The U Street Riot -- From Jeffrey in DC

In the spirit of capturing the magnitude of this moment in history I wanted to share a friend's perspective on last night:

"I canvassed door to door in Virginia the last 4 days. I also changed my voter registration to VA to make my vote count. Glad we swung that state! The state motto is "Virginia is for lovers." Now, we can add "Virginia is for swingers." HA...

Upon hearing the news that he is now President Elect Obama, we had a spontaneous "rally" on U St in Washington, DC. People poured out of their homes despite the rain. They overflowed the sidewalks and packing the streets over 4 blocks. People danced, hugged, and celebrated. At the corners for intersections and random portions in the middle of a block, music would play and people would dance. At 14th St and U, a percussion bang set-up and a crowd danced and chanted to latin rhythms. Sprinkled through out, people created make shift percussion ensembles by banging kitchen pots and paints and crowds dancing along as they meandered through the crowd. On 13th St cars crept by crossing U St like a parade to a cheering crowd. On that block of U St lies Ben's Chillie Bowl. This business that weathered the race riots of the 1960s was open and packed with patrons. At 12th St and U, the long standing Black owned flower shop that transferred from one generation to the next, set up a DJ just outside threw down. People were hanging out of the 2nd story windows. Cars were caught up in a gridlock. Instead of expressing road rage or frustration, people shared joy and love. They got out of their cars and danced, sat on the roofs and celebrated. Some turned up their sounds systems and crowds gathered around.

A previous famous spontaneous rush to U streets was the 1960s race riots. The differences between then and now are remarkable. Instead of damaging cars, people danced next to and on them. Instead of injuring our neighbors, people hugged them. Instead of shop keepers boarding up their businesses, they opened them and profited. Instead of damaging property, people patronized. The shouts and behavior expressed not fear and frustration, instead hope and joy. A striking symbolism of change."