FROM THE PRESIDENT

Jenkins Odoms Jr., 69, is president of the Howard County Branch of the NAACP.

It was a non-violent revolution, and we as a people now have grown up in America. We have cracked the ceiling finally. We haven't broken it yet, but we have cracked it. We have come through and shown the world what we have been teaching.

I feel that we came from Jim Crow to Barack Obama. ... We've come a long way ... I feel good for the first time, like a real American.

This wasn't a black thing. White folks, young folks, Jews came and said they were going to come together and vote for an African-American.

My hope is that we can move forward, that we can work with our new president, help America get on its feet, get over this horrible economic disaster that we're in, that people will work more with their children, teach them right from wrong, (about) the responsibilities that we have. The good Lord couldn't have shown us better what we should do.

We had high spirits, we had expectations, we need to keep those high expectations and move forward not just sit on our laurels. He could not have accomplished this without the American people.