Ann Nixon Cooper -- Obama's 106 Year Old Lady

Have you seen and heard Barack Obama's speech? I have just finished watching it. I have come across many speeches and I've always loved Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech, but Obama's speech is without a doubt truly uplifting.

If his presidency is half as good as the things he said, the world will witness one of the most inspirational figures in this century. In truth, he really is a global president. He lived in Asia. He is half-white and half-Black and he has a Middle-Eastern name which for a while back there was a point against him.

Obama's victory is truly remarkable and comforting at the same time. Living in a country where there seems to be no end to political heyday and machinations and where there seems to be no hope, Obama's victory is a beacon of change. For a minute, I wished I were an American, so I can share the same pride that majority of the American population shared last night.

Anyway I digress.

After hearing Obama's speech I looked up Ann Nixon Cooper who by the way, looks amazing despite her age. She's 106 years old! Yes, she has witnessed a century of history. She was there when various methods to disenfranchise blacks or African-Americans were adopted through taxes, education and literacy tests. She was there when Blacks sat separately from the White folks and when Black had to drink from separate water stations.

She was picked out by Obama in his speech before 125,000 elated crowd at Grant Park. He believes that she embodies the real spirit of this 2008 election. He said --

"She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the colour of her skin,"

"And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: 'Yes we can'."

Ann Nixon Cooper was born on January 9, 1902 in Tennessee. She was raised by her aunt when her mother died and she and her siblings were separated from each other. At the age of 20, she married Albert Berry Cooper, a dentist. She turned to public work and helped in establishing the Girls Club for African-American Youth.

"At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot"

She only gained the right to vote when she was 63 years old. At that time, she was still actively teaching the residents in her community to read. She continued to work to improve the conditions of African-Americans in Atlanta and her contributions to the civil rights was recognized.

As Obama aptly put --

"She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that We Shall Overcome. A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change."

Ann Nixon Cooper remembers not a long time ago when she could not vote because of two reasons -- her sex and her color. She said of Obama -

"I ain't got time to die. Even if he didn't win, I was happy for him just to be nominated. The first black president -- isn't that something, at 106 years old?"

In the meantime, she watches her favorite shows The Price is Right and of course, Oprah.