William Jones

Forty five years ago, William Jones was one of the 300,000 people who took part in the March on Washington with Martin Luther King and stood rapt in attention listening to the historic 'I have a dream' speech. Jones, a Chicago resident since 1956, went on to be a community organizer and, with help from prominent leaders like Malcolm X, worked towards realizing King's dream.

On Tuesday night, sitting in the Woodlawn Tap tavern in Chicago's famous Hyde Park, which happens to be Barack Obama's neighbourhood, he did something for the first time in his life. At the stroke of 10:30, with the election results just in, he cried.

"Martin Luther King had a dream that was fulfilled tonight," said an emotional Jones, struggling to get the words out. "It's the sort of day I didn't expect to see in my lifetime. Never before have I looked forward to the future so much."

As Jones spoke, the streets of Chicago's south side exploded - both literally, with firecrackers numbing the ear-drums, and figuratively, with cars honking incessantly as they zoomed up and down the streets. Some people and these included whites, blacks and others in between - were so awestruck they simply sat on the pavements and sobbed.

Obama's Campaigner

One Chicago University biology student somersaulted across the street; another rolled on the grassy banks. The bar-tender at Woodlawn had seen euphoria before - when the local White Sox won the baseball world series in 2005 - but even he was flabbergasted. "What a wonderful madhouse we have here," he said in a tone so somber that you expected him, a grizzled veteran, to break down immediately.

Woodlawn Tap, fondly called Jimmy's bar, is at the heart of Obama country. He is known to occasionally frequent the bar and most of the customers here had interacted with him at some level. Those at the bar brought out the diversity that characterizes the Hype Park neighborhood with real estate agents, traders, bankers, lawyers, teachers and students from various ethnicities charged up for the moment.

So pumped up was Elizabeth Bleazy, a white doctoral student at the neighbouring University of Chicago, that she jumped up and down on the table, causing several glasses and jugs to topple over. "I think the results are a sign that, universally, we are all ready for a change, but not only a change in party, but a change in the way the political scene is done," Beazley, who was part of the Democratic campaign, said. "Barack is truly someone different."

A few miles away, in Grant Park, Barrack Obama was readying himself to address more than a million people. Bleazy and her friends continued to watch the speech from their vantage position atop the table and when it ended, they all hailed the new president with a chant that reverberated through the city all night: "Yes we can, Yes we can."

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Siddhartha Vaidyanathan
(Siddhartha is currently a graduate student in Chicago)