Party in the park
'A WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL THING' | As 240,000 cheer in Grant Park, thousands stream into Loop, dance, hug on State Street
Obama rally - a year ago today
Twenty-three years after he moved to Chicago as a $10,000-a-year community organizer, Barack Obama took center stage here Tuesday night as more than 100,000 fans in Grant Park celebrated the city's adopted son and his election as president of the United States.
Back in 1985, Obama drove a beat-up blue Honda Civic.
Tuesday night, he was rushed to Grant Park from the Hyatt Hotel on Wacker in a motorcade, escorted by Secret Service agents.
"I was never the likeliest candidate for this office," Obama told the crowd.
"This was his starting ground for becoming the politician that he is today,'' said Robin Fitt, an attorney from Bronzeville, one of tens of thousands of people at a ticket-only celebration in south Grant Park's Hutchinson Field.
Chicagoans who crowded into Hutchinson and Butler fields -- a festive, flag-waving throng -- celebrated the candidate but also, it seemed, a local guy done good.
"He is our favorite son," attorney Joan Protess said, her voice choking up.
For the most part, the Obama rally, beamed around the world, was a made-for-TV spectacular that put Chicago in a good light: the city's skyline shimmered and Grant Park, which would serve as a party focal point in a possible Chicago 2016 Olympics, seemed up to the task of handling large crowds.
Obama supporters, bathed in bright white floodlights, watched huge television screens and cheered as news broke that Obama had captured battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania and finally, at 10 p.m., the Oval Office.
A roar rarely heard this side of a Bears touchdown thundered across the park as Obama came onstage.
Mechelene Head, 40, from Lawndale, burst into tears.
"This is the best thing that has ever happened to me,'' she said. "My heart is about to jump out of my chest."
Police shut the park to late-arriving celebrants about 9 p.m. While Hutchinson Field required a ticket, Butler Field, near Petrillo Music Shell, the site of some of the city's largest summertime music festivals, did not, and Obama supporters began lining up there around 6 a.m.
At 11 p.m., the Chicago Fire Department estimated there were 175,000 people in Grant Park. Thousands streamed into the Loop, dancing along State Street and hugging each other in intersections. Police said there were few arrests, with one source describing much of the crowd as "poli-sci nerds.''
Actually, the swarm reflected an Obama campaign theme: they were diverse, hopeful and anxious for the country to turn in a new direction. Many at the rally were teenagers and college students who carried their own high-tech media equipment to capture the night's events.
Marybelle Vancil, 78, came in a wheelchair to Butler Field from Downstate Leroy. She and her husband Bob, 80, compared Obama to President John Kennedy.
"I noticed how many young people are here. It's reminded us how it was when Jack Kennedy came on the scene. It's the same feeling," Bob Vancil said.
Like many others, first-time voter Angel Castillo, a 19-year-old University of Illinois at Chicago student from Roseland, came to Grant Park because he felt it was an opportunity to be part of history, as the United States elected its first African-American president.
"I am going to be able to talk about this to my kids,'' Castillo said.
Rashaun Thomas, 30, of Country Club Hills, said while he thought Chicago had an impact on the Hawaii-born Obama, Obama has had an impact on Chicago, too.
Looking around the crowd, Thomas, an African American, said: "Chicago is a very segregated city. Tonight it's really powerful to see all the backgrounds here. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing.''
Contributing: Annie Sweeney, Frank Main and Lisa Donovan