Obama Victory Sets Off Jubilation

(Nov. 5) - They danced in the streets, wept,
lifted their voices in prayer and brought
traffic to a standstill. From the nation’s
capital to Los Angeles, Americans celebrated
Barack Obama’s victory and marveled
that they lived to see the day that a black
man was elected president.
“I was born in the civil rights time. To see
this happening is unbelievable. We’ve got
the first black president. A black president!”
said Mike Louis, a 53-year-old black
man who got teary-eyed as he watched the
election results on a giant video board in
Cincinnati’s Fountain Square. “It’s not
cured now, but this is a step to curing this
country of racism. This is a big, giant step
toward getting this country together.”
In Washington, hundreds of residents
spilled into the streets near the White
House, carrying balloons, banging on
drums and chanting, “Bush is gone!” Along
U Street, once known as America’s Black
Broadway for its many thriving blackowned
shops and theaters, men stood on
car roofs, waving American flags and Obama
posters.
Nearby, at historically black Howard University,
hundreds of students erupted in
cheers, broke into song and chanted, “Yes,
we did!”
In Philadelphia, thousands of blacks and
whites converged at City Hall shortly after
Obama was declared the winner. Under a
light rain, they danced to the music blaring
from car radios. Drivers stopped in the
middle of the street, opened their car doors
and broadcast Obama’s acceptance speech.
“Barack is in the house!” shouted Pamela
Williams, 46. “This is very important to me.
Change is about to happen.”
At Sadiki’s restaurant in Philadelphia, the
celebration poured out onto the sidewalk.
“Our parents left this planet thinking that
we would never, ever see this day, when an
African-American could be elected by all
the people to the highest seat in the land,”
said Bernard Smalley Sr. His wife, Jacquelyn,
wept.
The celebrations were both large big and
small, but the sentiment was the same —
pure joy over how far the country has come.
People honked horns, high-fived each other
and embraced. In Harlem, the roar of thousands
of people gathered in a plaza near the
legendary Apollo Theater could be heard
blocks away.
In Cleveland, supporters gathered at a
house party and held champagne flutes
above their heads for a toast. “To the first
African-American president in the history
of the United States!” they shouted.
In Chicago, Obama’s hometown, an estimated
125,000 people gathered on an unusually
warm November night to greet the
senator at a delirious victory rally at Grant
Park.
“It’s fantastic,” said Hulon Johnson, 71, a
retired Chicago public school principal.
“I’ve always told my kids this was possible;
now they’ll have to believe me.”
LaKeisha Williams, a 27-year-old laid-off
school nurse, who watched Obama’s victory
on a TV in a downtown Kansas City concert
hall, said: “People actually have finally
come together and realized that no matter
what his race is, he was the right person for
the job. I think it was destiny for him to
win. But now we still have to come together
to make sure things work.” In Miami’s predominantly
black Liberty City neighborhood,
Otoria Pitts, 30, suggested the significance
of Obama’s victory goes beyond
race.
“His election speaks volumes for a bunch of
people,” she said. “Children of single mothers,
people who put themselves through
college. It says, you can do it, you can do it.”
Joined by her sister, Susan, and niece, Akira,
the three women bought a few rockets
from a fireworks stand and lit up the night
sky with color.
On the other side of the country, others
were thinking how Obama’s election could
change their lives.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Jason Samm, a 33-yearold
business owner who was celebrating in
South Los Angeles. “I have three kids,
which means a lot of doors opening up for
them.” Obama’s victory also brought back
memories of hard-fought battles of generations
past. At Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist
Church, where the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr. preached, Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights
hero, said he was hardly able to believe that
40 years after he was left beaten and bloody
on an Alabama bridge as he marched for
the right for blacks to vote, he had cast a
ballot for Obama.
“This is a great night,” he said. “It is an unbelievable
night. It is a night of thanksgiving.”
As the news of a projected Obama victory
flashed across a TV screen, men in the
nearly all-black crowd pumped their fists
and bowed their heads. Women wept and
embraced their children. Screams of
“Thank you, Lord!” were heard throughout
the sanctuary. Surveying the scene, Mattie
Bridgewater whispered from her seat, “I
just can’t believe it. Not in my lifetime.”
Bridgewater said she went to the same elementary
school as Emmett Till, the boy
from Chicago whose murder in Mississippi
was one of the catalysts of the civil rights
movement. Both she and her 92-year-old
mother voted for Obama.
“I’m sitting here in awe,” she said. “This is a
moment in history that I just thank my God
I was allowed to live long enough to see.
Now, when I tell my students they can be
anything they want to be, that includes
president of the United States.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Tom Withers in Cleve-
http://news.aol.com/elections/article/obama-victory-sets-off-jubilation/238151
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land; David Caruso in New York; Kathy
Matheson in Philadelphia; Errin Haines in
Atlanta; Christina Hoag in Los Angeles;
Joe Kay in Cincinnati; Andale Gross in
Kansas City; Ron Powers and Kamala
Lane in Washington; and Tamara Lush in
Miami contributed to this story.