<table> </table> Barack Obama&#8217;s election last week as the nation&#8217;s first African-American president had a familiar feel.</p><p>It felt like the Million Man March except this time people of all races, ethnicities and genders were in it. In the Million Man March, African-American men gathered on Oct. 16, 1995, in Washington, D.C., for responsibility, reconciliation and self-determination.</p><p>It was a glorious event, which filled black people nationwide with pride because the peaceful march showed a commitment like no other for what a group could accomplish if it had a unified goal. Obama&#8217;s election as the 44th president of the United States has had that same moving, motivating effect on people.</p><p>My daughters, my friends &#8212; going back to high school and college &#8212; and people I don&#8217;t even know called, e-mailed and sent text messages bursting with pride, tears and happiness for what Americans had accomplished. To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., we had overcome.</p><p>People who called and e-mailed since Nov. 4 reminded me of my Oct. 22 column on the presidential race. I had written that I thought GOP candidate John McCain would win because America was not ready to elect a black president.</p><p>I also wrote that I wanted to be wrong, and folks remembered that, too. Missouri sided with McCain, but America passed the diversity test.</p><p>Friends and my daughter, Leslie, told me of spontaneous parties and parades in racially mixed neighborhoods of people celebrating Obama&#8217;s victory. It took votes from people of all colors for Obama to win.</p><p>Car horns honked in midtown Kansas City when TV commentators announced Obama had won the presidency. The community hadn&#8217;t enjoyed such widespread jubilation since the Kansas City Royals won the World Series in 1985.</p><p>The news media have focused their microphones, cameras and notebooks on black America to get feedback on Obama&#8217;s historic victory. But people who are white are celebrating, too. One woman said in an e-mail, &#8220;This is a great time for our country and hopefully we can all make this a better country and stand by our new president.&#8221;</p><p>A caller said: &#8220;I just feel like we&#8217;ve all won. We&#8217;ve all played a part in America. I can&#8217;t tell you how great I feel. I just feel so hopeful for the first time in years.&#8221;</p><p>A friend who teaches college in California e-mailed me. We went to a nearly all-white high school in St. Louis starting in 1969, when integration was a noble social experiment.</p><p>She wrote: &#8220;It&#8217;s a new day, and I can&#8217;t think of a better one than this. I&#8217;m so glad we lived to see this happen.</p><p>&#8220;The smiles just keep on coming, and I can&#8217;t wait to wake up tomorrow and the next day and the next just to think about it all over again. We are so very lucky, and I think we should dare to enjoy our good fortune fully and deeply.&#8221;</p><p>A friend who&#8217;s an American Indian wrote: &#8220;Today is a day of new beginnings for our country and the world as we say &#8216;yes!&#8217; to equality, inclusiveness, peace, diplomacy, education, health and of course environmental protection. Today I sit here in my red, white and blue outfit because for the first time in a very long time, I am so proud to be an American!&#8221;</p><p>A friend I volunteer with at a midtown soup kitchen best defined the future if Obama is to have any hope of repairing the damage done by President Bush: &#8220;Beyond our doubts, things came to be in the United States of America, and we rejoice together. We&#8217;ve got a lot to do, but we have made the essential first step.&#8221;</p><p>The 21st century march of millions begins now for a better America.