When CNN called the election for Barack Obama, what had been a subdued scene at 209 Music Lounge erupted in a din of whoops, hollers and applause.

Arms were raised in victory, high-fives were passed and teary-eyed women made cell-phone calls. The overwhelmingly black party attendees, Generation Xers and baby boomers alike, said they had long believed there would not be a black president in their lifetime.

"My grandmama told me I wasn't going to see the day," said Butch Gallop, 51. "My mama told me I wasn't going to see the day. Looky here, I'm seeing this day! "I'm seeing this day!"

Ecstatic, emotionally charged celebrations erupted throughout the area wherever Democrats gathered.

At Richmond County Democratic Party headquarters, the champagne corks started popping around 10:30 p.m.

"Yes we did! Yes we did! Yes we did!" the crowd in the room chanted.

"This is a wonderful occasion, a historical occasion that a black man has attained the presidency of the United States," party Chairman Lowell Greenbaum said. "That will change a lot of things in this country, so together all of us can go forward."

Not only did the party take back the White House after eight years of control by President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, but the nation also turned a corner in race relations, electing its first black president 44 years after the signing of the Civil Rights Act.

At the 209 Music Lounge, Friendship Baptist Church pastor and former Augusta Commissioner Marion Williams led a circle of people in prayer, asking God's blessing on "not a black nation, not a white nation, but a right nation."

THOSE ON THE opposite side of the fence wondered Tuesday whether the nation realizes what it has done. Columbia County Republicans said they're worried voters didn't understand the issues or the man they elected.

"I don't know what to feel, because I don't think we know him," Jim Cox said of Mr. Obama after John McCain's concession speech. "There are a lot of questions that remained unanswered on how he's going to run his administration."

"I really feel like people fell in love with the image," Columbia County Republican Party Chairwoman Debbie McCord said.

Similar sentiments ran among those gathered at Rack & Grill II on Mike Padgett Highway. Tom Roach, a regular customer, had hoped for a McCain victory.

"He just doesn't have the experience, and what he does have experience in, it's in the wrong places," Mr. Roach said of Mr. Obama.

Even with their candidate well up in the polls going into Tuesday, 209 Music Lounge's patrons still felt a tinge of trepidation.

Democrats had lost the past two presidential elections in heartbreakers, they said. Voting machines could malfunction or, worse, be rigged.

When it came time to vote a black man into the highest office in the nation, white voters might balk at the last minute despite what they told pollsters.

"I'm still nervous," said Sheri Tutt, 38, early in the evening, after spending the day volunteering for Democratic headquarters fielding phone calls and chauffeuring elderly, disabled and poor voters to polls. "I'm not overly confident that we'll win by a landslide."

Sitting at a bar stool watching returns come in on TV, Reggie Ross, 33, said that if someone had told him two years ago America would have a black president in 2009, he would have laughed.

During the course of the campaign, however, Mr. Obama proved himself the best candidate by far, he said, and right-wing attacks hinting he was a Muslim, connected to terrorists and a socialist had racial undertones.

Had Mr. McCain pulled from behind to win, it would have shown the country that racism still runs rampant, Mr. Ross said.

209 Music Lounge party-goers said they're counting on Mr. Obama to become a Kennedy-esque figure who will unite the nation and inspire hope in young blacks.

At the same time, he faces a wrecked economy and a military bogged down in two wars.

Bernard Milligan Jr., 38, said he expects Mr. Obama to take on deadbeat dads and hold inner-city schools accountable.

"I want him to make black America step up," Mr. Milligan said, "because he's going to be able to say things that no white liberal could say."

At Richmond County Democratic Party headquarters, state Rep. Wayne Howard lamented that his father, Rep. Henry Howard, didn't live to see Tuesday.

"But I know if there's such thing as smiling, he's smiling real big right about now, as well as so many others that have fought," Mr. Howard said. "It's indescribable."

AT PAINE COLLEGE, the celebration moved from the student center to the student yard in front of Gray Hall dormitory soon after CNN declared Mr. Obama the victor. Dozens of students danced to a booming sound system coming from the dorms, making no effort to contain their excitement.

Freshman Laysia Oglesby ran from Epworth Hall dormitory shouting "Obama!" the moment she heard the projections.

"I was just like, 'Oh, my God,' " she said. "For once, blacks have risen above the stereotypes. If Obama can be president, we can do anything."

Now that the election is decided, Mr. Cox and Ms. McCord said, Republicans and Democrats need to set aside differences to achieve common goals.

"We have a lot of significant issues to overcome right now in the financial markets," Ms. McCord said. "In terms of military and energy policy, we have got to come together now and work for the good of the country."

Staff writers Sylvia Cooper, Donnie Fetter, Stephanie Toone and Rob Pavey contributed to this article.

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.