Barack Obama is now president-elect of the United Statea, but the parties and celebrations are far from over.
“The man is worth a party and them some,” said Catherine Robinson at her victory celebration and party Saturday at her Penrose neighborhood home in North St. Louis.
“This is a poor folks party, but if I had a million dollars I would have spent a million dollars on President Obama, because the man stands for good for all,” she said before being overcome with tears of joy.
Robinson said had to throw a party because black people have come so far. She reminisced of her days of picking cotton from sunup to sundown in then-segregated Mississippi for about $2 an hour.
“Blacks have been done wrong for so long, but now it’s all right and I just had to bring my family and friends together to rejoice,” said Robinson, a custodian at Buder Elementary School in South St. Louis.
Nathanial Phillips, co-owner of the Central West End Bed & Breakfast, has a unique party and celebration for President-elect Obama that will inaugurate the stunningly striking bed and breakfast.
Phillips’ House Party Series, along with Good Life Ent., will begin with the Presidential Edition.
The multi-themed house, which was converted into a lavish bed and breakfast, will offer a black White House theme beginning at 6 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 30, at 4045 Washington Ave. at Sarah in the CWE.
“This is a house, so I thought it would be fitting that we celebrate Obama here since it’s the first time that a black man is in the White House as president,” Phillips said.
“It will be sort of a Black House n and we’re going to have a good old-fashioned house party,” he said.
Many Election Day watch parties had a start time of 8 p.m., but people began pouring into Posh in the Central West End during happy hour n as early as 5:30. Owner Jeff Neely had both of his screens tuned to CNN.
“We’re going to elect a black president tonight,” Lacour said.
Why did he have her vote?
“Because he’s cute and black,” Lacour said, joking.
“He had a good vision,” she said, seriously.
The first round of applause overcame the intimate bar when Obama won Pennsylvania, then at the showing of Obama’s electoral votes, then again for Ohio’s win. At 10 p.m. CNN projected that Obama was the president-elect.
The place went wild. Screams. Tears. Hugs. High-fives. Handclaps.
Upon walking outdoors onto Euclid Ave., the scene abounded with car horns and people running.
“Obama, baby!” someone yelled.
“We did it!” another person yelled.
“Change is here!”
“We overcame!”
The one-liners kept coming, and so did the horn blows.
Police had to direct traffic at Olive and Compton in Midtown. The area was packed with folks inside of The Loft in the 3200 block of Olive and Lush in
the 3300 block of Olive.
Drivers-by sounded their horns and passengers yelled out the window. One young lady stopped at a green light jumped out of her car and circled it
yelling, “Obama!”
Just around the corner at EXO in the 3200 block of Locust, the crowd of election watch party-goers extended inside and outside of the packed club. People danced, cried, hugged, laughed and smiled hard.
“This is our night,” said Roy Robinson of Free Time, LLC.
One of his partners, Darryl Frierson, said, “It’s good for all the events promotions companies to come out together because it shows us being a part of the political process instead of just partying. It shows that we are coming together and making a change.”
Leaving EXO, an excited Mo Spoon, of MPAC and EC Modeling, said, “It’s like that n Obama just won.”
A young woman in the background yelled, “Forget 50 acres and mule n we’ll take 50 states and a White House!”
