BEND, Ore. - She looks like a million bucks, for a woman who saw her first husband shot to death, and Myrlie Evers-Williams beamed with pride as she introduced Sen. Barack Obama to fellow Eastern Oregon residents.

Evers-Williams is the widow of Medgar Evers, the civil rights leader whose murder helped inspire the "Mississippi Summer" of 1964 in which thousands of students journeyed South to register voters.

Three of those students were murdered by local law enforcement and the Ku Klux Klan.

Forty-five years later, an African-American is on the verge of capturing a major party's presidential nomination. Barack Obama did it, in part, by sweeping Deep South states that once used literary tests and terror to keep blacks off the voting rolls.

"This is a very emotional moment for me. Because I am seeing change, positive change, my friends, over the years and we are all participating in what is the most exciting
election I think this country has ever had," Evers-Williams said in introducing Obama Saturday.

Obama, in turn, credited Evers for laying the groundwork for the fact that he is running.

Evers-Williams, 70, went on to become the first woman to head the NAACP. She has lived for 19 years in Eastern Oregon.

"I am so proud of today, so proud of him (Obama)," a beaming Evers-Williams said as she walked away from the rally.

It was a time for biracial bear hugs.