Some old old woman who's voting for the first time at age 2,743 or something. For Obama. Because those other 19 dozen elections weren't worth your time. Or a black man wasn't running. Seems vaguely racist, or at least arrogant. The only thing missing is that her best friend is the last Confederate Widow, voting for McCain. But they're still good friends.

Beagle, you should be spayed / neutered for talking about that lady in such a disrespectful manner.

It never said it was her first time voting. I guess the calcified bile you have in place of a heart effects your cognitive skills.

Congratulations, Ms. Jones. We've come a long way.

Best story I've heard in a long time.

And I hope the daughter of a slave will live to see a black man as president. How far we've come, yet how far we have to go.

What a hopeful tale. This is the kind of story that gives one faith in America. God Bless you, Ms. Jones.

This story is the best thing I've read in a long time. Brought me to the edge of tears. Thanks so much for posting it! I too hope she lives to see the first-ever black president.

...come to think of it, I hope *I* live to see the first black president!

Beagle seems to be missing the overarching point of the article. Having the oldest living confederate widow vote for McCain would be news only in that she didn't get the vote until the 19th amendment was passed. In none of the stories I've seen about very old voters have I seen anything that reflects they have not voted in the past but that they are casting a vote that for much of their lifetimes was unthinkable. Change is coming folks, now go vote!

(linkback) Wow! or Meh? 109 yr. old Amanda Jones, daughter of slave, casts vote for Obama [VOTE] - http://www.thriveorfail.com/f2460

...to vote for an American hero and a woman vice-president. Glad I've lived to see this day! (provided I make it to Tuesday, of course...wish me well!)

It's right there in the article. And apparently it was important enough to her to pay a poll tax in order to vote for him.

Yeah, it IS pretty phenomenal that a woman of 109, who frankly would be excused by absolutely everyone if she declined to participate in the voting process because of her health, her time priorities, or her decision to pay attention to things other than the presidential candidates (like, oh, I don't know, her family - you know, the ones who helped her vote? Or didn't you read that either?) chose instead to take the time to figure out who she wanted to vote for and fill out a ballot. That's fantastic, and she ought to be commended. I'm terribly sorry that yours is the first comment on here. You rather sicken me.

of being factual, Barack Obama is bi-racial, not black. Saying he is black perpetuates the old stereotype about having a drop of african american blood, makes you african american. He also has no slave ancestry in common with african americans, either, with his father being Kenyan, unless his father really is Frank Marshall Davis, whom he seems to resemble much more so than Barack Sr.

Guys, stop hating on Beagle - everyone knows his heart is three sizes too small! :-(

Segregation wasn't that long ago and integration is still somewhat shaky in parts of the country. Race relations are better than they have been, but they are still awkward and difficult. I am deeply pleased that we are going to have a president who comes from a background, not of privilege and entitlement, but of sacrifice, struggle, and hard work.

The true American hero isn't the spoiled rich boy who ditched his first wife because she stopped being pretty, treats his second wife badly, behaves in a reprehensible manner to everyone around him, and thinks he' "owed" everything because his father and grandfather were great men. The true American hero is the one who came from nothing, worked hard all his life, did everything he could to help people around him, sacrificed and fought so that everyone could have a chance to do what he did - become whatever they chose to.

Race is imagined so one can't actually be biracial. Obama is both black and white; the term mixed is more appropriate. Mixed people are not a new or separate "race" as the term biracial presupposes.

And, to Ms. Jones, congratulations! I'm proud, too, and didn't think we'd have this opportunity for a long time!

I went from laughing at Sam Bee's hilarious commentary on McCain's air quotes to getting teary eyed reading this story. Boy you ladies at Broadsheet sure know how to put a guy on an emotional rollercoaster!

I do wish you well. If your candidate gets elected, you'll need all your strength and luck to survive the next years.

Nice story, by the way. Thanks to Ms Harris for posting it!

I was going to say the same thing!

God bless you, Amanda Jones.

OMG, this story put tears in my eyes. What a great moment in American history!

I'm impressed she hasn't gotten disillusioned with the process. results have been less than spectacular for some time.

It is an amazing thing to think about. And a great example.

I attend a church which has a gallery where the slaves sat. There's a separate staircase and a separate entrance, so the owners never ran the risk of... I don't know... smelling them? Brushing against them? The floor up there is rotten now, and it's full of old janitor's equipment, but I went up there anyway. The stairs are very narrow, steep and claustrophobic, both the walls and the stairs painted black, and there's a sense of climbing out of the present and into another time. No pews - I don't know whether the slaves were expected to stand or to bring their own stools. Oddly enough the church is prettier from up there, and the acoustics are better. Little things the owners didn't know. We have a smattering of black families who attend our church, and sometimes I wonder what they think about it, but I don't have the nerve to ask.

It hasn't been very long at all.

When I was a child, my grandmother took me to see the Orpheum Theater, which has since been renovated but was derelict and closed at the time, and we marveled at the dusty lobby stripped of its gilding and then she said, I'm going to show you something. And we went around the side and through a little plain black door and up some stairs and up some more stairs until I was whining because I was tired and didn't see the point. And we went to the edge of the third gallery and looked between girders to the tiny stage far below, and she said, This is where black people sat. All the way up until the 60's. They weren't allowed in the main theater, they had to come up here.

I was mystified. I'm still mystified. What she said didn't seem to make sense.

I hope there will be a child whose grandmother says, In 2008 they didn't think a black person could be elected president because the white people wouldn't vote for him. And that child will be as mystified as I was.