World | USA
Moment to cherish for Black Americans
In churches and bars, on the street and in their homes, African Americans celebrated Barack Obama's historic presidential election victory on Tuesday with tears, horn blasts and shouts of joy.
- Agencies
- Published: 23:33 November 5, 2008
- Image Credit: Reuters
- US President-Elect Barack Obama arrives to address supporters with his wife Michelle and their children Malia and Sasha during a victory rally in Chicago.
Atlanta: In churches and bars, on the street and in their homes, African Americans celebrated Barack Obama's historic presidential election victory on Tuesday with tears, horn blasts and shouts of joy.
In New York, people of all races streamed down from Broadway from Columbia University to Obama's campaign office at 105th Street chanting "O-ba-ma."
Obama supporters drove through the streets of downtown Washington for hours, honking their horns and cheering. A crowd of several hundred people gathered outside the gates of the White House in the drizzle, beating a drum.
In Atlanta, at civil rights leader Martin Luther King's old church, Ebenezer Baptist, a deafening shout greeted the announcement of Obama's victory and rolled on for minutes.
"On the night before King was assassinated, he said: 'I have been to the mountain top, I have looked over and I have seen the promised land. I may not get there with you,'" Pastor Raphael Warnock said.
"Tonight we have seized the promise of America."
And in Chicago's Grant Park, Rev Jesse Jackson stood among a crowd of tens of thousands of Obama supporters with tears rolling down his cheeks. Jackson, who twice sought the presidency himself, witnessed King's assassination in Memphis 40 years ago.
For anyone with a sense of America's history of slavery and the 19th century Civil War that tore the country apart, Obama's win was a landmark.
Slavery and its successor, a brutal system of racial segregation that prevailed in the South until the 1960s, long tarnished the country's pride in democratic ideals.
"My grandfather was born a slave, so for me to see this happen means that there is hope for America," said Vanessa Ford, who works for Coca Cola.
"This is a great night. This is an unbelievable night," said US Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who was brutally beaten by police in Selma, Alabama, during a voting rights march conducted in 1965.
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