Sun
43|29
Mon
39|25
Tue
42|29
Boise woman reflects on broader meaning of the presidential election
Dan Popkey - Idaho Statesman
Published: 12/30/08
Though her father lived to 104 — almost long enough to witness Barack Obama's rise — Yvonne McCoy saw him cry only once. Henry McCoy’s tears fell on an autumn day in 1960, when he told his youngest child he could not vote for John F. Kennedy because he was a black man and lived in Petersburg, Va.
Then 12, Yvonne knew about Jim Crow. She attended segregated schools, had to sit in the balcony at the movies, couldn’t try on shoes before buying. But it hadn’t occurred to her that her father, a lion of a man who supported nine children as a violin teacher, carpenter and janitor might be denied anything.
"I was just devastated," recalled McCoy, who later became an aide to Idaho Sen. Frank Church and now lives in Boise. "Can you imagine being a kid who thinks your father was just everything, who could do anything, who cries because he couldn't vote? I didn't think fathers cried. Why would someone do that to my father? Why would someone do that to me?"
The incident prompted Henry McCoy to move his family north in 1961, four years before the Voting Rights Act removed the barriers that prevented Southern blacks from voting.
"He couldn't wait," said Yvonne McCoy, who, like Obama, is the child of a black father and white mother. "He just finally decided we had to move, we had to leave."
Read the complete story at idahostatesman.com
Story Comments
We welcome comments but ask that you remain on topic. Some comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. Comments that are profane, personal attacks or otherwise inappropriate or are off topic are subject to removal. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Do not flag comments merely because you disagree with the comment.
- Boise State football runs over Utah State
- Taylor-made title for Eagle in 5A championship game
- Fallen Idaho soldier Mathew C. Heffelfinger laid to rest
- Boise couple arrested after their infant daughter found to have broken bones
- Murphy: Boise State ground game grinds up Utah State
- Officials clarify new Idaho Transportation Department chief's salary
- Ada County Sheriff’s detectives seize about 115 pounds of marijuana Thursday
- Two-alarm fire damages Boise duplex
- Eagle doubles in area with M3 annexation
- Ada County property tax bills won't change much
IdahoStatesman.com
- SECTIONS:
- home |
- news |
- sports |
- business |
- politics |
- opinion |
- entertainment |
- lifestyles |
- outdoors |
- special content |
- classifieds |
- shopping
