CHANGE: ; Local black leaders exhilarated

NATIONAL RACES: 3A / STATE, LOCAL RACES: 2A, 5A-9A, 1C, 4C, 4D

It was a day local black leaders said they did not think theywould live to see. They say Barack Obamas election Tuesday changesso much for their congregations, for young black people and for thecountry and its position in the world. This means that the originalsin of America has been erased, said the Right Rev. Emanuel A.Heyliger, senior pastor of Ferguson Memorial Baptist Church inDunbar. The promise and practice of the country are now consistent,Heyliger said. The promise of America, though scarred, thoughdelayed, though detoured, though derailed we always believed thatthe future was brighter than our past. There is a change in the coreof the country, said the Rev. Lloyd Hill, president of theCharleston Black Ministerial Alliance. The young people of Americano longer think like their fathers did, he said. Hazo Carter, thepresident of West Virginia State University, grew up in thesegregated South. He remembers restrooms marked colored and whiteand that his father could not take him through the front door of amovie theater. Carter said he never thought he would see a black manelected president, but hes not surprised the country has madeprogress because America is a tremendous nation, he said. Yet thereis more to be done. I think we have a significant way to go, Cartersaid. But the distance before us is not as far as the distancebehind. Exit polls indicated race was a factor in West Virginiassupport for Republican candidate John McCain. He won 56 percent ofthe vote in this state as compared to Obamas 42 percent. About 20percent of voters said race was a factor in their decision onTuesday, although that view was expressed by about as many who votedfor McCain as those who voted for Obama, according to an exit pollconducted for the Associated Press by Edison Media Research andMitofsky International. Theres always pocket challenges everywhere,Hill said. But around the country a new majority is speaking, hesaid. Thats something the old guard needs to understand. Heyligersaid there has been a narrowing of the racial divide in statesaround the country, even those that didnt go Obamas way. And evenwhen he looks at the results in this state, he sees potential. WestVirginia is not a project but a process that has yet to be realized,to unfold, so to speak, he said. Heyliger hopes Obama will call onthis generation like President John Kennedy called on another andthat blacks, whites and Hispanics across the country are inspiredthat they can realize their dreams. He said he was speaking ofdreams like those of Martin Luther King Jr. for a country wherepeople are not judged by the color of their skin. It just so happensthat it is 40 years after his death, which in biblical times is ageneration, that God has raised up, uniquely, Barack Obama to be thepresident of the United States, Heyliger said Tuesday night. And allacross the world tomorrow morning, there will be a sign of hope.Contact writer Ry Rivard at ry.rivard@dailymail.com or 304-348-1796.