The victory of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race was greeted by scenes of jubilation in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, the place of worship where Martin Luther King Jr preached and which held his funeral in 1968.
Crowds danced in the streets, chanting "Obama! Obama!", passing cars honked their horns and tears flowed liberally. Inside the church, a congregation of about 2,000 African Americans burst into riotous applause, hands aloft, screaming at two large flat screens upon which the results were broadcast.
The explosion of celebration came after hours of tense expectation in which the Ebenezer church had greeted each state won by Obama with mounting noise and expectation. After Obama passed the presidential finishing line, Al Sharpton, the Harlem preacher, addressed the crowd that included several members of the King family, including his son Martin Luther King III and sister Christine King Farris.
"Even in the last days we felt we would never see this hour," Sharpton said. "But there is a God."
"Yeah!" cried the congregation.
"We are grateful to God and to those who paid the price. Don't you feel glad you came to be here tonight."
"Yeah!" cried the congregation.
"Aren't you glad to be with the King family tonight? There is no better place to tell your grandchildren you were sitting when the dream came into being, than with the family of the dreamers."
Victory for the first African American presidential candidate had been predicted earlier in the evening at Ebenezer church, where Martin Luther King preached between 1960 and his assassination in 1968. King's daughter, Bernice, told the congregation while the night was still young: "I want to flip the script. To those who've been saying 'Yes we can', it's time to say 'Yes we have'."
Echoing her father's famous refrain, "let freedom reign", the preacher continued: "From every place in America, freedom is about to reign as we witness the first president of African-American descent rise in this nation."
Several key figures from the civil rights movement were also present. Andrew Young, the first black ambassador to the UN, who was present at the Lorraine motel in Memphis on April 4 1963 and who witnessed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, told the Guardian that the day had been "a victory of grace over greed, of vision over violence.
"I thank Barack and Michelle Obama for delivering this victory to America and the world."
With every new result beamed up by CNN on two giant screens, the congregation exploded in cheering and chants of "Yes we can!" The Ohio result, called at 9.30pm prompted the most dramatic outburst, backed by gospel choir singing "Victory is mine, victory today is mine."
John Lewis, one of the most celebrated civil rights leaders who was beaten senseless during the Selma civil rights march across Pettus bridge in 1965, said the election result would not get America to the promised land, "but it was a down payment on the promised land.
"When I was kicked and left unconscious that day I did not think that I would be standing here witnessing America about to turn a page and make Barack Obama the next president of the United States."
