She was a black woman.

She was working.

She was a part of.

She came.

She saw.

Ultimately, she was conquered.

Others came with best friends.

However, for some, like Tamii Harris, 47, of Park Manor, the inauguration of America's first black president was important enough to go it alone.

Tamii Harris, 47, of Park Manor, shows off the official inauguration t-shirt distributed by the tour group operator to her travelers on a "Road trip to the White House."

"From the beginning, I wanted to go, and everyone else was flaking out," Harris said.

"I'm going because I owe it to myself. I owe it to Obama. I owe it to my mother and grandmother and Rosa [Parks] and Corretta [Scott King] and all the other women whose shoulders I'm standing on," she said.

"I want to be able to tell my own children and grandchildren I was there."

And right behind them were the street vendors.

No, this wasn't Washington, D.C. Not yet. This was 87th & the Dan Ryan, where the Frazier family of Marquette Park gathered with 96 fellow travelers to hop two charter buses bound for D.C. on a three-day "Road Trip to the White House."

A vendor boards the "Road trip to the White House" charter bus to sell her wares.

Fantastic and fulfilling, but freezing.

Overwhelmed, overjoyed.

They'd ridden a charter bus back to Chicago after going to Washington for President Obama's inauguration. Afterward, the 103 Chicago area participants in this particular "Road Trip to the White House" bubbled over trying to describe the experience -- and how they believe it will help shape their futures.

As they returned home -- with memories and souvenir buttons decorated with Obama's visage and emblazoned with the words "I was there" -- and settled back into life in Chicago, they talked of what they'd witnessed and spoke with a sense of ownership of their new president.

Among them was Linda Vaughn, 65, of East Chicago.

"She's the primary reason I'm here," Vaughn said of her 8-year-old granddaughter Chynna Vaughn.

Linda Vaughn, 65, of East Chicago, is the third woman from the left, with the gray and purple head scarf. Her 8-year-old granddaughter, Chynna Vaughn, is on the right, wearing the black sweater.

Purely Destinations owner Ivory Coats, 25, initially knew only that she was going.

"The night he was elected, I said, 'I'm definitely going to the inauguration!' '' Coats said. "Then I said, 'Ivory, why just you? People are going to want to be a part of history.' "

Purely Destinations owner Ivory Coats

Margie Edwards, 78, of Englewood, has vivid memories of growing up during segregation, of Jim Crow laws and the newcomer called King, of marching hand-in-hand with strangers in Selma.

So when a newcomer came along 45 years later, she was skeptical.

"I said, 'Boy, he don't stand a snowball's chance in hell,' " said Edwards, whose daughter Pamela Frazier is taking Edwards' eight grandchildren and great-grandchildren to Washington for Barack Obama's inauguration as president.

"But I see him one time, and he's got 5,000 people with him, then the next time you looked, he had 50,000 people. It just kept mushrooming," she said. "That's when you think to yourself, 'This young man has got to have something on the ball.' "

So the 5-foot-10 high school junior was particularly gleeful when Barack Obama won -- not just because he made history, but because his soon-to-be first lady also has height (almost 5-foot-11).

"Michelle Obama is going to make a great first lady," said Ryaan, a forward and center on Chicago International Charter School's basketball team.

"She represents tall well. She's pretty, smart and very confident. She exudes self-respect and power. When I see her, I know there ain't no stopping me."

Just about every Saturday between August and Nov. 4, 2008, the two could be found door to door canvassing for then-candidate Barack Obama in Hammond, Ind.

"We helped him win," said Semaja. "I'm excited. Now we're going to Washington to see him be the first black president. I can't wait."

Semaja Frazier, 8, and her cousin Brian Jackson, 8, beside a Barack Obama project in the hallway of their school.

The city seems normal before you near the Capitol.

The throngs start to grow as you approach.

Pamela Frazier listens to President Barack Obama's inauguration speech.

