106-year-old voter excited about Obama victory

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Source: CCTV.com | 11-06-2008 13:54

Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Chicago captured the hearts and imaginations of two-hundred thousand supporters at Grant Park on Tuesday night along with millions more watching the historic event on television.

Ann Nixon Cooper, 106, listens to a reporter's question during interview Atlanta home, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper from Atlanta must have found the speech particularly heart-warming. That's because Obama singled her out as someone who had witnessed America's social changes over the past century.

Ann Nixon Cooper's moment came when Obama approached the end of his acceptance speech Wednesday night in Chicago.

Barack Obama, US President-elect, said, "Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old. 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 color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America."

Cooper first registered to vote 67 years ago. Because of her status as a black woman in a segregated and sexist society, she didn't exercise her right to vote for years.

Her husband died in 1967. Cooper has outlived three of her four children and lived to see women gain the right to vote and the end of segregation.

On October 16th this year, she voted early for the Illinois senator, who called to thank her after reading a news article about her.

Cooper said she believes Obama's win could finally signal the change she has been waiting for.

Ann Nixon Cooper, 106-year-old voter, said, "I feel nothing but relief that things have changed as much as they have. Since they've gone so far I feel they'll go further and further. After a while we will be all one."

Cooper turns 107 in January, just a few weeks before Obama's inauguration.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei