The New York Times – Blacks savoring Obama’s Iowa win
Blacks savoring Obama’s Iowa win
By Diane Cardwell
The New York Times
For Sadou Brown in a Los Angeles suburb, the 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 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 race remains to be seen, and his support among black people is not monolithic. But in dozens of interviews Friday from suburbs of Houston to towns outside Chicago and byways near Birmingham, Ala., African Americans voiced pride and amazement over his victory Thursday in the Democratic presidential caucuses and the message it sent, even if they were not planning to vote for him or were skeptical he could win in November. …
