On election night I began watching the results on TV right at 7 pm, when only 15% of the votes were in. By 9 pm, I got tired of waiting and browsed the Internet. An hour or so later, my mother came downstairs and told me that Obama had won Ohio, and that no Republican had ever won a race where he lost Ohio. She had a look on her face that read "this is it." I still wasn't convinced. Until I heard the words president-elect and Obama in the same sentence I wouldn't believe it.
At 11 pm, I went to sign out of my email when a message from essence.com appeared. It read "Yes We Did! Barack Obama Becomes the Next President." I didn't know what to think. I got excited then I got paranoid. "Is it possible they could know this soon? It's not even midnight." So I got up from the computer and went upstairs to check out the TV coverage. I didn’t' see Barack, but to my amazement, I saw McCain giving his concession speech. I was dumbfounded. How did this happen so fast, and why wasn't McCain contesting the results? I was almost sure he would becaus I assumed the results would be close. They weren't. The information bar on the bottom of the TV screen showed that Obama had received 334 electoral votes. No one could contest that. Newscasters only needed 270 to make a projection. Obama had also received 51% of the vote, and he had won the election. It was true. Barack Obama was going to be our next president.
I wanted to share the moment with my 70-year old father, who is African-American and for the first time in his life registered to vote this year. For him, this was more than history being made. This was a dream he thought would never come to pass in his lifetime. I went into his room and we restlessly waited for Obama to come on the screen to give his acceptance speech. I watched as Michelle kissed Obama and said " I love you" to him. It was a beautiful and touching moment, and I realized how this win also represented something else for black America. Black love and success can coexist.
I had always believed that the minute I found out that Obama had won, I'd be in tears. I wasn't. I was still in disbelief and shock. I wasn't able to get too emotional because it still wasn't real to me. But as I watched him give his speech and begin talking about the 106 year old woman in Atlanta, and all the events she had seen in her life, including how "a preacher from Atlanta (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) told a people that 'We shall overcome," the tears began to fall. And they still do, each time I think about this win and how because of it, Dr. King's dream is realized. His work along with the work of Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcom X, Medgar Evers and all the others whose lives represented the struggle for black equality, can now rest in peace. Their life's work and their deaths were not in vain.
The next morning, I saw the front page headline of The Washington Post that read "Obama Makes History," and the tears began again. It really happpened. At that moment I realized there really is going to be a black family in the White House. There will be a black family representing America. Black Americans everywhere who once had no hope now will have hope. We can now tell our black children that they can do anything, and they will believe us. They will see that you don't have to play dirty to be a success. Rather, they will see that with hard work, dignity and grace that you CAN achieve your dreams. We did it. We abandoned our fears, we kept hope alive, and we made this happen. And I can't stop crying.
It may sound like a cliché but I'll say it anyway. It's a beautiful day in America. It's a beautiful day in the world. Change is on its way, and I can't wait to be a part of it.
