The 'Obama before Obama'

He usually wears bow ties, he said, because they convey intellect and gravitas. He enjoys watching how people perceive him, based on his bow ties.

He is thinking that the presidential election will also be about perceptions, the changed perceptions of a nation. "It ain't going to be about race," said Barnes. "Sure, you're going to have some people clinging to the old issues -- blacks and whites. But in the fall, it's going to come down to who can help me live better."

The old perceptions died in some, but live on in others. Let Janice Abercrombie, 69, tell a story. She is a white genealogist who grew up here and attended segregated schools. After marriage in 1958 she moved to Fairfax, but came back in 1974 with a 16-year-old daughter who found the county intolerable. "I knew how to live in both worlds," said Abercrombie. "She only knew how to live in Fairfax County."

One day, in a five-and-dime store here, a clerk tried to skip over an elderly black woman who was in line ahead of her daughter, "and my daughter let her have it," Abercrombie recalled. She remembers being deeply disappointed at how little her county had evolved. "I had people try to convince me that the black brain was inferior to the white brain," she said. "I stopped associating with those people."

There are fewer of "those people" now in a county that Barack Obama carried in the Virginia Democratic primary, though Democrats haven't been competitive here in the fall since 1996, when incumbent President Bill Clinton lost to Republican nominee Bob Dole by seven votes.

"Louisa's probably more open-minded than people would expect, if you think, small, agricultural town," said Jade Lourenco, one of two chef-owners of the trendy Mediterranean restaurant Obrigado, which opened just two years ago right across the street from the courthouse and Langston's marker. The nation's first black local elected official was born in 1829 on a farm about five miles from her restaurant. Lourenco was surprised to learn this.

Langston's father was Ralph Quarles, a slaveowner; his mother, Lucy Langston, was an ex-slave and bondswoman. Both parents died when he was 4, and an Ohio friend of Quarles's ended up caring for him. He was the fifth black man to graduate from Oberlin College, was elected to several local offices in Ohio, was active in the black freedom movement with Frederick Douglass, served as educational inspector for the Freedmen's Bureau and was the U.S. minister to Haiti. In 1888, he ran for Congress in Virginia's 4th Congressional District as an independent. Denied a victory, he contested the election results and finally won his seat, but it was so late in the term that he served but three months. He was unseated in the next election.

"Wow," Lourenco said. "I'm really embarrassed I didn't know about him." Barack Obama she knows about. While her fellow chef-owner, Debbie Wollett, has been a diehard Hillary Clinton backer, Lourenco has been on an emotional ride with Obama since the campaign began. It's not rational, she admits, not based on a careful study of his policies or any serious reading at all. She has been too busy for that -- perfecting her specialty, Valencia paella, and trying to make the restaurant successful. So for her, it comes down to this: "He just speaks to me in a way that other politicians haven't."

The line from Langston to Obama is something Marvin Trice latched onto immediately.

Six years ago, Trice, a painter, was commissioned to do a black-and-white acrylic of Langston that now hangs inside the Louisa County Courthouse. Trice would come home from his day job making parts for kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and work on the painting. It now hangs in the only courtroom among other paintings of historic Virginia notables, the lone portrait of an African American.

When it finally became clear that Obama would capture the Democratic nomination, Trice searched to find the right words. "I don't know if saying I'm proud would be sufficient." He thought about Langston. "It took people like John Mercer Langston to pave the way for Barack Obama," said Trice, 52, an African American. "We stand on the shoulders of a lot of people, even those who did menial things. They opened doors, and others came along and opened more doors. It's something wonderful."

MORE FROM POLITICS

Politics Section Front

Senate set for health care debate   Levin: Afghan forces key to success Newsweek: Why Cheney should run in 2012 NYT: White House intruders want to sell tale NYT: S.C. rift highlights debate in GOP Life isn’t all glamor for Obama crashers Marines to renew focus on Taliban haven Can Obama retain Hispanic support? Senate report: Bin Laden was 'within grasp' Dinner crashers met Obama, White House says Politics Section Front   Add Politics headlines to your news reader: