Right around 11:30 last night, just after CNN called the Presidential race for Barack Obama, my wife and I hopped in our car and took to the streets to celebrate. The City of Baltimore had no megaparty planned like the one in Chicago’s Grant Park for a potential Obama victory - we’re rarely that organized here - but the excitement was palpable as we cruised through the city. Baltimore after all voted 88% for Obama, one of the highest totals of anywhere in the United States (higher than even the candidate’s home district of Cook County, Illinois), plus the city is home to a large African-American community which comprises 65% of the population. Race didn’t seem to make much of a difference on the streets last night however, as folks of all colors and creeds took to impromptu celebrations in the bars, squares and streets all around town.

My wife armed with a trusty pot and wooden spoon to clang out the car window and I with the car horn firmly in hand, headed down to the waterfront, beeping and clanging the whole way. Cars driving beside us took up the honking cause, some armed with quickly improvised Obama Victory signs. As we passed Pennsylvania Station we got into a rhythmic back and forth of honking and clanging with the car next to us , not dissimilar from something you might here on a house music track. People waiting at bus stops and riding buses cheered as the honkers passed, people using all modes transportation getting in on the action. Down in the Fells Point bar district people standing outside of bars in nasty, rainy, maritime weather reveled and cheered.

One of the largest crowds we saw was hanging out by the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, who must have been throwing a gala bash for the historic night. Then as we turned onto Lombard Street and drove through the skyscrapers downtown a symphony of horn honking erupted around us, echoing all through the giant buildings with people cheering on sidewalks and balconies.

We headed up Charles Street passed a huge bar party that had spilled out onto the street of young black people savoring their moment in history, cheering as honking cars rolled past. A similar reaction was seen up the way outside of two of Baltimore’s largest gay clubs. Then a little further up we approached a band of young hipsters banging on pots and pans who all perked up as though a long lost cousin had rolled by when they heard my wife clanking her pot.

Finally as we stopped at a red light at North Avenue, a much maligned thoroughfare that was blighted 40 years ago during the riots following Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968, an impromptu dance party broke out between a large number of ecstatic African-Americans waiting at a bus stop and the cars honking and beeping at the intersection. A young man standing on the corner took to dancing and singing “Black House!….Black House!” to a tightly controlled beat of his own. Windows were rolled down in both black and white driven cars, out of which people hollered or, in my case, hollered and clanged. An intersection that for years was a place people swiftly locked their car doors at was now a meeting place where different races, classes, ages all cheered together. For a sweet moment it felt like we are finally getting somewhere as a country past the labels and distrust and racism which have dogged us for so, so long.

You can takepart in better understanding the history of African Americans in the United States by checking out the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. Like the quote on the website says from Dr. Harold Carter, “You’ve got to embrace your past to have a foundation for your future.”

LINKS:

Bloomberg: Obama-mania Spreads With “Historic Change” Global Voices

CNN International: Barack Obama is “President of the World”

Detroit Free Press: Obama colors states purple