Shortly after midnight on election evening, television cameras captured the face of Jesse Jackson in tears. He was shown standing among the huge crowd in Grant Park, Chicago, where Barack Obama was giving his first speech as president-elect.

For me, that image expressed the dramatic character of last Tuesday’s events. Here was Reverend Jackson, a hard-bitten veteran of many civil rights struggles, weeping with joy.

It seemed out of character for Jackson but, like so many of us, he was responding with emotion to the victory of the first African American to be elected president. I felt my own eyes water as I watched Obama eloquently accepting his call to serve.

I felt fortunate to have lived to see this day. It took its place among the great events of our history and of my lifetime. I thought of close friends who have died, and of how they would have rejoiced to see this outcome.

My thoughts also turned toward others who did not live to see this day. Madelyn Dunham had closely followed the campaign of the grandson she had helped to raise, and she missed the moment of victory by only a few hours.

Martin Luther King was assassinated when our next president was a young child. In better circumstances, he would have been able to celebrate his 80th birthday ─ and the fulfillment of at least part of his dream ─ in the week of Obama’s inauguration.

Bobby Kennedy who, forty years ago, imagined such an electoral outcome would have been delighted with this event. So would Lyndon Johnson, the president who backed civil rights voting legislation, even though he foresaw the Democratic party’s loss of the south for many years to come.

Rosa Parks, the brave woman who kept her seat in the segregated bus, would have been filled with joy at Obama’s victory.

For me, this long-awaited election day had got off to a fine morning start. The weather was ideal, unusually warm for November and without threat of rain, much less snow. As I approached the school where we vote, neighbors seemed in festive mood, perhaps buoyed up with confidence in their presidential favorite’s victory.

In more than three decades of voting at the same site, I had never seen such a long line at the polls. Starting at the school basement, the line snaked up a long flight of stairs and around a long stretch of brick pavement outside.

If that was a problem, I reflected, it counted as a welcome problem. People were voting in unprecedented numbers and they looked happy to be there even if they had to wait.

I seized the opportunity to take photos of what I already considered an historic occasion. Of course, to gauge the dimensions of that history I would have to await the results. That prospect made me feel impatient to have the day move on into night.

That evening, my wife and I walked to the student center at nearby Lesley University. The president of that institution had invited neighbors to watch the returns along with the students. We felt the need of sharing the excitement of the evening with others who felt festive.

As returns poured in, the event soon turned into a celebration of Obama. Whenever CNN declared that he had won another state, the students erupted in whoops and applause, and so did we. Pennsylvania and Ohio hit with special impact. The two young women with whom I was sitting, juniors both, would clearly have been devastated had Obama started to fade.

Back home later, we stayed focused on electoral results as they continued to come in. When John McCain conceded, we admired his gracious words and considered this his finest hour. If only the same spirit had marked more of his campaign!

Obama’s speech, when it finally came at midnight, struck great themes. Especially memorable was his celebration of his election as demonstrating what America is capable of at its best. To hear a person soon to sit in the White House speak with such eloquence shocked me. It has been a long time since we have heard its like.

Clearly, Obama will have a difficult time of it. Anybody would. But he shows qualities of mind and heart that give hope he will bring about sorely needed changes. The mere fact of being able to speak so well cannot be counted a small advantage.

I am more than thirty years older than Obama and I welcome the ascendancy of a new generation to the presidency. America needs fresh approaches to the problems that currently engulf us. The nation did well to choose a person who based his candidacy on change.

I feel prouder of my country now than I have for several years. We have dared to break down stereotypes that have plagued our history for altogether too long.

Richard Griffin