Tonight, in Cleveland, Ohio, an overflow crowd packed one of the city's biggest black churches, Antioch Baptist Church, as the black community -- along with a significant sprinking of white people including me -- gathered to show its support of Barack Obama.
The event was organized as an informal rally by members of the black community who support Obama. However, it coincided with the arrival of Obama's campaign staff in town (the office officially opens tomorrow at 815 Superior with canvassers meeting at 10 a.m. to get their assignments; come on down if you're in the area) and they were invited to attend and be introduced to the local supporters, who greeted them warmly.
The location of the event was actually changed at the last minute (after 9 last night -- after I announced it at my city Dem club meeting, darn it!) but that didn't keep people away. I arrived a few minute before the announced starting time of 5 p.m. and the church's large parking lot was already full and cops were directing traffic. I was not surprised to find judge candidates in the lobby as they're everywhere in election years, but I was somewhat surprised to see two African-American judges who didn't appear to be actively campaigning, just attending. What surprised me is that although neither of these judges got the party endorsment, they won the endorsement of our widely loved and influential congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (Oh-11) who, as I've mentioned before, is Hillary's national co-chair. But tonight we were about to see the limits of her influence.
The program opened with roof-raising comments by black minister Rev. Steve Sullivan and Rabbi Bruce Abrams. Then elderly longtime Cleveland councilwoman Fanny Lewis (deep into her 80s) was helped up front and spoke fervidly saying "The Lord has blessed me for a time like this to see a man like this, a man of leadership, a man of character." She reflected the sentiments of many of the speakers that after the long struggle of blacks to participate in the system (Pettis Bridge was invoked by several speakers and no one in this crowd had to Google that), one of their own was not only so close to the presidency but in their opinion clearly the best person for the job. Lewis (whom those of you who saw the film "No Umbrella" about the 2004 presidential election mess in Ohio may remember as the old woman sitting at a table in a polling place with a cell phone on each ear trying to reach someone at the Board of Elections to do something aobut the 3 and 4 hour lines) gave a shout-out to the younger black female councilpeople who following in her footsteps: Phyllis Cleveland, Nina Turner, Sabra Pierce Scott. (The latter two were elected Obama delegates at our district caucus in early January.)
County Commission Peter Lawson Jones, one of the two of our three county commissioners to endorse Obama, talked about a woman he'd run into in the county building who said that she and her 13-year-old son, who wasn't too into spending time with mom these days, had been bonding over watching CNN "to see how their friend Barack was doing." He referred to the dreams of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois and the Freedom Riders in the deep south in 1964 and then said, obliquely refering the congresswoman, "I'm hearing a lot of people worrying about super delegates. If we do the right thing, the super delegates will have no choie but to do the right thing."
"The moment we have dreamed of, hoped for, worked for is within our grasp," he said. "We dare not let down those who made the sacrifice in the south."
Then Antioch's pastor, the Rev. Marvin McMickle, perhaps the best known black pastor in the region, spoke. He started by assuring the crowd that they were staying on the right side of the IRS by leasing the church to the Obama campaign for $1 and that he was speaking as an individual. He said, "I speak for myself. Antioch will speak for itself. I know Antioch well enough to know what it will do. It will vote for Barack Obama!"
He then held up a sheet of paper and said that it was the death certificate of his great uncle, who was shot to death in Danville, Kentucky on November 4, 1930, because he tried to vote.
"In August of 2008, his grand-nephew will go to Denver as an official delegate to cast a vote for Barack Obama as the next president of the United States," he said (Indeed he will; we elected him at the January caucus as well).
He continued, "Sometimes there seems to be a time when your hopes and dreams are held back by peoples' hatred and peoples' bigotry. And then someone shows up on the stage of history and like a wildfire across the country, there is a man named Barack Obama."
He pointed out that the crowd in the room, although predominantly African-American, was racially mixed, male and female, rich and poor, Jew and gentile, but returned to the palpable swell of black pride in the room when he said "Some people never thought this day would come. The people crossing Pettis Bridge just wanted to register to vote. I want to get my tuxedo on and go to the White House and watch Barack and Michelle entertain the wohle world."
Barack Obama is going to be the next president of the United States and he's going to do that not because he's black. He's going to do that because he is the best," said Rev. McMickle.
Then he moved in on the congresswoman. He mentioned that John Lewis, who had been a Hillary supporter, had just shifted his support. "if you vote, you're going to do in this district what they did to John Lewis in Georgia. [Lewis] lot his district by 80%. This congressional district will be consumed by Barack Obama!"
He was followed by the introduction of politicians in the room and some brief remarks from a few of them. But then his fellow Cleveland city councilpeople dragged Ward 9 councilman Kevin Conwell on stage to speak. And what he said was an eye-opening look at what has happpened in this district in just the last six weeks.
"I like to win," he said. "I was with Hillary a year ago. And I stick to my promises. But I talked to my bosses -- 21 street club presidents, precinct committee people, executive committee members They said 'Where are you?' and I said 'I'm going with Hillary. I'm a delegate for Hillary Clinton.' My people jumped on me. Some people actually cried. I got a whipping that night. People said 'Follow your heart.' I said, 'You're right.' I called the Hillary campaign and said '80% of my bosses are going with Obama.' I called the Hillary campaign and gave up my delegacy."
As the event wound down, I was looking around the room and spotted several people who have been active in the congresswoman's 11th district caucus, people who I was sure were in the Hillary camp, that I KNEW had been in the Hillary camp. I even saw the 18-year-old high-school-senior daughter of the congresswoman's caucus director. The wildfire is consuming the district and I don't think the congresswoman can stop it.
A year ago, we met at this very church to make signs and get volunteer assignments for Obama's appearance at Cuyahoga Community College East shortly after he announced his candidacy. It was a smaller crowd, a hopeful but more subdued crowd who undoubtedly felt what they were helping a long shot but had to give it a try. Barack Obama swamping this district on March 4 is no longer a long shot.