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Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church

The Wards – Obama for his legacy and vision rather than his color

Victoria the daughter, Steven the father, Angela the stepmother, Gladys the grandmother.

Black people in Texas? There are a bit less than in the rest of the country, but more than 12% according to the last Census numbers. To meet some, we went to Mount Moriah Baptist missionary church in Elgin, near Austin, where we’ve met Gladys Ward, the assistant pastor’s mom.


“My grand-mother arrived from Tennessee as a slave to pick up cotton and I remember that we then had only used books, with missing pages, at the black school”, recalls that woman in her sixties, who spent all her life.


“Slavery is history for my children and grandchildren. But I, who experimented segregation without being able to participate in anti-discrimination movements taking place in cities, pay attention to the annual celebration of slavery abolition, on Juneteenth”, comments Gladys, who’s a Democrat.


 

 


Her son on the other hand defines himself as a Republican. (…) But even though Steven Ward votes Republican State-wide, he’s going to vote for Barack Obama on November the 6th. Mitt Romney is a good candidate. But he doesn’t connect with everyone. Doesn’t want to help everyone. And his program isn’t very precise. What I’m looking for at the national level, is a candidate that enables us to reach our goals. And this year, it will be Obama again”.

 



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