Pastor Kenneth Whalum Jr. (Photos courtesy of Rev. Kenneth Whalum Jr.)

(Pastor Kenneth Whalum Jr. of New Olivet Baptist Church attended the inaugural, along with his wife Sheila Whalum, Kenneth Whalum III and others. After the Inauguration ceremony he spoke with Karanja A. Ajanaku, executive editor of the Tri-State Defender.)

Tri-State Defender: What time did you guys get out there today?

Pastor Whalum: We got up at 5:30 and we struck out walking in nine-degree weather. We finally made it to the Capitol grounds around 7 o’clock.

TSD: What did you see when you got there?

PW: We saw so many people it was ridiculous. We sent some pictures to try and give you some feel of the just enormous crowd, the unprecedented crowd. The security was amazing. People were very patient; all colors of people and all kinds of people.

TSD: I’ve heard some people say that as great as the speeches were the crowd itself was the story.

PW: The crowd was the story. In fact, people were helping each other in amazing ways. As people would kind of get sickly, get faint and get light-headed others would give them their own blankets, give them their own water. It was something else.

I will tell you what else was striking. When the name of President George Bush was announced people started booing. And thousands of people started singing that song, ‘nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, good-bye.'

I know you could not hear that on television, but trust me, thousands of people were singing it. Good-bye.

TSD: Where you able to see President Bush’s face?

PW: Yes, and it was always the same. The same as it ever was. . .I don’t care. . .that kind of look. But the people were serious. On the other hand, every time they would even say anything like Obama or that rhymes with Obama or Michelle or anything, people just went up period

TSD: From the speeches, what stood out for you?

PW: Obama’s speech struck me in its evenhandedness and a balance between a sort of sober awareness and a sort of surreal optimism in the way that he called attention to the plight that we are in as a nation and yet at the same time excited and invigorated people about self sacrifice.

It was interesting, and people in the crowd were like, ‘yes.’ He would say stuff like we’ve got to roll up our sleeves, we’ve got hard work, it’s not going to be easy. People in the crowd were saying, ‘that’s right, that’s right, that’s right. It’s like people are ready to roll, man.

TSD: So where do we go from here?

PW: What we’ve got to do in Memphis is bring Memphis up to par. I am most impressed out of all of this with the fact that if it were not for Memphis there would be no Barack Obama. Had it not been for Memphis and Dr. King thinking enough of Memphis, Dr. King seeing in Memphis something worth literally dying for, there would be no completion to the civil rights movement. Without Memphis there would be no President Obama.

So, I’m determined that I’m going to do whatever I can to bring about real change in Memphis. It is time for change in Memphis. No longer can Memphis be an embarrassment to the United States. No longer can black leadership be summarily dismissed out of hand as being ineffective and incompetent.

Looking at President Barack Obama and the excellence for which he stands, we have got to turn Memphis around. And we’ve got to turn it around now.

TSD: Have you gotten used to saying “President Barack Obama?”

PW: Absolutely. And it feels good. It actually feels good breathing this air up here. The same air he’s breathing.