The Reaction of African-Americans to Obama's Victory

I have been amazed by the reaction of so many African-Americans to the election of Barack Obama. It's not just a calm sense of happiness for victory, for progress. In so many cases, Black men and women have broken into tears--even those folks who are as tough as nails: Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey, Jesse Jackson, et al. One television commentator who spontaneously broke into tears was Juan Williams of the Fox network. Here is the report from the Huffington Post:

[beginning of the quoted material from the Huffington Post]:

A visibly moved Juan Williams reacted to the news that Barack Obama was elected President of the United States shortly after the race was called on Fox News Tuesday. Williams called it "stunning," noting that African Americans were barely able to vote until just 43 years ago, and saying, "I don't care how you feel about him politically, on some level you have to say this is America at its grandest."

His full comments:

It's a stunning sight. It's incomprehensible. Even a year ago, I wouldn't have thought this was possible. That an African American man could be elected President of the United States. When I think of it from a historical point of view, and you go back and think of people, that fact that black people didn't have the right to vote in this country. There were only black men until 1870. In 1870, black men got the right to vote and of course it didn't mean much until going forward until 1965 and the Voting Rights Act. And at that point, Lyndon Johnson said the Democratic Party lost the South forever and there was no possibility really of full enfranchisement that said black people could somehow be the leader of the United States of America. This is truly an incredible moment of American history. I can't think of another country in the world where you could have a significant minority that was once so maligned and so oppressed finally have one of its sons rise to this level. This is ah... I don't care how you feel about him politically, on some level you have to say this is America at its grandest, the potential, the possibility, and what it says for our children. Black and white, the image of Barack Obama and those little girls in the Rose Garden in these years to come. I think it's just stunning. [end quote of Huffington Post]

Here is a description of the Civil Rights hero John Lewis's response:

Civil Rights icon and Georgia Congressman John Lewis didn't hide his emotions when he spoke about a black candidate's rise to the presidency in a country that fought a civil war over slavery.
"We have witnessed a nonviolent revolution, a revolution of ideas," he told National Public Radio. "I felt like shouting, but I just said, 'Hallelujah, hallelujah,' because I knew Martin Luther King himself was looking down on us saying, 'Hallelujah.'"

I keep wondering how Warren Bowles, my Notre Dame roommate, reacted. Warren is an African-American who, like Barack, was raised partly in a White world (he was a Catholic seminarian in Minnesota; then a student at Notre Dame, which was almost totally White from 1966-70). Warren is an actor in the Minneapolis theatre troupe called "Mixed Blood Theatre." Did Barack's election mean a lot to Warren? [By the way, it still seems so odd to use the words "Black" and "White"--the words are so inadequate and even inaccurate.]