Woodbridge church celebrates Obama

Woodbridge resident Marvin Brown believes that his 10-year-old son, Justin, will take with him some memories of the historic event that took place in Washington this week.

Justin, his 8-year-old brother Joshua and his mother Cynthia spent Saturday sightseeing with their dad at the Capitol building and attended the inauguration celebration at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Woodbridge on Tuesday.

But it’s doubtful that he will remember the small gesture of kindness he displayed toward family friend Regina Bowman on Inauguration Day.

Just a few hours after tearing up while talking with her daughter during a long distance phone call, Bowman started to get emotional while watching Barack Obama being sworn in as the first black president of the United States. When Cynthia saw Bowman, she sent Justin on a mission.

The youngster tapped Bowman on the shoulder and handed her a small bag of tissues to wipe away tears of joy. A few minutes later, Justin and Joshua were asleep on their chairs a few rows behind Bowman as the televised Obama elicited cheers from the attendees.

“I didn’t know where [the tissues] came from [initially],” Bowman said while wiping away her still-damp eyes.

A military brat of a father who joined a segregated United States Army in 1946, Bowman was relishing in the fact that the nation had just sworn in someone she referred to as “every man’s president.”

“He’s not an old white man and he’s not a Stepin Fetchit man,” Bowman said. “It’s incredible.”

The Rev. Charles A. Lundy echoed Bowman’s thoughts and is happy that Obama chose to pursue the presidency. A retired major in the U.S. Marine Corps, Lundy has seen firsthand the change for the better in the military as blacks slowly began to break the barrier to higher military ranks.

Now that change can be seen at the highest level, Lundy told those gathered at the event.

“We now have a president who can be identified with all people, because he was born black, he was raised white, he campaigned blue, but he was elected colorless,” Lundy thundered, much to the crowd’s delight.

One of those gathered was Ken Aggrey. A native of Ghana, Aggrey moved to the U.S. in the 1970s as his nation struggled under military rule. Just 21 at the time, the Woodbridge resident was seeking more educational opportunities and found them in the U.S.

Now he’s married and has three children and a 14-month-old grandson.

“It’s America realizing the dream, where everybody has the opportunity to achieve anything they want,” Aggrey said of Obama being elected. “It’s America actually fulfilling its promise. There’s so much hope not just in the United States. There is so much hope in the whole world.”

Because of her faith in God, attendee Joy Terrell said she was cautiously optimistic that Obama might be able to win the presidency. But when her 70-year-old mother — once convinced that harm would come to Obama because of his race — began to believe, any lack of confidence Terrell was experiencing eroded.

Now that Obama is president, Terrell is eyeing a better future for everyone, one promised by the new commander in chief during his inaugural address.

“It gives me a sense of ‘we don’t have any more excuses,’” said Terrell. “It’s time to come together. It’s not to forget [our struggles] but [it’s time] to not live in the past.”

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-878-8062.