Natalie Moore Checks in from Bronzeville

I am in historic Bronzeville, the heart of black Chicago. I’m with neighborhood folk at 35th and King Drive at Harold Lucas’ Bronzeville Visitors and Information Center watching the returns. People are trickling in and they are nervous Obama supporters. Excited, too. But they don’t want to be disappointed if their native son doesn’t capture this historic race. That is the sentiment I’ve heard all day from black voters. One friend in NYC called me and he is a nervous wreck. He took his grandmother to vote, the first time in her life. This friend also wore a suit to the polls and told his friends to do so as well in honor of those who struggled in the Civil Rights Movement. A 96-year-old woman, a stranger, hugged him knowingly at the polls.