Blacks savoring Obama's Iowa win

For Sadou Brown in a Los Angeles suburb, the victory of Sen. Barack Obama in Iowa was a moment to show his 14-year-old son what is possible.

For Mike Duncan in Maryland, it was a sign Americans were moving beyond rigid thinking about race.

For Milton Washington in Harlem, it looked like the beginning of something he never thought he would see.

"It was like, 'Oh, my God, we're on the cusp of something big about to happen,' " Washington said.

How Obama's early triumph will play out in the presidential race remains to be seen, and his support among black people is not monolithic. But in dozens of interviews Friday from suburbs of Houston to towns outside Chicago and byways near Birmingham, Ala., African Americans voiced pride and amazement over his victory Thursday in the Democratic presidential caucuses and the message it sent, even if they were not planning to vote for him or were skeptical he could win in November.

"My goodness, has it ever happened before, a black man, in our life, in our country?" asked Edith Lambert, 60, a graduate student in theology who was having lunch in Boston.

"It makes me feel proud that at a time when so many things are going wrong in the world that people can rise above past errors," added Lambert, who said she had not decided whom to vote for.

Other black presidential candidates, such as Shirley Chisholm and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, have excited voters. Jackson won primaries in 1984 and 1988, but those were in the South.

Again and again, black people said Obama's achievement in Iowa, an overwhelmingly white state, made him seem a viable crossover candidate with the first real shot at capturing a major party nomination.

"People across America, even in Iowa of all places, can look across the color line and see the person," Brown, 35, said in a wealthy Los Angeles suburb. Describing himself as a "huge, huge supporter" of Obama, Brown added:

"So many times, our young people only have sports stars or musicians to look up to. But now, when we tell them to go to school, to aim high in life, they have a face to put with the ambition."

Mildred Kerr, 68, a Republican, said that although she did not plan to vote for Obama, she was nonetheless happy that he had won, because he "can now have the encouragement to go on and pursue a victory."

George Knox, 64, a Miami lawyer and civic leader who supports Obama's candidacy, made a similar point.

"The notion is mind-boggling," Knox said. "When a virtual mandate to continue comes out of a place like Iowa, with only a 2 percent black population, it's very important."

Several black people said Obama's victory with a campaign not based on race could herald the emergence of a new political calculus.

"I think he's already made a significant change in the mind-set of people," said Mike Duncan, 55, an Amtrak manager in Abingdon, Md. "Across the board, I'm glad to see that whites and blacks are beginning to understand that blacks can represent them and also be successful at it."

Shannon Brown, 17, a high-school senior on the South Side of Chicago, said she was thrilled she would be eligible to vote by Election Day.

"I've actually seen him around the neighborhood and had conversations with him," Brown said, calling Obama's candidacy "history in the making" and "a wonderful experience for us as a people."

Several supporters of Obama said they liked him for reasons other than race, including what they saw as his interest in stemming injustice and his projection of sincerity.

"I identify just because everything they ask, he is straightforward," said Charlette Fleming, 26, a Houston-area insurance agent. "They put him on the spot because he did marijuana. I've never done drugs before. But he was: 'OK, I did it. I'm not going to deny that I did it.' He's not trying to hide anything he's done."

Some voters said Obama's heritage as the son of a white mother and an African father meant he was not exactly black but added that it allowed him to appeal to more people.

"He's demonstrated that a mixed-race guy with a Muslim name can get far," Tony Clayton, 43, said at the Metro station at L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. Clayton was referring to Obama's middle name, Hussein.

"He has crossover appeal," Clayton said, "and because of that he could win in a general election."

Others looked to the emotional force an Obama presidency could wield for African Americans and dismissed the notion raised by some analysts that his background would make it difficult for some of them to identify with him.

"The psychological advantage of waking up knowing and seeing almost every day the leader of the free world as a member of your own tribe brings pride even to the most cynical critic," said Michael Eric Dyson, 49, a Georgetown University professor and an Obama supporter who has studied racial identity.

Amid the dawning sense that Obama could become president, there were hesitancy and doubt.

"Right now, it's too good to be true, and I think most of us don't want to get our hopes up too high," said Eboni Anthony, 28, manager of a small business in Brooklyn. "I think racism is as alive as it was 30 years ago.

"I would love to believe in a fairy tale of having a black president. But I don't believe the whole United States would agree to it."

In Harlem, Washington, 37, a manager of business development for a medical-research company, expressed similar skepticism.

"Listen, I've lived in the sticks, so I know how this country is," said Washington, who is half-Korean and has lived in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Indiana and Virginia. "In the beginning, it was like, 'I'd love a black dude, especially a black dude like that in the office.' But I didn't think it was possible."

In the Birmingham area, Jasper Hall, 69, said: "I was hoping he didn't win. I didn't want him to get shot."

Hall, an electrical worker who said he had changed his party affiliation from Republican to support Obama, added, "Hopefully he can win and stay alive."

He said he believed Obama was the candidate who best represented him and understood his struggles.

"You know that ceiling," Hall said. "You're not going to see it flashing back at you, but you know it's up there. No matter how good, how smart, how much money you have, you're going to see that ceiling that's going to reflect and stop you.

"It's the same ceiling that gets poor people, Hispanic people. It's the same ceiling. I'm ready for someone to break that ceiling."

New York Times reporters James Barron, Timothy Williams, John Eligon, Lakiesha R. Carr, Holli Chmela, Rebecca Cathcart, Brenda Goodman, Rachel Mosteller, Susan Saulny, Kirk Semple and Katie Zezima contributed

to this report.