The day after the country elected its first black president in what has been the nation’s longest and most eventful election, residents of Newton County and Rockdale County gathered in the Covington square for an afternoon prayer circle. Led by Rev. Eric Lee of Springfield Baptist Church, the gathered – Republicans and Democrats, black and white – prayed for unity and healing from the recent years of a national divisiveness. They prayed for their counties’ elected officials, civil servants, educators, first responders and fighting men and women abroad.