Obama turns tide in N.C.

After the euphoria, the president-elect must face daunting tasks

A generation ago, what North Carolinian would imagine that a black man could carry the state in a presidential contest?

But Wednesday, Tar Heels began considering what it means that Barack Obama seems to have won North Carolina, along with her sister Southern states Virginia and Florida. Not since since 1976 has a Democratic presidential candidate carried this state.

"I consider it one of the most dramatic events in my lifetime of watching politics in North Carolina," said Bill Friday, the 88-year-old president emeritus of the University of North Carolina. "It is a turning point in the history of the state. It is one that reflects the growth and development of North Carolina."

As part of the Old Confederacy, North Carolina had a legacy of slavery and segregation. But it has been regarded since the 1940s as one of the most moderate states in the South on race issues. And it is a state that has undergone rapid Sunbelt growth in recent decades, with millions of new residents moving here from around the country.

In the unofficial returns, Obama led Republican John McCain by 13,746 votes. Gary Bartlett, the state elections director, said Obama should be considered the unofficial victor. Bartlett said an estimated 40,000 provisional ballots still must be counted, but based on experience, the outcome is not likely to change when the State Board of Elections certifies the results on Nov. 25.

Friday is among a number of Tar Heels who have witnessed the state's turbulent racial history, one that includes white supremacist campaigns, racial violence and lunch-counter sit-ins.

Julius Chambers, a 72-year-old Charlotte lawyer, knew the violence well. As a young civil rights attorney, Chambers' Charlotte home was bombed in 1965, his car was bombed in New Bern the same year, and his law office was firebombed in 1971. He would later become head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and chancellor of N.C. Central University in Durham.

Chambers said Wednesday he did not expect to see a black man elected president in his lifetime. He said it speaks well of his native state that it voted for Obama.

"It's says to me we are abandoning the old ways we have been doing things -- reluctantly," Chambers said. "We are like the rest of the country. We can accept people without respect to race or color. We are making progress."

Witness to the change

Henry Frye, a 76-year-old Greensboro lawyer, was the first black elected to North Carolina's state legislature in the 20th century and later became chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

In 1956, as an Air Force captain who had been admitted to UNC's law school, Frye tried to register to vote in his home, Richmond County. He was required to name five signers of the Declaration of Independence and the 12th president of the United States. When he failed, he was not allowed to register. Like Chambers, he did not expect to see a black president in his lifetime.

He said Obama's strength in North Carolina was the result of the nation's problems.

"The right circumstances have to come together," Frye said. "The thing that may have pushed it over the top is the terrible economic news we've had over the last month or so.

"But beyond that, the most significant thing is that North Carolina can vote and will vote for a minority."

By Wednesday afternoon, Obama had won 2,123,332 votes in North Carolina to McCain's 2,109,586.

The Obama campaign benefited from voter discontent over the economy and the war. The Obama campaign targeted North Carolina, spending millions on TV advertising and building a grassroots effort that included 50 offices and 400 paid staffers.