Red State No More – 11.4.08
Richmond, VA is a great town, but a very segregated one. I spent the last few years I lived there on basically the corner of Broad and Belvedere streets. This is a pretty important cross section in Richmond because it firmly separates four of the neighborhoods in Richmond. The northeast corner is Jackson Ward, a black area that at one time was known as the Harlem of the South. Across the street on the northwest side is Carver, another primarily black area. To the southeast is the beginning of the down town area and to the southwest is the fan, home to thousands of VCU college students. Richmond is a pretty dangerous town, and while this area is certainly not the worst in the city, there were three shootings at this intersection with in the first month that I moved into my apartment. They had to cancel a national Step contest because every time they held it someone would get shot. On many nights this area becomes a drag for tricked out cars with huge rims and booming stereos right next to hipster bars, art galleries and coffee shops, however these worlds rarely interact. At least that is the way it was until Tuesday night.
After Barack Obama gave his victory speech I began my drive back to NYC so I could work the next morning. All the hard work was over and I needed to go home. I tried to drive through the Broad and Belvedere intersection on my way to I-95. I saw that all the streets were blocked off. I was afraid something horrible had happened. Richmond can be a very racist town, on both sides. I used to hear storied of black families getting their houses burned if they tried to move into the Oregon Hill neighborhood just a few blocks south. I tried to drive around the police blockade but everything seemed to be stopped. That’s when I heard the drums. I parked my car and got out and walked into a huge swarm of thousands of people running around screaming and chanting. They were climbing on construction vehicles, dancing on cars and shimming up light posts. People were breakdancing in the street. Everyone was jubilant. You had thug black dudes hugging tattooed hipster kids. It was amazing. The Obama win hadn’t really hit me until then. I walked around taking photos with the biggest smile on my face. Everyone was jumping in front of my camera and wanting to be part of the record of this amazing moment. I have seen nothing like it in my life. I was almost in tears the whole time. I saw three muslim women celebrating with a man draped in the Indian flag. I saw gay kids posing with some of the hardest looking dudes I have seen in my life. There were hip hop heads drumming with hippies. It was phenomenal. These were mostly kids in the parade, but every so often I would see an older African American shaking their head in disbelief. They just couldn’t believe what was happening. They never thought something like this could happen in their life times. There were 65 year old men were crying, and that brought tears to my eyes.
I honestly spent more time celebrating than paying attention to the photos I was taking. These shots are not as great as they should be, and I kept missing the really touching moments of people hugging and crying, but fuck, I couldn’t be bothered. I knew I should be shooting, but I really just wanted to be climbing up light posts and throwing fire works too. It was a really amazing thing to be a part of and I think if nothing else, these pictures capture some of that. White and black, in the capitol of the south, living in a blue state for the first time in their lives, celebrating a hope for the world. This might be the cheesiest thing I have ever written in my life, but I mean every bit of it. We were part of history.
Click for pictures. God bless America.
