor's note: The n-word appears in this piece because CNN feels the context in which it is used is pertinent to the story of James "Little Man" Presley.

SLEDGE, Mississippi (CNN) -- James Presley stands amid chopped cotton, the thick Mississippi mud caked on his well-worn boots. A smile spreads across his face when he talks about voting for Barack Obama and what that might mean for generations to come. His voice picks up a notch. He holds his head up a bit higher.
"There's a heap of pride in voting for a black man," he says.
At 78, Presley is a legend of the past living in the present and now hopeful for the future. A grandson of slaves, he's one of the few men left in America so closely tied to his slave past, still farming cotton on the same land as his ancestors. He's picked cotton since he was just 6 years old. Full story here