Ann Nixon Cooper a resident of S.W. Atlanta now known as one to the oldest voters to help elect the nation’s first black president. Mrs. Cooper was tipped off by the Obama campaign that she would be mentioned in his acceptance speech.
According to the AP, On Wednesday, Cooper beamed as she greeted reporters at her southwest Atlanta home, wearing a gold cross around her neck that proudly displayed her age.
"I was waiting for it," said Cooper. "I had heard that they would be calling my name at least."
Cooper first registered to vote on Sept. 1, 1941. Though she was friends with elite black Atlantans like W.E.B. Du Bois, John Hope Franklin and Benjamin E. Mays, because of her status as a black woman in a segregated and sexist society, she didn't exercise her right to vote for years.
Cooper said she believes Obama's win could finally signal the change she has been waiting for.
"I feel nothing but relief that things have changed as much as they have," she said. "After a while, we will all be one. That's what I look forward to."
Cooper turns 107 in January, just a few weeks before Obama's inauguration.
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