American Beauty

As evening fell, a crowd gathered with some longtime activists in Syracuse’s black community at the People's AME Zion church, 2306 S. Salina St. Councilor-at-Large Van Robinson joined former 4th District councilor Mike Atkins and NAACP Chairman Preston Fagan for the event, which was organized by Walt Dixie of the Alliance Network on behalf of the National Action Network. Dozens of men and women, boys and girls sat in the pews as early results were announced.

There was a sense of nervous anticipation as people long denied hope dared to hope but not quite yet believe that the night would end with a black man being elected president of the United States. “I never thought I would live to see the day,” said Robinson. “If 20 years ago you had asked me if an African-American would be elected president I would have said you should be hauled off and locked up somewhere.”

Hours before the networks called the election for Obama, Atkins stood at the back of the church, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “This is what we have been fighting for,” he said. “This is historic. In our lifetime—I never would have believed it.” A young man moved through the crowd with a camera taking individual and group shots. To make people smile for the camera he offered this prompt: “Say Barack!” It worked every time.

Writer and teacher Tasneem Tewogbola brought her three young girls to participate in the vigil and eventual celebration. “I totally connect with Michelle Obama,” said Tewogbola. “When she said that she never felt so proud of America {as she did early in the campaign, to some derision}, I sometimes related to that. Sometimes when you travel you feel like you want to lower your voice when you say you're African-American. This will let us lift our head and say, ‘Yeah! We ended this.’ We're on the cusp of something.”

The Rev. Daren Jaime served as host and emcee of the event, reminding the crowd of nearly 100 that, “Tonight, American democracy is being delivered back into the hands of the American people.” The Rev. Kevin Agee, pastor of the Hopps Memorial CME Church and president of ACTS, the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse, gave the audience regular updates and analysis.

“Despite all the struggles with institutional racism, to have a black man so close to the White House is a vindication of how far we have come. Forty-five years ago, when Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington, he gave a speech we have often heard, about a dream, but that march was primarily focused on economics. A night such as this reminds us that we may be a little closer to the Promised Land, and it reminds us of how far we have to go.”

Looking at the tally on showing Obama with 194 electoral votes, Agee added, “We are just 76 votes from the Promised Land.” Noting Obama's one-time profession much ridiculed by the Republicans, Agee recalled how much of the presidential campaign relied on grass-roots organizing efforts. “This speaks,” he said, “to the importance of community organizing.”

Decision day: Congressional candidates Dale Sweetland and Dan Maffei exchanged greetings at the annual Our Lady of Pompei Election Day spaghetti supper.

MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

Robinson told of spending the day with a woman who had just become a U.S. citizen and was voting for the first time. He asked other first-time voters to stand and be recognized. Shirley Moody, a 71-year-old former commissioner of education, told of walking with her 21-year-old granddaughter, who was voting for the first time, to the polls. “I’m so proud—I never thought it would be in my lifetime,” said Moody. 

While they waited for the results, Robinson spoke to the gathering about what it would be like to have the Obamas in the White House. “He will bring our sons and our daughters and our aunts and our uncles home from a war that we never asked for. All I can think of is the words of that old song ‘Oh, Happy Day.’”

Charles Pearce-El, a member of People’s AME Zion, took the microphone. “I had to come down here, cuz I've been crying constantly on this. I wanted to be here with people. I'm tired of just crying with my wife.”

Baums sat in a pew toward the back of the church. He was the only person interviewed to say that he had always believed that this would happen in his lifetime. “I believe what Marcus Garvey said a long time ago—that we have to prepare ourselves to do things. Just be prepared.” Baums, who described himself as a “Jacob Javits type of Republican,” was disappointed by John McCain, his party's nominee this year, a man he described as “not the sharpest knife in the drawer.”

What difference will an Obama administration make? Robinson believes that beyond the symbolic importance of the Chicagoan’s rise, there is a reason for urban areas to hope that he will understand and support their needs. “Obama is a city guy,” Robinson said. “I think that under an Obama administration there may be more resources to rebuild our cities. More support for education. He may just be more sympathetic to the needs of cities. It’s a great day. It's a great source of hope. It will prove to people of color that the stories we were told in the history books can come true.”

“It’s not a black thing; it’s not a white thing,” Agee summed up. “It’s a people thing.”

—Ed Griffin-Nolan