Grant Park, Chicago, Ill. Nov. 4.

By the time I arrived at Grant Park after visiting several polling booths in the city, the crisp morning was already giving way to a warm 8AM sun. It was 12 hours before the Obama Campaign’s election night rally was to begin at the park, located on the edge of Lake Michigan, and it was at least 10 hours before one could sense how the country had voted.

It was barely 9:30 AM when “socialism” reared its sweet head at the corner of Congress St. and Michigan Ave entrance to Grant Park. “Donuts, anyone?” a cheerful Stephanie Smith asked those in the short non-ticket holder’s line as she slowly paced up and down with a box of Dunkin’ Donuts, “spreading the sugar”. Stephanie and her husband Shad had arrived last night from Nashville. Describing the conversational situation with their FOX-News-watching neighbors this election cycle, Shad, the MSNBC-watching Tennessean, said smiling, “We don’t talk much ‘bout politics.” Though Sen. Obama did not campaign in Tennessee, Stephanie had heard him speak in person once while she was a graduate student. “I’ve got a signed copy of his book,” she declared proudly.

In the ticketed line, Tom Krieglstein and his brother Dan had arrived at the park at 7:30PM last night and had taken turns napping so as to not lose their spot. The next person on line arrived at 5:30AM this morning. “It wasn’t really a line until he came,” joked Tom. Dan, who had just come back after voting, was enthusiastically talking about a person who had arrived from Kenya just for this event. “The guy barely speaks any English, but he came all the way! I’m trying to get him a ticket.”

Brothers Tom and Dan were started waiting in line from 7:30PM on Nov. 3 for the event to be held on Nov. 4 at 8PM.

The non-ticketed line, where I was the 6th person to arrive, started at around 8AM with three students from Florida, Ohio and New Jersey, all attending Chicago’s Columbia College. “We voted absentee ballot,” they explained with a proud grin. Stephanie and Shad were the fourth and fifth on line. Later in the afternoon Ruth, who got “cussed at, flipped at” while campaigning in her home state arrived from Talkeetna, Alaska. Celine Gallina and her five and a half year old daughter, Carolina, came from France, carefully timing their American vacation to coincide with this event. Kmu (pronounced ‘Q’), who knitted a green-something while waiting, had received a call from her father in Nigeria who wanted to make sure she was attending the event. Bess, a freelance photographer from New York who was taking portraits of people waiting with a vintage large format camera, had taken an 11-hour drive to Chicago with her mom the day before. “Its such a positive vibe here… it puts into perspective what the 60s might have been like,” she said while light metering one of her subjects, an elderly lady wearing an Obama t-shirt with three large Obama buttons pinned on the front.

Students of Columbia College, Chicago, cast their first votes.

Left: Mother and daughter arrived from France. Right: Ruth is an Alaskan for Obama

By mid-day, both the lines had grown substantially and the mood remained festive. Absolute strangers behaved like good friends, Obama merchandise was bought, photos were taken, interviews were conducted and anxiety, along with Oreo Cookies (“like Obama, half white, half dark”) and packets of M&Ms, were shared. All day long, many hours before the first polling stations would close, Grant Park was a happy place to be in.

The young and the old, mothers with their babies, students with their first voter receipts, non-citizens who couldn’t take part in the electoral process, believers and hopers, from all walks of life and from all over the map had converged at Grant Park to be a part of history. As the night unfolded, they would not be disappointed.

Strategically-placed Jumbotrons broadcast CNN’s election coverage all evening long. If the section of the park for ticket holders looked and felt like a rock concert, the section for non-ticket holders had the feel of a large movie screening at the park. When the network cut to scenes of Grant Park, where a lively flood of people could be seen making their way into the main venue for ticket holders, loud cheers erupted. When it cut to scenes of Senator McCain’s campaign event at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, with a boy choir singing to a sit-down audience in a hotel ballroom, you couldn’t miss the outburst of amused giggles at the park. And when FOX News projected Sen. Obama the winner in Ohio minutes before CNN confirmed the projection, the roaring cheers said what everyone knew was happening: Senator Obama was going to be the next President of the United States of America.

When the exit polls showed Latinos overwhelmingly voted for Sen. Obama, Puerto Rican and American flags waved fiercely, slicing the cool evening air. When exit polls indicated African Americans voted in majority for Obama, loud cheers erupted and black fists jabbed at the sky. And when, at about 11PM EST, Senator Barrack Hussein Obama was declared President Elect, there were tears of joy and cheers of bliss, warm embraces all around. “Oh My God!” “I can’t believe it!” “Yes!” “Yes we can!” … “O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!”

On September 11, 2001, the world shared America’s grief. Then it watched in disappointment as the Bush Administration squandered away its international good will. On Nov. 4, 2008, as possibilities were redefined, history lived, and hope renewed with the election of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, the world shared the joy of the majority of America, and breathed a collective sigh of relief. Grant Park, Chicago, Ill., was a happy place and the world rejoiced too.

Covers of the Ebony magazine displayed at the Johnson Publishing Company's lobby.

Ronnie 'Woo Woo' of the Chicago Cubs fame is a popular local figure.

People stream out of Grant Park and flow into Michigan Avenue.

The morning after; seen on a streetlamp post on State St.

By 10:30AM, Chicago Tribune delivery trucks were making second or third deliveries to shops. "People even tried to get on the truck to get a copy," said the driver of his truck.

Copies of The New York Times were sold out in most places. The Hudson News shops in various airports had also run out of their copies of the Times.

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