For Eufaula Frazier, taking seven children to see the inauguration of the first black president signifies a "passing of the torch.''
The 84-year-old community activist from Liberty City struggled for weeks to organize a trip to Washington on a shoestring budget and a prayer. On Monday, after almost 22 hours on a bus, plus a car ride and two subway trains, the Capitol's dome finally came into sight. ''Is that the White House?'' wondered Alexandra Leno, 15.
''It was a thrill, deep in my heart, to see their expressions,'' Frazier said of the children, ages 5 to 18. ``That said to me that they knew what they were there for. I believe we did something that will put them on the right path.''
Barack Obama has spoken of his debt to the Moses generation -- those who fought for freedom but never crossed over into the promised land of racial equality -- and called for young people, the Joshua generation, to take up the cause. To grab the torch.
These kids from Miami, Opa-locka and Miramar are skeptical of their obligations, beyond good grades and staying out of trouble. Their grandparents largely spared them stories of segregated schools, race riots and the cruelty of strangers.
But the children grasp that they are witnessing history, and for now, that is enough.
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