Five minutes later, we heard shouts up and down 17th Street, followed by the sounds of taxi cabs blowing their horns. I went out, expecting a mass of people, but only found random groups hooting and hollering and stumbling in all different directions. Excited, but aimless.
I returned to my apartment and watched Obama's speech with Sara. She was still feeling the effects of her surgery, so we decided to turn in. But the shouts and horns kept coming from the street below.
At 1, I realized neither the noise nor my own excitement would let me go to sleep, so I went back outside and walked up to U Street.
The police blocked U at 16th. Between 16th and 15th, the street was empty. I heard some shouts around 14th, so I headed that direction, thinking I would find a few people still celebrating:
As I approached 14th, things felt different. Maybe it was the banging from the big bass drum and congas. Or maybe it was the fireworks.
Or maybe it was the thousands of people who had gathered to dance and sing:
One of the busiest intersections in NW DC had become a nightclub.
I walked on down U Street, toward 13th. As people passed, they smiled and gave me high-fives.
Cars somehow inched through the crowds. The drivers honked their horns, not out of frustration, but in tune to the beats, or to get people to look at their Obama signs, or just because they found themselves in the middle of the biggest impromptu parade in US election history:
As I approached 11th Street, I heard music. People had gathered around Lee's Flowers on the corner of 11th and U. In the apartment above the flower shop, two men had pulled their stereo speakers to the windows and were DJ'ing a dance party. The crowd grew, and people looking for space to dance stood on cars and bus shelters. Someone in the crowd started a call and response of "O!" "Bama!", into which the DJ mixed 50 Cent's "In Da Club." Below, you'll find a couple (crappy) videos I took with my phone during the chorus of House of Pain's "Jump Around."
I saw this man a few times throughout the night along U Street. I never saw him without the Obama photo held above his head:
And then there was this car on the corner of U and 11th:
A lot has been said about the Obama after-election street parties, about the unplanned gatherings of thousands of people throughout the country. I only have two things to add:
1. Many people in DC gathered in front of the White House after the election, in a symbolic reclaiming of the executive branch.
But U Street has its own symbolic power. It was 40 years ago when, after the assassination of MLK, the city burned along 7th Street NW, H Street NE, and, especially, U Street NW.
At 3:45, I met this mother and daughter on U Street. They had lived through the riots in 1968, and they told me that they never thought the street would come back. The daughter teared up while we talked, as she remembered her friends fleeing their houses during the fires. We stood in front of Ben's Chili Bowl, the only store to have survived the riots. It seemed appropriate that this celebration took place on U Street.
2. I'm not a big fan of large crowds, whether protest marches or music festivals. I'm fairly sensitive to violence and conflict. There are a few times I would say I had been oversensitive, perceiving conflict when there was none.
Among thousands of people, late at night in the middle of the street, I never once felt that people were upset or angry. I never once felt that anyone was trying to prove him or herself with others. I was hugged by strangers more times than I can count. People kept taking my photograph. People smiled at me, shouted at me, danced with me.
I can't remember a time I felt safer.
