History and irony were the double feature last week at the Tampa Theatre, where the inauguration of President Barack Obama was shown on the big screen.
More than 1,000 — black, white, office workers and students — turned out for the political theater within the movie palace. It was celebratory and sentimental and gushingly hopeful. There were plenty of standing ovations — and some notable Bronx cheers as well.
The history was as obvious as Obama’s African-American lineage.
The irony? Up until 1964, when Obama was three years old, Tampa Theatre was enforcing a “whites only” policy.