Photo by David Greene
As the country entered the ninth month of a coronavirus pandemic that has, so far, claimed nearly a quarter of a million American lives, a fact rarely mentioned by a Trump administration that, instead, touts its deft handling of the crisis, New Yorkers took to Times Square on Saturday to celebrate former Vice President Joe Biden’s likely victory over President Donald J. Trump, as if it were New Year’s Eve, Super Bowl Sunday and the Fourth of July all rolled into one.
Photo by David Greene
Less than an hour before The Associated Press reported that the Democratic candidate had been declared victorious with a win in Pennsylvania at 11:25 a.m. EST on Saturday, Nov. 7, the president tweeted, “I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” Twitter subsequently flagged the president’s message as misleading, warning readers, “Official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted.”
As the news broke, residents along Hull Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx began giving each another “high fives,” while vehicles blew their horns in celebration along the Grand Concourse, the West Side Highway and across the city until late into the evening.
Photo by David Greene
In Manhattan, a scheduled rally to “Protect the Vote” at Columbus Circle drew a crowd of 1,000 as the demonstration turned into a celebration with news of the victory. With balmy temperatures in the low 70s, news of Biden’s win drew reported similar crowds of face-covered celebrants at Union Square, Foley Square, Tomkins Square Park, Madison Square Park and Times Square.
Following two nights of clashes between anti-Trump demonstrators and police, sources said one police officer suffered a minor wrist injury during a skirmish with a protester outside Trump Tower.
Photo by David Greene
After three years of the so-called “Muslim ban,” nine months of the new “social distancing” normal that, at times, has turned Manhattan into a virtual ghost town, four years of anti-immigrant messaging and name-calling from the Trump administration, and a summer of worldwide calls for racial justice, New York City was ready to party.
The Times Square crowd, which reportedly reached several thousand by the time police closed the ‘The Great White Way’ to traffic, sang out to Rock n’ Roll classics that, oddly enough, were mostly British, including, “We are the Champions,” by Queen, the 1969 hit, “Sha Na Na Na” (hey, hey, goodbye) by the Dave Clark Five and, “I will Survive,” by American singer, Gloria Gaynor.
Photo by David Greene
In between songs, with many banging on cowbells or blowing hand-held horns, the crowd broke into several chants including, “Let’s Go Joe!”and “No More Years!” Meanwhile, some scantily-clad, young women danced to the classic hit by Joan Jett and The Black Hearts, “I Love Rock ‘n Roll.”
At one point, two unidentified women in the crowd reenacted the iconic poise captured by Alfred Eisenstaedt from VJ Day in 1945, when crowds gathered in Times Square after news broke of the end of World War ll.
Photo by David Greene
The photo, regarded as one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century, was published in Life magazine and depicted a sailor and a young woman kissing. The 2020 version had the two women embraced in a passionate kiss, both wearing face masks.
In his victory speech later that evening, which was broadcast from Wilmington, Delaware, a humble Biden offered an olive branch to Republicans, saying, “And to those who voted for President Trump, I understand your disappointment tonight. I’ve lost a couple of elections myself.”
Photo by David Greene
Biden added, “But now, let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to each other again.” He added, “To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We are not enemies. We are Americans.”
Meanwhile, dressed in white, an apparent nod to the suffragettes who fought for the women’s right to vote, vice-president elect, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, in her speech, thanked the duo’s supporters for their historic victory. Harris is the first Black vice-president, the first Asian-American vice-president, the first Indian-American vice-president, the first mixed-race vice-president and the first female vice-president. She said she would not be the last.
Photo by David Greene
Remembering her late mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, the vice-president elect said, “When she came here from India at the age of 19, she, maybe, didn’t quite imagine this moment.” Harris is the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, and is now the highest-ranking woman in politics in the nation’s history. Prior to her win, House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, held that position.
Harris continued, “But she believed so deeply in an America, where a moment like this is possible, and so I am thinking about her, and about the generations of women, Black women, Asian, White, Latina, Native American women who, throughout our nation’s history, have paved the way for this moment tonight; women who fought and sacrificed so much, for equality, and liberty and justice for all, including the Black women who are often, too often, overlooked but so often prove that they are the backbone of our democracy.”
Photo by David Greene
Black women have been credited with swinging key states for Biden, most notably Georgia, in large part due to the get-out-the-vote efforts of former gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams.
Meanwhile, after nearly four years of the president’s refrains of “No collusion,” “The Russia Hoax,” and “Fake News,” Trumpism appears mortally wounded by the Biden Harris win. As of Saturday, Nov. 7, based on the latest count, Biden and Harris won the presidency and vice-presidency with the most votes ever cast in a U.S. presidential election, over 74.5 million votes.
Photo by David Greene.
As people celebrated the Democratic win well into Saturday night, a media ticker ran over their heads in Times Square, a reminder of Trump’s ongoing plans to fight the results of the election in court.
*Síle Moloney provided additional reporting to this story.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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