Courtesy photoBarack Obama signs a newspaper for Charles Adams while campaigning in Carson City in June 2007.
Charles Adams forged his path in life from behind the lens of a camera. Hollywood was his stomping grounds, and through his 35 years as a celebrity photographer, this man of black, Portuguese, Welch, Irish, Dutch, Scottish and Cherokee descent never felt as though race was an issue.
"Maybe it's because of my approach," he said. "I have not separated myself. I'm sure somewhere along the way there were people who may have had prejudice against me. I couldn't adopt their reasoning. Whatever they felt wasn't what I felt."
On Tuesday, as America's first African-American president was sworn into office, Adams couldn't help but think of the part he played when in June 2007 he hosted then-candidate Barack Obama in his house in West Carson City.
"In retrospect I realize that I, as a minority, had the first minority president in my home."
It was on Adams' stairwell, amid dozens of photographs " Marlon Brando, Farrah Fawcett, Woody Allen, Aretha Franklin " that a hopeful Obama spoke directly to a small crowd of Carson City residents.
While the event was exciting, Obama's subsequent election to the highest political office in the nation has placed that visit in the annals of Carson City history.
Adams was raised in Atlanta with four siblings by his black mother and mostly white father, whose skin held enough of his Portuguese and Cherokee blood that no one questioned his ethnicity, he said.
Adams said his mother always taught her children to be who they were and never made race an issue.
Something about the mixed-race candidate was familiar, Adams said.
"I could relate to him because I am an American cross-breed. When you have people of other bloods in your family, it doesn't afford you the burden of hating or disliking. It makes you more open-minded and more interested in other cultures."
He said he is proud of Obama's success, more so for the man that he is than the color of his skin.
"I felt from what he had to say and the delivery of what he had to say when he was here, that this man was timely," Adams said. "There was a spark of decency, of human kind, of integrity, all the things that seemed missing from the current administration. By the time he left here, I had the highest regard for him.
"I just looked at him kind of like I look at myself. He set out to do something, where he didn't allow race to be a determinate factor. I think as we progress as a nation, this is the way it has to be. Race can be a program if you want it to be. But you can really rise above that. If you are determined, if you have the determination to be whatever it is you are trying to be, that is where you put your energy."
- Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.