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At 106, Her Dream Of Equality Comes True

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The Associated Press

Published: November 6, 2008

ATLANTA - At age 106, Ann Nixon Cooper doesn't usually stay awake past midnight. But on Election Night she had special reason to do so: She was waiting for Barack Obama to mention her name.

Cooper, one of the oldest voters for the nation's first black president, had been tipped off by the Obama campaign that she would be mentioned in his acceptance speech.

"I was waiting for it," said Cooper.

Cooper first registered to vote on Sept. 1, 1941. Though she was friends with elite black Atlantans such as W.E.B. DuBois, John Hope Franklin and Benjamin E. Mays, because of her status as a black woman in a segregated and sexist society, she did not exercise her right to vote for years.

Cooper said she believes Obama's win could finally signal the change she has been waiting for.

"I feel nothing but relief that things have changed as much as they have," she said. "After a while, we will all be one. That's what I look forward to."

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