November 5, 2008
Washington, D.C. Celebrates Obama Victory Well Into the Morning
I'm still processing what happened last night. One minute, I was gathered in a living room with friends, watching election returns come in. The next minute, Barack Obama had been declared the winner, his moving acceptance speech was over, and I was in the middle of the intersection at 14th and U Streets NW with thousands of other D.C. residents, yelling, singing, high-fiving and hugging total strangers.
Car horns honked throughout the city. People climbed on top of street lamps, newspaper boxes and bus shelters. As we moved from U Street, which eventually filled with people and cars all the way from 10th to 15th Street, and headed south to the White House, the celebration didn't slow down. Down 14th street to Thomas Circle, everyone hooted and hollered. They stood up through their sunroofs to cheer on passersby on the sidewalk. They danced. They played drums. They honked and honked and honked.
Washington, D.C.'s majority Democrat, majority black population flooded the streets with noise. Inside the crowd, a highly diverse makeup was evident. I saw Asians, South Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, whites and blacks coming together in the crowd to cheer the election of this country's first African-American president.
This wasn't the kind of aggressive crowd a big city can sometimes get in the aftermath of a major sports championship. Washington was joyous. In those early morning hours, there was nothing but love between neighbors. At the very site of the worst of the 1968 riots, there was dancing instead.
At the White House, big crowds gathered on both sides of the compound to let the least popular president in U.S. history know they were glad to see him go. Spontaneous renditions of The Star-Spangled Banner and "Nananana nananana hey hey hey goodbye," broke out within the ebullient masses.
There are still so many disagreements about the direction this city should head, but none of those concerns were on the minds of Washingtonians last night. D.C. residents of every background embraced each other without hesitation.
Traffic patterns may be back to normal this morning, but we have a feeling the outpouring of community spirit, excitement, and affection for one another will continue here for at least the next couple of days. And we hope that it lasts a good deal longer than that.
We'll be continuing to post more still images, videos and thoughts from those of you who were out on the streets of D.C. last night throughout the day. Submit your photos to DCist's Flickr Group, your videos to DCist Videos (or tag a YouTube video with "dcist"). And as always, tell us about your experience in the comments.
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This is sort of surreal is a good way:
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I wonder what the streets would have looked like had the other guy won.
Because I don't think three Mormons with noisemakers constitutes a newsworthy celebration.
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I gave high fives to about 300 new friends last night from the drivers side of my car. My car horn hadn't gotten that much action since my last trek to Nissan Pavilion on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of summer. I was a proud (and voice-strained) Washingtonian last night.
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Last night, I was sad to live outside the city. But I look forward to similar scenes on Inauguration Day.
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guess it's time to get the couch ready to crash on for jan. 20th.
we (DC) are going to have a lot of visitors!
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we (DC) are going to have a lot of visitors!
Got that right. I think the Examiner had a story yesterday about how all the swanky hotels (Willard, etc.) and even some less swanky have already sold out for the week of the inauguration. Earliest they've ever sold out for the event.
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I am celebrating that Michelle will be the hottest First Lady since Jackie.
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@RJ: I like my First Ladies like I like my coffee.
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I am still in shock. Unfortunately I am out of the country right now. I wish I could be there to share in the celebrating. I have been crying tears of joy since i woke up this morning and turned on the news to see that Obama won.
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Anyone have any idea where to buy a paper? The machines and the rite-aid on my walk to work were all out of everything...
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Last night was, and I don't say this lightly, one of the most moving experiences of my life. I thought spontaneous mass celebrations like that only happened in other countries--when the Berlin Wall fell, or when apartheid ended. We just haven't had seismic change like that in this country--at least, not in the 26 years I've been on the planet. Honking my horn and slapping high fives with total strangers last night, I felt proud to be an American and proud to be in this city. I can't wait to bring my son down for the inauguration. He stood in line for the polls with his grandmother and told everyone they had to vote for Obama because his dad said so.
I'm really feeling this--I think my snark may be broken.
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how does one get tickets to inauguration? Is there anywhere you can watch without getting a ticket?
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outside the office here at 16th and M there are still people occasionally shouting for joy spontaneously in the street at 11 in the morning.
it's pretty cool to hear.
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There are no newspapers in L'enfant area, or near my friend's office on 12 and F. They may have to do a second printing!!
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Last night was quiet on The Hill but awesome. My neighbors hosted a return-watching block party. We had white folks from kentucky, jewish folks from new york, tibetan immigrants, and DC-native black folks, just to name a few. And at 11pm when the election was called, we all cheered and celebrated together as a community. It was a beautiful night.
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@ces12: I think most tickets, at least for the area closest to the Capitol, are distributed through the campaign and congressional offices. But I suspect that farther back on the Mall will be a sort of ticketless area, like the Fourth of July.
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There was a person selling WashPos at the top of the Archives metro this morning.
I bought two. :)
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"The Washington Post will produce 150,000 copies of a "commemorative edition" that will available at local retailers this afternoon."
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I too was watching the victory speech at a friends place, and soon after walked out to 11th and U to a MASS of people. Random people hugging, kissing, chanting "yes we did", dancing, etc... It was an amazing experience!!! I slowly made my way toward 16th st to walk home and continued to be amazed at the throngs of people on every block. People parked in the middle of the road, horns honking and people walking up to cars and randomly congratulating people. I only wish I could have walked down to the White House, but I was tired and it was already 2 am.
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So I live NoVA but I go to school in Chicago. It was like christmas last night. VA going blue and Chicago was on fire last night.
The good kind of fire though, with cheers of hope and change.
And its 70 degrees out today!
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Last night made me proud to be an American and proud of my capital city. U and 14th on Nov. 4th, 2008 will remain etched in my memory forever as a sign of what Americans can be and not what they are often portrayed as. We joined hands with everyone we met and metaphorically, with nations all over the world last night on U St. I have never seen anything so moving in my whole life. It's why this city and this country are great!
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Unfortunately I was in Mississippi for work, but I saw glimpses of the DC celebrations on national TV. Wish I could have been there!
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I'm definitely paying for it today, but I can say with all honesty that last night was one of the best nights of my entire life.
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i cant even think of him without crying. thank YOU for CHANGE
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i cant even think of him without crying. thank YOU for CHANGE
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Yes, last night was unforgettable.
I was so jazzed I had to share my experience and would really like to hear more, so I made a Ning site:
http://www.whatisawthatnight.com/
This is a just-for-memories project... I'm not after anything other than stories from all over the country and world. We've got just two so far - mine in Seattle, and a friend's in Trinidad, Tobago.
Please do share!
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Lots more photos on my blog, here:
http://abudak,tumblr.com
What a night!
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some of us use Vimeo - not sure if DCist ever takes a look at their video library, but I've tagged my videos of election night there as such.
http://vimeo.com/tag:dcist
okay, I seem to be the only one using the dcist tag on Vimeo, so far. Couple videos of election night from inside the D-trip-C party and the White House before all of the anti-Bush was happening.