Fresh Loaf

Approximate number of people who gathered in Centennial Olympic Park to watch the presidential inauguration: 1,000

Temperature in degrees, with wind chill included, at 9:05 a.m. on Jan. 20 in Atlanta: 11

Number of people who attended the Georgia Democratic Party’s inaugural brunch in Washington, D.C.: 700

Approximate number of people who watched the ceremony at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church: 250

Time people began lining up Tuesday morning outside Manuel’s Tavern to watch the ceremony: 9

Time the restaurant normally opens on weekday mornings: 11

Number of extra copies the AJC printed of its Jan. 21 edition to meet collectors’ demand: 225,000

Price in dollars of a limited-edition bottle of Hennessy cognac issued for the inauguration: 60

Price in dollars of a limited-edition Spiderman comic book featuring President Obama at Oxford Comics: 75

Price in dollars of an inauguration ceremony ticket offered on the Atlanta Craigs List: 1,000

Number of ads on Atlanta Craigs List offering sex in D.C. port-a-potties on inauguration day: 1

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Just out of curiousity, am I the only Rick Warren-loathing, gay-marriage-supporting atheist who is uncomfortable with the idea of protesting Warren’s appearance at Ebenezer Baptist Church today?

To put it politely, I vehemently disagree with Warren’s statements denigrating gay people. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to protest outside a church. How is protesting Warren at Ebenezer any more appropriate than Christians protesting outside a synagogue because the Rabbi won’t acknowledge Jesus?

Warren’s sickening statements prior to the passage of California’s recent anti-gay marriage initiative make him a powerful symbol of anti-gay discrimination. I get that. I just don’t think a Baptist church, or any church, is the appropriate venue for me to protest him.

Warren is scheduled to speak outside the U.S. Capitol tomorrow as part of Obama’s inauguration. When he does, I’ll mute the TV, mutter something nasty, and go check my e-mail.

If I were in the audience at the Capitol, I’d probably protest by turning my back to him. The Capitol is a public space. It’s my space. I’m more than comfortable protesting there. I feel obligated to protest his presence there.

But churches are private space. If he wants to be an ignoramus inside a church, I think that’s his business.

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Ann Louis Nixon Cooper, the 106-year-old Atlantan whom President-elect Obama referred to in his victory speech, turns out to be quite a lady.

The Shelbyville, Tenn., native moved with her dentist husband to Atlanta in 1922 — when she was either 19 or 20. She knew W.E.B. Du Bois, John Hope Franklin and other 20th African-American intellectuals. She also was active in community activities, including a tutoring program at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Obama used the sweep of Cooper’s life to launch into a call-response evocation of his “Yes We Can” mantra:

And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

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Less than an hour after Pres.-elect Barack Obama’s victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park, more than 300 people gathered early Wednesday morning at the intersection of Jackson Street and Auburn Avenue outside the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church — the same house of worship where Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. preached and organized.

Chants of “Yes, We Did,” drum circles and blaring car horns motivated the crowd of young and old and all races and ethnicities. There was even the electric slide.

I left at 1:45 a.m. and people were still going strong. Here are just a few of the photos. We’ll post more tomorrow as well as snapshots and reports of the Georgia GOP party held in Buckhead.

(more…)

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Hundreds of people marched from Woodruff Park down Auburn Avenue to the Ebenezer Baptist Church Thursday evening to protest the upcoming execution of Troy Davis. Seven of the nine witnesses who originally identified him as the killer have recanted their testimony. Chants of “We are Troy Davis” reverberated throughout the Auburn neighborhood. At Ebenezer Baptist Church, a service included speeches and prayer.

Davis’ older sister, Martina Davis Correia, described a call she had received Thursday from the president of France, who asked for more details about the case. She also alluded to the case being brought up at the United Nations Friday. But after years of fighting against her brother’s conviction, she seemed ready to face her brother’s death. “No matter what happens on the 23rd” she said, “we all win. We are going to dismantle the death penalty in Georgia.”

After the Board of Pardons and Parole refused Davis’ request for clemency last Friday, his only chance for a stay of execution is the state Supreme Court (it ruled in march 4-3 against allowing new evidence to be considered), the U.S. Supreme Court and President George Bush. Davis avoided execution last year when, less then 24 hours before he was sentenced to die, the parole board granted a stay. The demonstration Thursday ended with people joining hands and singing “We Shall Overcome.”

(Photo By Joeff Davis)

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