Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Nathaniel Jones has lived for a moment that he assumed he would never see.

Growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, Jones, 82, felt the sting of racial segregation. He joined the ``March on Washington'' -- 45 years ago today -- when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his ``I have a dream'' speech. He served as general counsel to the NAACP and then as a federal appeals court judge for 25 years. In 1994, he was an official observer of South Africa's presidential election won by Nelson Mandela.

Tonight, when Democrat Barack Obama, whom Jones met almost 20 years ago during a visit to Harvard Law School, becomes the first black man to accept a major party's nomination for president, Jones will mark the moment with a mix of pride and awe. He isn't a delegate or a party high roller. He's here for one reason: a front-row seat to history.

``This is much more than a political campaign,'' he said. ``This has taken on the dimensions of the march in 1963 and the elections in 1994. This is a movement. Every so often in history there is a spark, someone who can cause a flame to blow.''

His is just one story of those who traveled to Denver with strong ties to the movement for racial equality in the U.S. Jones and other blacks are watching with some trepidation as well, wondering whether white voters will look beyond race when casting their ballots in November.

Quiet Intensity

Jones saw something different in Obama when the young man was at Harvard Law, saying he had a quiet intensity amid a group of outspoken strivers.

``He was so unassuming, which is unusual in a group that is very aggressive and political,'' Jones said.

It was a period of racial tumult at the school over the issue of granting tenure to ``women of color.'' Obama transcended that, said Jones. ``He was a person who seemed to draw confidence from the full range of the student body.''

Initially, because of Obama's name, Jones thought he was African. It wasn't a name he would forget.

He followed Obama's political career, starting with his humiliating loss in a race for Congress in 2000. When Obama decided to run for the Senate in 2004, Jones and his wife of 40 years, Lillian, helped him raise money, connecting with him on several political trips to their hometown of Cincinnati.

``She told Barack he is her fourth son,'' and Obama ``smiles and hugs her each time'' they meet, Jones said. ``He says, `Oh, I could use another mother.''' Jones said.

Obama gained a strong political ally. ``I told him I admit to pleading guilty to shadowing him,'' Jones said. ``And he said, `I am following you.'''

History Unfolds

Jones felt compelled to travel to Denver to watch history unfold, a bookend to many of the battles he fought throughout his life.

``I cannot remember a time in my life when I was not conscious of racial discrimination or the efforts to challenge those conditions,'' said Jones, who is now a partner in the Cincinnati law firm of Blank Rome LLP and holds a minority stake in the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. ``I was never of a mind to accept or conform.''

He learned to use the law as a weapon to fight back. As a young boy, he sat in a meeting when attorney Thurgood Marshall came to Youngstown to advise the local NAACP. As a college student, he sued a restaurant that refused to serve him.

He went on to law school, became a federal prosecutor, served as counsel to the Kerner Commission, a 1967 panel formed by President Lyndon Johnson to investigate the cause of race riots in the U.S., and then was asked to be general counsel of the NAACP, a post once held by Marshall.

Sweeping Away Obstacles

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed him to the federal appeals court in Cincinnati, where he served until 2004.

Jones has seen many obstacles swept away in his life, from Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball to Marshall being appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. He hoped that one day a black would make it to the White House. His experience tempered that sentiment.

Then came Obama. ``This is a case of rounding the corner, rounding third and heading for home,'' Jones said. ``I think we are exposing those who are not ready to change, those who are insecure, who are frightened. I hope that the country will open its mind and its heart. I never thought I would live to see it.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Tackett in Denver, mtackett@bloomberg.net; James Rowley in Denver, jarowley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 28, 2008 00:01 EDT