'Tonight We Have Come Full Circle'

Superdelegate Joyce Cusack packs up after Barack Obama's acceptance speech. Photo by Mark T. Osler

Florida delegate Joyce Cusack—a 66-year-old African American who rode to college in the back of the bus during segregation—wiped tears from her eyes Thursday as Barack Obama stood 10 yards away, accepting the Democratic nomination for president.

Fireworks rocketed overhead and confetti wafted into Cusack’s hair as she gazed skyward in amazement. “For the first time in my life,” says the African American Cusack, a presidential nominee “could have been my child. I looked around the stadium and it represented all of America. [The nominee] could have been any of our children, not just the child of the chosen few.”

Thursday’s events were especially touching for Cusack, whose political career began as a teenager when she organized civil rights lunch-counter sit-ins. The state legislator from central Florida vividly remembers watching Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on television, exactly 45 years ago.

Cusack said Obama’s speech was the manifestation of all those dreams. “Tonight we have come full circle,” she says. “King talked about being judged by the content of your character, not the color of your skin. Barack today is being judged by the content of his character, not the color of his skin. Barack represents the opportunities King spoke about for his children.”

Seeing Obama speak was well worth the four-plus hours Cusack waited at INVESCO Field, where the Denver Broncos play. Security was extra tight for the open-air venue, with officers posted atop the end-zone Jumbotron, below the giant white Bronco statue. Delegates waved American flags as they awaited the main event and listened to live performances by Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow and John Legend.

“The whole setting is just breathtaking,” Cusack says.

When Obama addressed the crowd, Cusack was impressed by his words as much as the symbolism of the event. Obama touched on important issues like health care—Cusack is a registered nurse—and his readiness to serve as commander in chief.

“He had fire in his belly. He seems like he really wants this thing. He was tough on McCain,” she says. “It was an honor just to hear a man so well qualified who happens to be African American.”

Tamara Lytle was the chief Washington correspondent for the Orlando Sentinel from 1997 to 2008.