Danielle Mathis and her husband Nate were two of about 2 million people who made their way to Washington, D.C., last week for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

But for Danielle the journey was also one for which the groundwork, and its needed completion, were laid 60 years ago.

A New Jersey native and adjunct faculty member at Clayton State University’s Peachtree City campus, Danielle is also a Realtor with Keller Williams in Fayetteville and founder of the Fayette County Track Association.

For Danielle, her journey to Washington was more than a chance to witness the inauguration. It was the completion of another journey, one that began in a Washington suburb just after the end of World War II.

“I went to Georgetown University where my dad 60 years ago was denied access to the cafeteria. He was one of five African-Americans in the class of 1948. They couldn’t study or eat or live with white students. So I went to Georgetown to the cafeteria and had lunch in honor of my father,” Danielle said, reflecting on her father and his death in 1991. “It was my lunch counter sit-in. Going to Georgetown was the icing on the cake.”

Danielle is a third generation Republican. Her paternal grandfather was a Garveyite, a movement named for Marcus Garvey. Her grandfather participated in the effort in which African-Americans planned to return in a mass movement to the African continent.

Danielle’s father attended a Catholic school and later served in the Nixon administration working on matters of adult education.

Looking back at her trip last week, Danielle saw it as a fitting completion of a history that spanned six decades. It was the beginning of the Obama presidency and the completion of a chapter in her own family’s history.

“I don’t know if I have the words to describe adequately what it was for me. But there were two reasons to go to Washington. For the inauguration first and then to go to Georgetown to close a chapter of my family history,” Danielle said, adding that she had prearranged to meet with Georgetown officials on her visit to the campus at the end of her trip, in the days following the inauguration. “I closed a chapter of family history that had been opened for 60 years. My ending was the beginning, doing something in (my father’s) honor.”

Danielle and Nate were in Washington for six days. It was a time of pure excitement, she said, including for a Republican. “I was excited as an African-American,” Danielle said of the trip to the nation’s capitol. “We went straight to Washington to celebrate and that’s what we did. We walked 10 miles Tuesday and stood for six hours to be a part of it. In six days we stayed in three hotels and a residence, with most of the stay in Silver Springs (Md.).”

“And on Tuesday, everything moved. Everyone was courteous. There were no incidents. The thing that stuck in my mind was how many white Americans cried,” Danielle continued. “(The inauguration) was electrifying. It was fantastic. You felt like you were riding a wave that was going to get you to shore safely. The absence of negativity was almost surreal. What I like about Obama is that he’s not just for African-Americans, he’s for everyone. The election was not just about African-Americans. It was about the galvanization of a country that needs hope. The excitement of the race was elevated, where those from other cultures and other races were happy for you. That’s where the real electricity was. Everybody was happy for everybody.”