Tuesday’s election surpassed partisan politics, electoral strategies and civic duty. It marked a milestone for race in America, one applauded by Democrats and Republicans alike.

The Sun Journal reached out to area African-Americans for their thoughts on the election of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

Aspirations zoom

Sahro Noor, 9, a Lewiston third-grader, used to say she wanted to be a nurse. Since Barack Obama has become president-elect, she says she’s going to be president, said her father, Sheikh Mohamed.

Mohamed, the spokesman for Somali Bantus in Lewiston, tried to tell his daughter she couldn’t run for president. “She was not born here,” he said. She was born in Kenya. He didn’t think his explanation changed her mind. “We argued,” he said with a laugh.

Mohamed and others realize they’re watching history. “I’m getting tons of phone calls from Bantus in Lewiston-Auburn. They are so happy,” he said. Some served refreshments, celebrating Obama’s win.

He called President-elect Obama “a new bridge for everybody. I believe this doesn’t happen anywhere in the world. … This will be a very good opportunity for everybody in the United States. This is a totally new kind of leadership. I hope there will be a change in the economy, and the United States going to war will be slow.”

‘Your heart does cry’

Gerald Talbot, 77, was overwhelmed as he watched the TV coverage of Obama’s triumphant speech Tuesday night. It shook him as a man and a father. He thought about the pleas he made to his children:

“You can do whatever you want to do,” and, “Don’t let anybody step on your neck.”

Talbot, a Portland native, served as the first black man in the Maine Legislature and has written extensively on racial history. Among his works is a textbook he co-edited titled “Maine’s Visible Black History.”

Obama’s accomplishment felt like an accomplishment for America, Talbot said.

“Your heart does cry,” he said.”You felt it in your heart, your soul and your mind.”

Talbot hopes to attend Obama’s inauguration in January, though he knows it may be a struggle getting into what may become the biggest inauguration in U.S. history.

“One of my daughters is working on it,” he said.

His daughter, Rachel Talbot Ross, leads the Portland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a role Talbot himself once filled.

“I want to be there,” he said.

Talbot met Obama during a springtime campaign stop in southern Maine. He had his picture taken with the candidate and they chatted briefly.

His biggest impression of Obama up close?

“He’s tall,” Talbot said.

Validation of work

Bill Burney, an Augusta native who was the first black mayor in Maine, said it was exciting to see President-elect Obama preparing for office. “It is a validation of all of the work that so many of us have done leading up to this point,” Burney said.

Obama will inspire black youths, Burney predicted, as evidenced by the throngs of young people who turned out Tuesday night to celebrate.

“If you looked at the faces in the crowd and saw the excitement and the wonder of those young people, you can’t but feel that somewhere in that crowd was someone with similar aspirations or greater, the ultimate cure for cancer,” he said.

As a young person, Burney, now 57, was interested in politics. He was elected mayor of Augusta in 1988 and served until 1996. Before that, he served on the city council. Today, he is chairman of the Augusta Board of Education and is a field office director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Burney said he’s been able to achieve what he has, in part, because of the civil rights movement.

“Before me, there was Gerald Talbot. Before him, there was Martin Luther King; before MLK, there was Debois, Douglass and Drew, and the mothers and fathers of so many who sacrificed.”

‘I never thought … ‘

At Lewiston High School, freshman Matthew Wooten was excited about Obama’s win.

“He can make a change, make things better for people, make the economy better and help everyone,” said Wooten, 14. He watched election coverage on CNN with his father.

“I never thought I would see it. I never thought it would happen so soon. I am happy it happened,” Wooten said. It’s a big deal for aspiring black youths, he said. He predicted Obama’s election and future action would make a difference in his life as he moves from high school student to adult. “If I join the military, it will probably be safer.”

Sarah Manyiel, 17, who looks forward to studying psychology after high school, said she doesn’t usually pay much attention to politics. She did this time. “It was different. A black man was running for president.”

As the returns came in Tuesday night, Manyiel was confident Obama would win. But when he was announced as the next president, “It was hard to believe. When something so impossible happens, even if you’re expecting it, you know it happened but it hasn’t hit you yet.”

A black president “will open doors for black people to look at themselves as smart, and actually do something or have the courage to do something bigger, like Obama did,” she said.

‘Heartening to see’

Ismail Ahmed, 48, a Somali immigrant who works as a consultant, said Obama’s win was an emotional experience. “I was a bit nervous. I was glued to the TV.”

The Lewiston man is familiar with Martin Luther King and the United States civil rights movement. Watching the states turn blue for a black man, watching history unfold as a result of the civil rights movement was overwhelming, he said.

While watching election coverage with friends, family including nephews and nieces, the phone kept ringing. Friends were excited about what was happening and wanted to talk.

Ahmed fled Somalia to Kenya, then immigrated to the United States. He came to Lewiston in 2001 where he attended the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College before starting his consulting business.

He said he was glad Obama was elected decisively. His win “is significant to people from my community, because he represents hope for our children. We have fled civil wars and have come to make our homes in the United States. It is heartening to see that someone who has roots in a different country can fulfill the epitome of the American dream.”

Obama will inspire young people, especially black men who have become increasingly disenfranchised and disillusioned, Ahmed said. “They will be able to see their experiences reflected in the president and the first family.”

Obama could also prompt the mainstream media to project positive images of blacks, “instead of the tired old stereotypes of lazy, uneducated, black folk on welfare, and neglected neighborhoods.”

The promise of America

Bates College professor Marcus Bruce went to sleep around 9:30 p.m. election night, confident that Obama would win.

Then, the phone woke him.

Bruce shared his friends’ excitement, as an American and a black man who helped desegregate a junior high school in Montgomery, Ala., in the 1960s. He experienced racial hatred.

Bruce feels Obama’s election will be overshadowed by his success as president. Like Ronald Reagan, Obama gives people a sense of hope and optimism, Bruce said.

Bruce saw one illustration of this Tuesday morning, looking out his Campus Avenue office toward the Lewiston Armory.

“I saw parades of students going by to the polls,” he said. “For most of them, it was probably their first election.”

Bruce saw another glimpse of the enthusiasm in Paris, France, where he spent part of the summer.

Obama had electrified the Americans abroad, he said. Many filed absentee ballots to register their votes for Obama in the primaries, Bruce said.

With his use of the Internet and a variety of other media, Obama has helped people become engaged in their government, he said.

The professor, who serves as chairman of the school’s religion program, said his class discussions are still monopolized by talk of the president-elect. Among them, there is little of the apathy often attributed to the upcoming generation, he said. “Americans have discovered the promise of America anew.”

The challenge now is to keep it going, he said.