2009.01.20
From VT's Squires Center: A ceiling lifted
Virginia Tech students, staff and faculty filled up the 500 seats in the Commonwealth Ballroom of the Squires Student Center by about 11:45 a.m. for an inauguration viewing party organized as part of Martin Luther King Jr. week at the university. The room was adorned with red, white and blue balloons and stars. People in the audience munched on popcorn as they awaited the swearing in ceremony.
Woody Farrar -- a black, 59-year-old history professor -- was one of the first to grab a seat. Unlike many blacks of his generation, Farrar said he fully expected to see the day when a black person would be president of the United States. He even bet a friend a dinner that Obama would win the presidency back at the start of the Democratic primary.
"I actually thought it would happen sooner," he said, recalling his hopes for the Rev. Jesse Jackson 20 years ago.
Farrar's optimism comes from his own experiences. Born in a segregated wing of a hospital at the University of Maryland, he went on to become an officer in the U.S. Navy. His father, whom Farrar is named after, grew up in Virginia and wasn't even afforded a high school education. He became a barber.
"When I was a naval officer I had white men as old as my daddy salute me and call me ‘sir,' he said. "Now I'm a tenured associate professor at Virginia Tech. If that's not progress, I don't know what is."
But Farrar's expectations didn't diminish his appreciation for the historic significance of the day.
"The ceiling that suppressed all black folks now seems to have been lifted," he said.
- Greg Esposito
