November 5, 2008
Obama supporters in Brooklyn celebrate his historic win. (Jill Colvin)
Tears streaming down her face, Marilyn Legal, 63, hugged the first person she could find. “Congratulations,” she whispered in the stranger’s ear, then threw her head back and jumped up and down screaming, “We did it!”
The converted warehouse next to the Obama Headquarters in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood exploded into fits of cheering at 11 p.m. last night as CNN announced that Democrat Barack Obama would become the 44th president of the United States. People shouted. Strangers embraced. Others stood awe-struck and silent, their faces wet with tears.
“The faith has been restored,” said Legal, a retiree from Crown Heights. “We’re alive to see history in the making.”
For almost everyone in the predominantly black audience of volunteers and supporters at the Brooklyn for Obama-organized watch party, the significance was clear.
“It means I was part of history and my little vote made a difference,” said Ricardi Sorrias, 40, a clerk from Bed-Stuy.
With 99 percent of districts reporting, the Democratic candidate captured 52 percent of the popular voter, with 62.5 million ballots cast compared with 55.5 million for Republican challenger John McCain. While recent polls had shown Obama pulling ahead in recent weeks, many in the room were surprised by the results.
“This is wonderful. Unbelievable. It’s an overwhelming, emotional experience,” said Karlene Gordon, 48, a community activist from Crown Heights, grabbing her heart and smiling wide. “It transcends race, class, status, titles. It’s just everybody’s election.”
For Henry, a 62-year-old Panamanian immigrant who arrived in the United States 25 years ago, the moment felt like a gift from God.
“It was a blessing to see this happen,” said Henry, a retiree from Bed-Stuy, who received a heart transplant three years ago. “I think that my Lord gave me an opportunity to have this come true.”
Again and again, people said that what they were feeling was too much to put into words.
“It’s like asking the people of South Africa how they felt when Apartheid was lifted, when they went to cast their first vote,” said 60-year-old Bed-Stuy resident Pamela Green, the executive director of the Weeksville Heritage Center, an historic freed slave settlement in Brooklyn.
“I never thought that I would see a black man” elected president, Green said. “But as much as he’s a black president,” she continued, “it’s more important that he’s a smart man. I believe that he can make people think differently about the type of country we can be. It doesn’t matter that he’s black. That’s just icing on the cake.”
Many shared the sentiment that Obama’s election transcends race, as both blacks and whites united to elect the nation’s first African American president.
“To see all of us come together and win it is a blessing. We did it together. It wasn’t about race. It’s about together,” said Teesha Thomas, 33, a recreation coordinator from Bed-stuy.
“We did not have faith in him. Then the whole white community got behind him. Then we realized something was happening,” Henry explained.
He said that he has interracial grandchildren and seeing how far Obama has come makes him more hopeful for their futures.
Some Obama volunteers in the room next door continued making phone calls to voters on the West Coast well into the evening, even as results came in. For them the victory was especially meaningful.
“Twenty months and it comes down to two hours,” said James Polite, 16, a student at Williamsburg Charter High School who said he had volunteered for the campaign for nearly two years, canvassing in Pennsylvania and making phone calls to voters in North Carolina. He spent the evening sitting nervously, staring at the projected screen like a father watching his son’s championship soccer game.
After Obama’s victory was announced he said he couldn’t wait to see his classmates in the morning. “Now I can say, ‘I told you so.’”
At 1 a.m., cars were still honking their horns down Fulton Avenue. Revellers stood on opposite sidewalks, calling and answering back and forth across the street a raw throated chant: “O-ba-ma.”
“Just to see the jubilation of everyone makes me speechless,” said Peter Rawlings, 45, a carpenter from Crown Heights, as he exited the building.
But as the shock began to fade, some began to wonder what comes next. With such high expectations and so many promises, will the man with the audacity of hope deliver?
“The first African American President. History is made,” said Karriema Artis, 22, a criminal justice major at Borough College who waited over an hour with her 9-month-old son to cast her vote. But as she sat on the subway returning home to the Bronx, she said she is worried.
“At the end of the day, are we going to get what he’s telling us he’s going to give us? Because I would be very disappointed and upset if he doesn’t come about everything he promised.”
