ROSS ANDRESON / SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Elko County resident and Barack Obama supporter Julie Embry crosses her fingers on Election Day. “It felt wonderful to vote for him,” said Embry, one of the few black residents of Elko.
Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008 | 2 a.m.
Election Night 2008
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McCain's Concession Speech
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After Election, What's Next?
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Dina Titus Acceptance Speech
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Obama's Acceptance Speech
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Jon Porter's concession
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Shelley Berkley
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Among Elko voters at the Convention Center on Tuesday, there was no way around it. Julie Embry stuck out.
She was the only one in sight who teared up after she voted. She was the only one to reveal a brightly colored Barack Obama T-shirt and pin. And she was the only black person.
In this mining and ranching city of 17,000, Embry, 53, is one of just a few dozen black residents.
Reared in Reno, Embry moved to Elko four years ago to go to college to study social work. Friends told her to try to blend in.
“People were telling me, ‘Julie, you can’t be this outspoken. People are going to shun you,’ ” Embry recalled Tuesday, sitting on a bench outside the polling area to catch her breath (she has asthma). “It’s a nice community as long as you don’t voice your views different than their views.”
Barack Obama visited Elko three times in the past 15 months as part of Democrats’ efforts to narrow the lead Republicans enjoy in rural Nevada. (Elko County has more than twice as many Republicans as Democrats.)
Embry saw Obama speak in August 2007. Just a few hundred people showed up. She heard racial comments.
At her church, relations grew chilly. “My church doesn’t say much to me anymore because I’m voting for Barack Obama and all they want to talk about is gays and lesbians and abortion,” she said.
But each time Obama returned, she noticed a difference. “In the beginning, there were a lot of racial overtones, but the work Barack did changed that,” Embry said. “He came back the last time (in September) there were thousands of people cheering.”
For a black woman living in a remote, largely white city, the prospect of an Obama presidency holds special meaning. But as she pondered it Tuesday morning, Embry forced herself not to become too excited, lest she be disappointed.
“It felt wonderful to vote for him,” Embry said. “It felt like it’s the first chance women, black people, gay people actually have to be considered equal.
“But if we lose tonight we’ll know we can only go so far. We can never be equal.
“But if we do win, it will be a sign people really have changed.”
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