On a cold November night, residents of America’s black cultural capital of Harlem celebrated the reelection of the United States’ first African American president. Members of the community fanned out from their homes and election viewing parties at various bars in the neighborhood, converging near the statue of Adam C. Powell on 125th street to sing, dance, and laugh. Barack Obama won 93 percent of the black vote in the 2012 election, exactly the same percentage he carried Harlem’s district by in 2008.
