As if yesterday’s election wasn’t already historic, the aftermath took it to another level.
Across the country, huge crowds gathered in the streets — as if it were New Year’s Eve — in celebration of a new leader. And, of course, there was the massive crowd at Grant Park in Chicago, which reflected the great crowds in Europe, Colorado and other places during the campaign.
As much as people talk about the excitement surrounding John F. Kennedy, the reaction to Obama’s victory was something this country had never witnessed.
As polling places were closing and results were trickling in, I spoke to two different African-American families from Arroyo Grande about Obama. The first was the family of Jessie Stone, a 79-year-old woman who was born in Texas during the Great Depression and grew up in Louisiana before moving to California over 50 years ago.
With a cardboard cutout of Barack Obama nearby (that’s Jessie on the right in this photo, with her daughters, Janice Stone, front, and Felma Hurdle), Stone recalled living in the South during segregation. 
“I could not understamd why I would be in a line to be waited on and someone would push me aside,” she said.
Eventually, she and her husband moved to California, where he would launch a succesful vacuum cleaner and sewing machine business. (Thomas Stone died just under two years ago.)
Even though her family is African-American, voting for Obama wasn’t automatic.
“I wouldn’t vote for him solely because he’s black,” said one of her daughter’s, Felma Hurdle.
A born-again Christian who doesn’t agree with the Democrats on some moral issues, Hurdle initially looked at Mike Huckabee’s campaign with interest. But Obama’s character and performance during the debates won her over.
Before I visited Jessie Stone’s family, I spoke to Jo Earl and her three kids, Sierrah, Ebony and Kendall Watson. Stone is an actress and a standup comic with an interesting background: She was born in India, adopted and raised by a white family in Salt Lake City, Utah. While she’s Indian, she looks African-American, so she has exeprienced all the racism a black person would encounter.
“I experience racism all the time,” she said, noting that she’s often followed by suspicious store personnel when she shops. “It’s more of an undercurrent here.”
Since she married an African-American, her children are African-American. And even in San Luis Obispo County — where people seem more open-minded – her kids have encountered racism, having been called the N-word.
One kid in Kendall’s school said when he grew up he wanted to kill black people.
At Arroyo Grande High School, Sierrah is one of few black students.
”Just because I’m a person of color, people think I’m an Obama supporter,” she said.
This election, she said, has brought out some interesting comments from her peers, including one who suggested Obama was the antichrist.
She did support Obama — but not because of his skin color.
“He’s relatable,” she said. “He’s just another person.”
That personality, Hurdle said, helped bring people together, even in states that hadn’t voted for a Democrat in over 40 years.
“When I look at his crowds,” Hurdle said, “they’re all kinds of people.”
Considering the fact that Obama was born while segregation was still in place, his victory marks a huge leap. Yet, just as it marks how far we’ve come, the election also shows how far we have to go.
This morning, as I was talking to a co-worker about the crowds of people who gathered last night, I looked out the office window and saw a truck driving along Higuera Street, a confederate flag raised from the bed.
Now, in Georgia I suppose some might argue that the flag represents Southern pride. But in California, the day after we elect our first black president? Just days after Cal Poly students got in trouble (though not much trouble) for displaying a confederate flag next to a noose?
We all know what the confederate flag suggests.
Obviously, we haven’t quite reached that mountain top.
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