HISTORIC WIN: BARACK OBAMA: 44th president of the United States

When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, calling for equal rights for black Americans, he was never so bold to suggest that one day a black man could become the nation’s chief executive.

Forty-five years later, Sen. Barack Obama became the first African-American president-elect of the United States after the longest, costliest and largest election in the country’s history.

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” the 47-year-old Democrat told an estimated crowd of 100,000 gathered in and around Grant Park in his hometown of Chicago Tuesday night.

When news organizations declared Obama the victor, the crowds exploded in jubilation.

“It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America,” he declared before a backdrop of U.S. flags.

A homemade banner waved by one man in the throng read, “We have overcome,”

Amid the celebration, Obama cautioned that the country faced profound challenges.

“We know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime —- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century,” he said.

Obama said he was certain America would solve its current problems. He recalled the call for unity by another Illinoisan, President Abraham Lincoln, and echoed King’s “Mountaintop” speech when he declared that “the climb will be steep” to fix America’s problems but “as a people, we will get there.”

He paid special tribute to Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106-year-old black woman from Atlanta, and recalled the progress the nation has made in the last century.

“America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do,” he said. “So tonight, let us ask ourselves —- if our children should live to see the next century, if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

“This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. “

Earlier in the evening, his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, delivered a concession speech in Phoenix. Praising Obama, he said America has moved beyond the dark days of its racist past, and said “there is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.”

McCain also offered condolences to Obama on the death of his grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham, who died Sunday.

The election of America’s first black president, the son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, has special resonance for African-Americans.

Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta and a top lieutenant of King’s, told ABC News that Obama’s win was “a victory of faith over fear … and vision over violence. … I thank Obama and his entire team for leading our country in that direction.”

Interviewed by ABC, Rep. John Lewis, an Atlanta Democrat and icon of the civil rights movement, said, “Well, I tell you, I cried a little today when I cast my vote, and I’ve been crying for the past few days. I don’t know if I have any tears left. … I think I’m going to shed some more tears before the night is over.”

A huge, fired-up crowd of voters rallied near King’s tomb in Atlanta Tuesday night, lighting candles and chanting “Obama!” and “Yes we can!”

“Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life so a man of color could be president,” the Rev. Al Sharpton told the crowd.

Billed as the “Victory in the Village” prayer rally, the event included two of King’s surviving children, the Revs. Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, and his sole remaining sibling, Christine Farris.

After a short prayer service, the crowd poured into nearby Ebenezer Baptist Church, where two large-screen televisions displayed the election returns. The 2,000-person capacity church was so crowded that people were standing in the aisles. Some couldn’t get in and stood outside rapping on the windows, trying in vain to get people to raise them so they hear the proceedings.

Ending after almost two years of campaigning, the contest was said to have drawn the largest number of voters of any election in American history —- as many as 130 million.

Obama failed in his long-shot bid to win Georgia, which President Bush won 58 percent to 42 percent in 2004. But he won other improbable states, including Virginia, and key swing states including Ohio and Florida. Both Obama and McCain were considered long shots when they entered crowded races for their party’s nomination.

Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois with what he himself has described as “a funny name,” went up against much better-funded and well-known opponents. He defeated his chief Democratic rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, in a bruising primary contest that came to a close only a few months before the Democratic convention in Denver. McCain entered a crowded GOP race as a party renegade. Several times McCain’s campaign was short of money. But McCain came back to win votes, delegates and the Republican nomination.

Throughout metro Atlanta, anxious voters for both candidates gathered at parties, bars and homes Tuesday night to watch returns. Many blacks in Atlanta, one of the largest black-majority cities in the nation and considered the home of the civil rights movement, were thrilled at Obama’s victory.

Patrick Bentley, 23, a senior at Morehouse College, said he was proud to have a black man in the White House.

“Even though a lot of us say to our children, ‘You can be anything you want to be,’ there still is a glass ceiling for African-Americans,” he said. “Seeing a black president will make me feel like I can do anything. I can tell my children they can do anything, and mean it.”

Some McCain supporters appeared willing Tuesday to have an open mind toward the coming Obama presidency, including Peggy Nazarowski of Cumming.

“Let’s hope he does some of the things he said he would,” Nazarowski said.

While some people partied in the street near Ebenezer Baptist Church, others stood quietly before the reflecting pool surronding the tomb where King and his wife, Coretta, are interred.

Edward Darby of McDonough knelt, bowed his head and prayed. “I prayed that the people who are against him will open their hearts,” said Darby, 37. “I prayed for people to embrace who he is.”

Staff writers Ken Herman, Bob Dart, Jim Auchmutey, April Hunt, Doug Nurse, Jennifer Brett, Marcus Garner, Christian Boone and John Perry, and the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press contributed to this article.

 Associated Press
HOW METRO ATLANTA VOTED
.......Total.......Precincts...Barack....John.......Bob
.......precincts...reporting...Obama.....McCain.....Barr
Cobb.......188.....173.........65,804....94,719.....2005
DeKalb.....196.....120.........57,711....23,400......792
Fulton.....344.....232.........80,823....58,249....1,158
Gwinnett...165.....161.........68,214....100,353...1,727
Map shows Atlanta and four metro Atlanta counties: Fulton,  DeKalb, Gwinnett and Cobb.
Source: Associated Press