(Washington, D.C.) -- For many average folks that traveled here for the inauguration of the nation's first black president, today was about the battle, in so many ways.

The battle for racial equality. The battle for their share of the American Dream. The battle just to get onto the National Mall.

With the delays yesterday morning, the Frazier family and their tour group on a "Road trip to the White House" were quite antsy by the second rest stop last night to refuel the bus, in Breezewood, Pa.

But as the "Are we close yets" started to come, the Trailways bus driver got lost. His GPS went haywire. So the group didn't pull up at their Best Western hotel in Denton, Md. (half the group continued to a Best Western in Smyrna, Md.) until after 5 a.m.

Bryan Jackson, 8, shares a seat with Grandma on the roadtrip.

Stream of Consciousness:
We've been driving now for nearly 10 hours.

Ryaan Frazier, 17, and cousin Mylon Frazier, 13.

We're on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It's dark, but the lights are pretty.
The loud chatter and politics chatter of the first three hours died down to low murmurs a third of the way into the trip, and by the time we made our first rest stop sometime after 6 p..m. and hit the road again, it had become quiet.
Sleep had taken over in most sections of the bus.
Some still have their crazy red, white and blue hats pulled over drooping eyes.

The Frazier family prepares to board the bus.

After weeks of preparation and mounting excitement, nine members of the Frazier family of Marquette Park left this morning on their "Road trip to the White House."

But they say anything worth having is worth waiting for.

And after weeks of preparation and mounting excitement, Pamela, her two children and six grandchildren, would have to wait a little longer -- three hours, to be exact.

One of the two Trailways buses broke down en route from Rockford to pick up their tour group at 87th & the Dan Ryan. Trailways then drew the group's ire by promising to get the second bus to them within an hour -- which turned into two hours and then three hours.

The Fraziers and their group wait out a three-hour delay leaving on their "Road trip to the White House."

Catch the Fraziers featured on NBC Chicago

Fly guy (literally) Marquis Wright, 28, is a flight attendant with Southwest Airlines who got stuck on the fringes of Grant Park Nov. 4, 2008, and found a memorable experience.

Marquis Wright and his twin, Marquita, are the youngest of five children of Pamela Frazier.

The 28-year-old has been employed with Southwest Airlines since 2001, working his way up from ramp agent to operations staff to flight attendant.

A graduate of Kenwood Academy, he attended Northern Illinois University for a year before transferring to Harold Washington Community College. He attended Harold Washington a year and a half when Southwest participated in a job fair at the school.

He applied, was hired, and left school for a dream job with good pay and benefits.

As a flight attendant, he flies for free with his airline, so he flew into Washington, D.C. Friday with friends who also work for Southwest. (No other seats were available as flights were booked solid after Friday).

Like others already in D.C., Marquis and his friends have been celebrating since arrival.

Here, he recounts his experience on that historic Nov. 4 night -- an experience that inspired him and a lot of other Generation Xers to attend the inauguration.

Where were you on election night?

Michael Frazier, Jr. never thought he'd live to see a black president.
Inset: His brother, Marquis Wright, a flight attendant, is taking a week off to attend the inauguration.

Michael Frazier Jr. describes himself as so many other Americans -- living
paycheck to paycheck.

So the 36-year-old South Sider says he can't afford time off from his Museum
of Science & Industry job to join his family on their "Road Trip to the
White House."

His mother, Pamela Frazier of Marquette Park, is taking nine family members
on the three-day bus trip to the Capitol.

Going are Michael's two sons, Michael III, 16, and Mylon, 13, who he
believes need to witness the inauguration of a black president.

"I love my boys to death," says the father, struggling to keep them in an
apartment in upwardly mobile Beverly with his wife of 15 years.

"I'm grateful they'll be there to witness history -- a president sworn in
that looks like them. I never thought I'd see it," he says.

See editorial by Black Star Project founder Phillip Jackson on state of young black males

Email your answer to his question