Famous Atlantans celebrate Obama's election

The Athens-based band was onstage in Santiago Tuesday night when the election results came in. Band manager Bertis Downs walked out and announced that Obama had won. The band — lead singer Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills — jumped into the air in celebration, and then launched into "I Believe," a 1986 song from "Life's Rich Pageant." "I was thinking about the line in the song, 'Change is what I believe in'," Stipe said. "It seemed appropriate."

— Phil Kloer

Evander Holyfield, heavyweight boxing champion

"It took me back to when I was in the second grade. I remember when the teacher said to us, 'You know, everybody in this class room should have goals. You can be president if you want to be. Who wants to be president?' Everybody in the room raised their hand except me. They teacher said, 'Evander, how come you're not raising your hand?' and I said, 'Because I don't know what the president does.' Then she told me and eventually raised my hand, too. I didn't become president but I did become heavyweight champion of the world four times. But I was thinking, everybody in that classroom was born in '62. Then I found out that Barack was born in '62. So obviously when he was in the second grade, he must have been in a classroom somewhere raising his hand." (EDITOR'S NOTE: Obama actually was born Aug. 4, 1961)

Usher, R&B singer

Atlanta's five-time Grammy winner was in the nation's capitol election night for his concert tour. "When I got off stage last night, and they told me he won, I just began to thank God for this reality, and opportunity. Now what we do with it as Americans, that's the real difference, the real change I am so looking forward to."

Usher joined Obama at numerous campaign rallies and his New Look Foundation also launched an "I Can't But You Can" student-led voter registration drive. "I'm very proud to be an American. Proud to be an African-American. I mean, we came to this country as slaves and were treated as such for so long — long after we were supposedly 'freed.' The segregation that plagued our country, a lot of us suffer from it to this day. But it still speaks volumes about this country, about Barack Obama, that this could happen. ... It's like the completion of a story. "And you know, someone said something really profound to me this morning: 'Rosa Parks sat so Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. could march so Barack Obama could run so we could fly!' "

— Sonia Murray

Clark Howard, syndicated talk show host

"At 11 p.m., when it flashed across the networks that Obama had been elected, I completely chocked up and started crying. I had no idea I'd react that way. I think it's based on growing up at the tail end of the most bitter time of the Civil Rights era... Economically, I agree with Obama on nothing. He's going to raise my taxes, and I don't think he has the same feeling about the free market as I do. But I don't care now. I'll care when I do my taxes in April of 2010."

— Rodney Ho

Patty Loveless, country singer

"I've been asked which comes first, the music or the feeling," said Patty Loveless. "This morning we have the feeling. Now we have to take that feeling and make some really good and lasting music."

Loveless and her producer-husband, Emory Gordy Jr., retreated to their guest house on their property near Dallas, Ga., on election night for a "nice country meal" and some peace and quiet, Gordy said. There's no television in their guest house. They brought their dogs and cats and built a fire.

— Kirsten Tagami

Ludacris, rapper, actor

As his business partners were having an election party in his Midtown restaurant Straits, Atlanta rapper-actor Ludacris was in St. Louis on a promotional tour for his new CD. "The first thing I did when the election was called for Barack was call my mother, and I thanked her for the sacrifices she made for me to witness this day. There's a whole new confidence, a whole new hope and just endless possibilities. Now I can tell my daughter she can be the president — and she can see that it's so."

Ciara, R&B singer

The 23-year-old spent election night going back and forth from inside an Atlanta rehearsal studio to the hallway to check the results. "Finally, when rehearsals were over I just sat in the lobby area where the TVs are and watched the speeches. Just took it all in.

"I've just been feeling this sense of pride, like for days now," she said. "Not just because of the history of the first black president — but because I just believe he will be a great president. Black people didn't just vote for him, all ethnicities did. And I think that's because Barack Obama sees us all as one. All Americans.

"I didn't cry last night when I was watching his speech, but when I was driving here to rehearsal today, they were playing it on the radio with [contemporary gospel singer] Marvin Sapp's 'Never Would Have Made It' underneath, and I just started boo-hooing."

— Sonia Murray

Anthony David, R&B singer-songwriter

Anthony David concedes that he probably started Election Day breaking the law. "I taped myself going through the line, right up until I pushed the button to vote. I don't think I was supposed to be doing that, but it was cool. I put it on YouTube."

Tuesday evening the R&B singer-songwriter, whose tunes are on Michelle Obama's iPod (according to a recent Marie Claire article), was behind the turntables at Atltanta's Café Circa "spinning all of the inspirational, election-type stuff: Curtis Mayfield's 'We're A Winner'; 'Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now'; 'Say It Loud — I'm Black and I'm Proud'; Public Enemy's 'Brothers Gonna Work It Out.' Just partying until like 12:30. Then I went to Auburn Avenue and danced in the street.

