JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- While President-elect Barack Obama prepares his staff for his administration, his supporters are still overjoyed and amazed at just how far America has come.

On Thursday, the former bodyguard of Rosa Parks, who is known as the mother of the modern-day Civil Rights Movement, talked with Channel 4 about Election 2008.

Parks' bodyguard for 11 years Mark Kerrin said he has witnessed American race relations at it's worst, and now at its best.

Kerrin said during the latter part of her life Parks predicted the day when America would elect an African-American president.

"Miss Parks had said this day would come and she said, 'It may not be in my lifetime,' but she turned to me and said, 'It will be in yours.' Kerrin said. "She saw the change happening with the children. She saw those children in the 90s who were the ones now that are making an impact and difference. They made the difference … When they got in there, and they massively turned out, they can come up with all the percentages they want, but any percentage that they come up with, if you take that youth vote away it didn't happen."

He described the Civil Rights Movement as a people's victory, and said he felt the same way about the election.

"When you look at President-elect Obama's victory, he did not get where he got on the fact that all the black people galvanized and voted for him and wow, he won. It took a consensus of all people to put him there," Kerrin said.

Kerrin was close to the woman who played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement and befriended other key figures, such as Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King's widow. He said he hopes to pass on their legacy to the First Family.

"I sent to President-elect Obama and Ms. Michelle Obama two autographed books by Missus Parks to give to their children," Kerrin said. "I want those books of hers to go into the White House with them."

"I wish he could have met Miss Parks. It would have been profound," Kerrin said.

Kerrin is currently chronicling his experiences in the Civil Rights Movement and as Parks' bodyguard in two books, one for children and one for adults.