Americans rush plans for Obama inauguration (could be as many as 4-5million people)

[LynneSin]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gF3m-HjwoaTV9L3dalXJ4WAuPGzQD94LC7201

Americans rush plans for Obama inauguration
By GILLIAN GAYNAIR and BRETT ZONGKER – 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pattie Brew, daughter of a North Carolina sharecropper, had let almost a century go by without casting a vote for president or joining the inaugural crowds only three miles from her home in the nation's capital.

"I never had no interest in it because my vote don't matter anyway, so I never even took the time to fool with it," said the 97-year-old woman known as Mother Brew. "I knew white people had the right of way here, you know."

But on Nov. 4, she slipped on white gloves and pearls and found her way to a polling booth. And on Jan. 20, she wants to see the country's first inauguration of a black president — not from a couch at home but from somewhere closer by.

"So much history in this, honey," Brew said. "You gonna get me a ticket?"

From the District of Columbia's historically black neighborhoods to Honolulu, Americans who had let many presidents pass them by are clamoring for a chance to be a part of Barack Obama's inauguration. There are lengthy waiting lists for tickets to the inauguration and balls. Hotels have filled up as far away as West Virginia.

Organizers can only guess at the size of the crowds, but the estimates range from 1 million to an unprecedented 5 million, which are certain to include many African-Americans who feel connected to the White House for the first time.

The crowd will include people like Mark Anthony Jenkins of the Bronx, N.Y., who runs the online Black Singles magazine. Jenkins has rented 10 buses and has already sold out four for an $80 journey that leaves at 4 a.m. and includes Obama T-shirts and snacks. Jenkins hired 10 cameramen to document the experience.