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Tampa Bay Area Residents Travel To D.C. To Witness Historic Inauguration

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By SARAH HOYE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2009

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• Special Report - Witness To History

Jan. 20 marks the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. And the first time in U.S. history a black president will be sworn into office.

With Inauguration Day only weeks away, Tampa residents are preparing for the trip of a lifetime. Here, they share their reasons for wanting to trek to the nation's capital:

Jarvis El-Amin, 49, of Tampa

Owner of Tampa Signal Inc., home-security systems vendor

El-Amin still cannot believe Barack Obama won the presidential election.

"I picked cotton with my mother," he said. "Who would have thought I'd be helping the first black president. It's unheard of."

El-Amin was born and raised in rural Georgia and has lived in Florida for 21 years. He remembers how he was made to order food from the rear of restaurants. Even Martin Luther King Jr. was unable to desegregate his town, he said.

"I am, for the first time in my life, proud to be an American," he said, and added that the ill treatment of blacks made him feel like a second-class citizen. "I want to witness this."

On Election Day, El-Amin helped organize a watch party at the Good Luck Café in Ybor City. When it was announced that Obama won, he was so overcome with emotion he had to go outside to catch his breath.

"I just have to be in D.C.," El-Amin said. "I've been in this since the beginning and I have to see it to the end."

Michelle B. Patty, 55, of Brandon

Owner of Michelle B. Patty Medical and Attorney Referral Service

Patty remembers watching President John F. Kennedy's motorcade make its way down Central Avenue in Tampa. She was 10.

Forty-five years later, she is ready to see another president. This time it will be in Washington for Barack Obama's inauguration.

"I want to see it for myself," said Patty, who will fly to Washington for the event. "It's history I never thought I would see in my lifetime."

A Tampa native, Patty graduated from Blake High School, one of only two high schools open to black students in Tampa. The youngest of eight children, she recalled a pleasant childhood and said her culture shock about race relations came as an adult.

"Our families sheltered us from the ugliness of segregation … our parents took the brunt of it," she said. "It wasn't until I was older that I saw how bad it was."

On Election Day, Patty drove to the Hillsborough County election supervisor's office to hear the results for herself. The results were delayed, so she left to attend a watch party.

Patty was stopped at a red light on Seventh Avenue in Ybor City when she heard that Obama had won. She started to cry.

"It's history, and a history I never thought I would see in my lifetime," she said. "This is larger than Obama."

Bennie Small, 62, of Tampa

Inauguration bus tour organizer/contractor

When Small laid eyes on then-Sen. Barack Obama at a political rally on the patio behind the Cuban Club in Ybor City in 2007, he knew he wanted to get involved in the campaign.

After helping with fundraising and registering voters, he has now organized an inauguration bus tour that is taking 150 Tampa Bay-area residents to Washington.

"It means a lot to be able to go. I was going regardless," he said. "I've done many things in my lifetime, but I never thought I'd see a black man become president of the United States. I just wanted to be a part of that" experience.

Small is a graduate of Blake High School, one of only two schools open to black students in Tampa. The Hillsborough County School Board didn't approve plans to desegregate until May 1969, more than a decade after separate public schools for black and white students were ruled unconstitutional.

He was one of the first blacks admitted to the University of South Florida in the 1960s.

Small, who recalls the days of using separate drinking fountains and being limited to shopping downtown on certain days, said the country has come a long way.

"I feel very good, very proud," he said of the election. "Many people had to make many sacrifices to get there. This is something people will talk about for the rest of their lives."

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