I've been reading Nichelle Nichols'autobiography {Beyond Uhura, Star Trek And Other Memories>/i> {New Yorl, G.P Putnam's Songs, 1994}.

In that book, Nichelle Nichols mentions that her grandfather was the son of a White slave owner and her grandmother was a slave who was owned by his family. After the end of the Civil War, the two fled the South, were married, and lived and raised a family in Ohio.

Besides love, it took a great deal of courage & strength to do this.

I believe that joining the millions of people braving the cold at Barack Obama's inauguration in Washington, D.C. will be the spirits of Nichelle Nichols' grandparents. I also believe that attending that inauguration will be the spririts of other couples who defied societal & family opposition to share real love across "racial lines" throughout their entire adult lives, or through part of their adult lives. Of course, included among that number is Barack Obama's father and mother.

And I believe that two highly honored spirits among those who will witness Barack Obama's inauguration will be his recently departed beloved maternal grandmother, and his maternal grandfather who passed on some time ago. Both of these White people from Kansas could have rejected their daughter, and could have rejected Barack Obama because of his racial ancestry. Instead they loved and nurtured him, and helped make him the man he is.