Sprawled in lawn chairs in Pasadena, Calif., standing shoulder to shoulder in Times Square, pushed back in easy chairs in millions of ordinary living rooms, people gathered Thursday night to share 40 minutes of American history. The story was the same in Denver, though more thrilling because the show was live:
IN FIVE POINTS
It felt like a real party in Denver’s historically black neighborhood, where around 350 people gathered to watch Barack Obama accept the nomination.
Televisions lined the perimeter of the big tent set up for the After Five Jazz & Blues Festival; festivalgoers packed into folding chairs and bar stools, and stood when there were no more seats. They clapped for the musical performances and spoke back to the televisions during high points in each speech.
Lauren Milne, a 21-year-old New York college student, couldn’t get into a sold-out watch party at the Boulder Theatre. So she headed to Denver to be closer to the action and join in a gathering in “a real community.”
Sonja Mayo of Colorado Springs couldn’t get a ticket to Invesco, so the 50-something Department of Defense civilian employee with out-of-town relatives in tow, opted for Five Points. “(Obama) really speaks from his heart,” Mayo said. “We wanted to be around other people who support him.” — Elana Ashanti Jefferson
IN AURORA
Looking to the future. When Pat Johnson learned her daughter Sierra would be working at the Smokey Jackson’s sports bar during Barack’s acceptance speech, she packed up her other adult children and her grandkids and took them to the bar so they could witness the historic moment together.
“We are all rooting for Obama,” she said. “We wanted this to be a chance to educate the grandkids and let them know how important tonight is for their future,” she said.
Johnson’s daughter Tiffany Dickerson said she didn’t care if people were at home, in jail or on the streets. “I just want them all to be watching it happen. This is a time in our country when we are united. Regardless of his race, we are uniting for a need for change.”
Al Mickens said he was getting a two for one: he was enjoying being out with his friends and keeping up with what was happening locally.
“Good point, good point!” Mickens said during Obama’s speech. “I could not have said it better myself.” — Sheba R. Wheeler
IN LODO
Power to the people. From as close as a few blocks away and as far as Denmark, the overflow crowd crammed in and around the Jet Hotel — 250 in the parking lot and hundreds more inside and on the sidewalks and streets — to celebrate being a Democrat in Denver. “I’ve been trying to make it down here all week,” said Rafael Herrera, 25, of Denver. “It’s the last day, so it’s the best day to be here. We’re watching history in the making, man, and we want to be with our people.”
Lisa Roberts, one of 43 members of the Danish Social Democratic Youth Group that attended the event, said her crew couldn’t get into any convention activities. The group has been campaigning for Obama across the country for three weeks. “Going to these ‘watch’ parties is how we have connected with Americans,” she said.
The Jet event was billed as a block party and that’s exactly what it turned into, first offering a DJ to pass the time during the speech delay, and then projecting the speech on an elevated screen large enough to be seen and heard more than a block away. Afterward, the crowd danced to hip-hop group Clipse Cool Kids, creating one big dance party for a three-block section of the 16th Street Mall. — Kyle Wagner
IN SOUTHEAST DENVER
Never thought it could happen: All 50 or so people who gathered in Don and Pat Gatewood’s Hampden Heights backyard were African-American and Thursday was a big night.
“I never thought I would live long enough to see this happen,” said former state Sen. Gloria Tanner, seated in a chair 10 feet from the big screen TV in the yard. “I told my children this would not happen in their lifetime, and probably not their children’s lifetime. Maybe in their grandchildren’s lifetime.”
After each line of Obama’s speech, there was wild clapping, cheering and laughing. Some people even bowed down before him on the TV yelling “Come on!” and “That’s right!”
With each reference to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, people in the crowd shouted “The dream baby! The dream.”
At its end, the Gatewood’s guests celebrated, some with tears in their eyes.
Don Gatewood, who was a Denver Public Schools track coach with for 36 years at Manual and Montbello high schools, likened Obama’s performance to that of Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who made winning Olympic gold medals in 100 meter and 200 meter sprints look effortless. “The baton was passed off tonight to the last runner,” he said. “From Hillary Clinton to President Clinton to Joe Biden to Barack.”
Margaret Carter, president pro tem of the Oregon State Senate and Tanner’s longtime friend, said Obama’s rise is miraculous, and telling. America, she says, is changing for the better.
“I think that he is somebody who had to live on both sides of the aisle, black and white,” Carter said. “He really, really believes Americans can be one, can live in peace in the world community.”
— Douglas Brown
IN SOUTH DENVER
Missing Native issues: The air in Denver has been thick with politics this week — too politically charged for Mano Cockrum, 28, who said she is bugged by what she didn’t hear politicians talking about during the convention. So home, surrounded by family and friends from her Native American community and her non-profit volunteer work, was the logical place to work.
In her south Denver home, cluttered with the trappings of her life as an artist, Cockrum and her friends talked about the week, about how they were disappointed that more Native American issues weren’t discussed, and watched as Obama accepted the nomination. “I’m so glad to be here,” Cockrum said. — Jordan Dresser
