Barack Obama’s acceptance speech comes on the 45^th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther Kings’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. For many people, the meaning of that is huge.

This isn’t the “America” Betty Liggins thought she’d be living in when she was a young adult in the 1950s and 60s. “We have gone farther than I thought we would be able to,” she says. Nor is she the person she thought she’d become – a successful, educated, and wise 77-year old woman who now spends most of her time, and money, helping Barack Obama try to become the first African-American President of the United States, 45 years to the day Dr. King gave his most famous speech.

Liggins says the coincidence of the dates stirs many memories for her. She was there when Dr. King spoke in front of the Washington Monument. “I thought it was a great speech,” she says. “You could only hear part of it because the sound system wasn’t so good as far back as I was.”

She admits she underestimated who Dr. King would become, and it was the same with Barack Obama. Liggins met him in 2005, and she says she never thought he’d end up the Democratic nominee for President. But now, she says seeing an African-American Presidential nominee is a dream come true for her.