Neither Virginia Battle nor her husband, Henry, thought they'd live to see a day like this, when a black man was a major party nominee with a chance to be elected president.
"I didn't think I'd be here," says Henry, an African-American who's been voting for white presidents since 1940. "But now that I'm here, yes, I believe. I believe this country has been waiting for this day. The whole country."
Both 86, the Battles have been married for 62 years, have three children, 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. They drive from their Rockville home to Barack Obama's Bethesda campaign office several days a week to volunteer, usually making telephone calls to voters in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
"They keep us busy," Henry says. "Some days I wonder if I'm really retired."
Election Day tomorrow isn't about making history for black America, they say; it's a day to be shared by all of America. But the historical significance of the United States possibly electing a black president has especially captivated African-Americans.
The response - from seniors like the Battles to teens - doesn't surprise Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the NAACP.
"This organization has prepared for a century for this moment. We've explicitly pushed since at least 1960 to make it possible for people of color to run for president of this country," Jealous says. "There is a deep sense of exhaling throughout the black community in this country, a sense that finally we've been able to truly compete."
Henry Battle says he's known for months that the Democrat Obama was poised to make history. He wakes up each morning and reads the paper and then flips on CNN, monitoring campaign reports throughout the day. His wife keeps reminding him that in politics, anything can happen.
The Battles have already experienced a bit of White House history.
A half-century ago, Virginia was a secretary in Sen. John F. Kennedy's Massachusetts office. When Kennedy won the presidency, he brought her to Washington. Ted Sorensen, Kennedy's adviser and former speechwriter, wrote that Virginia was among the first black staff in the White House, maybe even the first.
Obama "is in a similar position that Kennedy was in because the country's in a real mood for change," she says. She senses "the same aura of excitement around Barack and the people who are following him. It's exciting."
