When Vice President-elect Kamala Harris called Joe Biden and said, “We did it,” that sentiment seemed shared by many Black people—especially Black women—who have been recognized as a huge factor in turning around many swing states. Many exhaled as the anxiety of the elections immediately dissipated after days of several reports that votes were “too close to call.”
As media outlets announced Biden had received 279 electoral votes, securing his win over President Trump, simultaneously people in New York City began honking their horns, cheering and clapping at the news of their hard-fought victory. Forever proud Brooklynite Spike Lee popped champagne, surrounded by hundred revelers, in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood.
But Lee wasn’t the only one excited. Collective celebrations were erupting across the boroughs and ESSENCE’s chief photographer JD Barnes, who has been covering the Black Lives Matter movement protests since George Floyd’s murder last May, was more than ready for his new assignment.
“For the last several months I’ve covered the protests and unrest in the country and it was refreshing—even for a day—to see so much joy in the streets,” said Barnes, who captured images in Times Square and Brooklyn.
See below the images of people who took to the streets in support of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who makes triple history as the first woman, first Black woman and first Indian-American elected vice president of the United States.
Yes, today was a good day.
