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Blacks Share Pride Over Obama's Win

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By DIANE CARDWELL, The New York Times

Published: January 5, 2008

Updated: 01/05/2008 12:11 am

For Sadou Brown in a Los Angeles suburb, the decisive victory of Sen. Barack Obama in Iowa was a moment to show his 14-year-old son what is possible.

For Mike Duncan in Maryland, it was a sign that Americans were moving beyond rigid thinking about race.

For Milton Washington in Harlem, it looked like the beginning of something he never thought he would see.

"It was like, 'Oh, my God, we're on the cusp of something big about to happen,'" Washington said.

How Obama's early triumph will play out in the presidential contest remains to be seen, and his support among blacks is hardly monolithic.

In dozens of interviews Friday, however, from suburbs of Houston to towns outside Chicago and rural byways near Birmingham, Ala., blacks voiced pride and amazement over his victory Thursday and the message it sent, even if they were not planning to vote for him or were skeptical that he could win in November.

"My goodness, has it ever happened before, a black man, in our life, in our country?" asked Edith Lambert, 60, a graduate student in theology who was having lunch in Boston.

"It makes me feel proud that at a time when so many things are going wrong in the world that people can rise above past errors," added Lambert, who said she had not decided whom to vote for. "It shows that people aren't thinking small. They're thinking large, outside the box."

Other black presidential candidates, such as Shirley A. Chisholm and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, have excited voters in the past. Jackson won primaries in 1984 and 1988.

Over and over, blacks said Obama's achievement in Iowa, an overwhelmingly white state, made him seem a viable crossover candidate, a fresh face with the first real shot at capturing a major party nomination.

"People across America, even in Iowa of all places, can look across the color line and see the person," said Sadou Brown, 35, who was working at the reception desk at DK's Hair Design near Ladera Heights, a wealthy Los Angeles suburb.

Describing himself as a "huge, huge supporter" of Obama, Brown added: "So many times, our young people only have sports stars or musicians to look up to. But now, when we tell them to go to school, to aim high in life, they have a face to put with the ambition."

Mildred Kerr, 68, a Republican who took her granddaughter to the salon and added that she did not plan to vote for Obama, said she was happy that he had won, because he "can now have the encouragement to go on and pursue a victory."

George F. Knox, 64, a lawyer and civic leader in Miami who supports Obama's candidacy, made a similar point.

"The notion is mind-boggling," Knox said. "When a virtual mandate to continue comes out of a place like Iowa, with only a 2 percent black population, it's very important."

Several blacks said Obama's victory with a campaign not based on race could herald the emergence of a new political calculus.

"I think he's already made a significant change in the mindset of people," said Mike Duncan, 55, an Amtrak manager in Abingdon, Md. "Across the board, I'm glad to see that whites and blacks are beginning to understand that blacks can represent them and also be successful at it."

Shannon Brown, 17, a high school senior on the South Side of Chicago, said she was thrilled that she would be eligible to vote by Election Day.

"I've actually seen him around the neighborhood and had conversations with him," Brown said, calling Obama's candidacy "history in the making" and "a wonderful experience for us as a people."

She added, "It's something I will be able to tell my kids when I grow up, that I voted for the first black president."

Several supporters of Obama said they liked him for reasons other than race, including what they saw as his interest in stemming injustice and his projection of sincerity.

"I identify just because everything they ask, he is straightforward," said Charlette Fleming, 26, an insurance agent who was buying lunch in The Woodlands, 30 miles north of Houston. "They put him on the spot because he did marijuana. I've never done drugs before. But he was: 'OK, I did it. I'm not going to deny that I did it.' He's not trying to hide anything he's done. He's out in the open."

Some voters said Obama's heritage as the son of a white mother and an African father meant that he was not exactly black, but added that it allowed him to appeal to more people.

"He's demonstrated that a mixed-race guy with a Muslim name can get far," said Tony Clayton, 43, as he had his shoes shined in Washington. Clayton was referring to Obama's middle name, Hussein.

"He has crossover appeal," Clayton said, "and because of that he could win in a general election."

Others looked to the emotional force that an Obama presidency could wield for blacks and dismissed the notion raised by some analysts that his background would make it difficult for American blacks to identify with him.

"The psychological advantage of waking up knowing and seeing almost every day the leader of the free world as a member of your own tribe brings pride even to the most cynical critic," said Michael Eric Dyson, 49, a professor at Georgetown University and an Obama supporter who has studied racial identity. "Maybe this psychic, internal emotional turmoil that black people struggle against will somehow be lessened by seeing the image of a black man in charge."

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