Black voting in 2008 was experienced as a collective communal ritual

Evidence

Kids were everywhere, some running around playing, others sitting high on the shoulders of young fathers. Elders, like my mother, inching forward with canes and walkers, unwavering smiles smeared across their faces. … There was order, inch by inch. Respect, person to person. And a palpable pride that seemed to tilt the chins of thousands of Black people toward hope. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1302