"I feel hella more American today," David said Wednesday afternoon. "I mean, I was in the Army and everything, and, of course — I'm American. But I think Whoopi Goldberg may have said it best: As a black American, you feel like you can finally put your bags down. I'm not saying racism is over — but it says a whole lot about America today."

— Sonia Murray

T.I., rapper-actor

T.I., who was in Los Angeles shooting a movie, "had the pleasure and the honor of being at Will Smith's house on election night. If I couldn't be at home with my kids to experience this perfect moment, that was a nice substitute... Will introduced me to a guy who was from Mozambique, who he met when he was doing 'Ali'. Since then, that guy had moved to America and just became an official citizen. So the first time he was able to vote, it was for a black man running for president of the United States. I thought that was an outstanding story.

"I'll tell you one more: This morning I called my kids and my eight-year-old said 'Did you know only two people voted for McCain in Tennessee?' I said, 'That's not true son. I think McCain actually won Tennessee. But I appreciate your attentiveness to this very important matter'. I thank everyone who made it their business and an extreme priority to get out there and fulfill their civic duty. And I appreciate being able to encourage and inspire people to do so."

Angie Stone, R&B singer

With an assist from ALT Limousines, R&B singer Angie Stone was able to take some 20 voters from the Summerhill Nursing Home to the polls. That night she was at her Ellenwood home in front of the TV, "partying, cheering, jumping up and down. It is my cousin's birthday week, so we were celebrating that too. It was a double-blast!

"To have a black president, is such a great accomplishment but I'm still like, 'Is this real? And am I really here to witness this?' And then to see the people of Kenya celebrating one of their own making it to the driver's seat of the United States — that was overwhelming. I think this all actually gives validity to my song 'Brotha.' That needs to be Barack's theme song."

— Sonia Murray

Bow Wow, rapper-actor

Having led the recent, nonpartisan, Walk Across America voter registration campaign at colleges across the country, Bow Wow earned the right to kick up his feet and watch CNN in his condo all day. "Last night though, I was in the studio with Jermaine [Dupri], and I kept asking him what was going with the results, and he wouldn't say. He was being real cautious. Like he might jinx Barack. I knew he had it though, and when I finally went outside and found out, I just started yelling like my fans do when they see me. I couldn't believe it. Then I sat down, and I really almost — almost — got choked up. To be a young black man, and know that so many other young black men don't have a lot of hope — that's hope right there! Right on our TV screens. It doesn't get any bigger or better than that. I found myself saying, 'a black man is president' like 30 times. Over and over. Feels good saying it."

— Sonia Murray

Steve Harvey, radio host and comedian

"It was an eye opener for me personally," he said, calling from the set of BET's "106 and Park." "It restored a lot of faith I needed to have in this country. There were enough people who were not African American who saw beyond the man's color, that judged him on his content and character. That's what this country is all about."

An African-American president, he said, was never even on his radar screen before Obama came along. "It was a complete makeover of my mental processes yesterday," he said. "This country is a bit more open to change than I thought. People are just sick and tired of being sick and tired, as my mama used to say."

Harvey feels Obama can reach across the aisle and heal rifts domestically and internationally. He said he spoke to Obama five times on his show, including just a couple of days ago, just minutes after he found out his grandmother had passed. "I had no idea that had happened," he said. "I just thought he sounded tired... I cannot have done that. I don't know anybody else who could have held up the way he did under all those accusations and false accusations. I would have blown it. I would have said, 'You can all just kiss my ***!' We'd have gone from there!"

— Rodney Ho

Falcons owner Arthur Blank

Blank supported Barack Obama and said he spent time with him in Chicago last year.

"We've been impressed with him, both personally and in terms of his campaign," Blank said. "The generational change that I think it will be for America ... to see the turnout that we had particularly amongst the young folks, amongst the African-American community and amongst the Hispanics community, I think was very important and bodes well the future of our country. I think that his election will send a powerful message around the world that America has the ability again to think about things differently and not be so committed to the past and be open to change and the future."

— D. Orlando Ledbetter

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin

Franklin spent a portion of Wednesday in a fitting place, the high school named after her mentor and the city's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson. Franklin was there to talk to students about her program that helps them find internships and college scholarships, but much of her comments focused on Obama, the history-making president-elect.

"If there is something we learned from the presidential election, if you don't aim high, you will never achieve your goals," the mayor said. "I've been waiitng a long time for yesterday."

Franklin said Obama supporters cannot rest with his victory.

"The country has huge challenges," Franklin said. "We still have a high [student] dropout rate. We still have a high foreclosure rate. ... I say I hope we all had a good time celebrating yesterday because we have a lot of work to do."

— Eric Stirgus