Harlem Reacts to Obama Win in Iowa

I found this brief post by a blogger in Harlem on the reaction to Obama's victory in Iowa at a pro-Obama gathering there to be really poignant. Here's the first few paragraphs:

I went to a pro-Obama gathering in Harlem last night to watch the Iowa Caucus, win or lose, black history was going to be made. Where else would I go?

The place was packed, resting on the floor was one of those types of murals you see on fading brick walls all over Harlem and New York City, they show Adam Clayton Powell and Malcolm X, Biggie and Big Pun, with the sunbeams radiating off of a single figure...and there was Obama, hand outstretched, face frozen in thought.

A man in a fur coat with diamonds in his ears and an Obama sticker on his chest brushes past a pinstriped lawyer fastened to his blackberry. A teacher and mother sits glued to the television, her hands gripping the collar of her coat. Another woman who remembers America 50 years ago watches Obama's victory tells me she's never seen anything like this in her entire life. Someone says, "Doesn't he look like a president?"

The rest is just as powerful. Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.

[H/T: Andrew Sullivan]